the galah

i've read your comments over the years and realise you don't condone cheating and believe a horses physical welfare is of great importance and horses should be treated with respect. Having said that,in this case i think you are being far too charitable and in looking for a best case scenario to paint the stewart stable in a better light,you are ignoring the obvious. Just google I.V. drips in athletes and horses and read what they say it can be used for and why they are illegal within the time frame that applied in this case. It says on many sites "I.V. drips are banned because they can increase performance by increasing plasma volume levels,mask the use of prohibited substances and distort blood test results and other physiological measurements obtained and used to check for descrepiancies that might indicate doping." I think its pretty obvious what they were doing and they should be disqualified for a long time.

Yes and to become the best they obviously have been cheating. How can anyone have respect for their achievements knowing that? Its guaranteed that this won't be a 1 off. Like who would believe they don't cheat in the high stake races when they do it at a country meeting. What a bunch of weak-kneed people the administators over there are. Why haven't they immediately announced they will be suspending the payout of any stakes that stable has won that has not already been paid out. That includes the $2 million dollar race. Why haven't they announced that depending on the results of their investigations,they may be doing retrospective testing on all group races won by the stable in the last 12 months. Why don't they have a rule whereby any stable that has a horse return a positive,has to comply with a rule where by they are required to install cameras and monitoring equipment on the training properties, which the Intefrity Unit can view at any time. And why is there not a requirement that the cost of installation must be covered by the offending trainer or whoever it is that wishes to train from the offending property. Why have they not come out and condemned the trainers actions? What about the other trainers. Surely they must have a trainers/drivers association over there. Why haven't they immeduately issued a statement. You know,it reminds me of those cases in the USA a year or so ago, where 29 people,mostly trainers but also vets and their staff,who manufactured,distrubuted and used what they accepted were perfromance enhancers at tracks like yonkers.The one where they mostly got around 3-5 years jail after mostly pleading guilty and were ordered to pay huge costs despite no positives. What did the the main Trotting association do over there. They hit hardest those that came forward and admitted their wrong doing early and provided information to authorites about others. The likes of jeff gural who ran the meadowlands was on record as saying he felt the U.S.trotting association were deliberately sending a message to people not to come forward,not to do the right thing and say something about the cheats. He said the US trotting association were undermining his efforts to stop cheating.Many over felt there that was due to the self interests of the administrators and influential backers of some adminsitrators,wishing to try and cover up dishonest behavior due to their links with some of the accused. The point being,no matter where you are,people cheat and the turning of a blind eye makes anyone who does that an enabler.

So for all those people who hold this stable as the gold standard,best of the best,why the silence?Wheres the condemnation of what this stable has been caught doing. Just silence. last week they won the richest harness race in the world,then this week dominated in the group one meeting at melton. Everyone happy to say how great they are. Well thats how you do it. You break the rules and you cheat. I'm referring to the media and industry leaders,who just brush over this type of stuff. They are complicit and actively promote a stable that they must know most think are cheats.Even worse,you even get people in the media and industry leaders,who simply have no credibility ,who will actively defend their integrity. We will have people saying,its a one off,they haven't returned positives,the testing system works,people are just jealous,white is actually black,blah,blah,blah,yada, yada,yada. Then there are some who prefer to believe the stable has always been honest,and have given them the benefit of the doubt.I can understand that thinking,but they must realise after weekend,that was just unrealistic wishful thinking. So who are the winners out of this. Firstly the employees of the integrity unit in victoria who were able to catch them in the act.That can't have been easy and they deserve full credit for that. All owners,traines,drivers,breeders who have had to race against a stable that nearly everyone must have believed were cheating. the punters. The horses. And what will be the outcome. Well probably they will get a relation,the farrier,the milkman ....someone who will carry on,beef up security even more to stop prying eyes and nothing much will in reality change and in a year or two the media sychophants will ramble on about how great and honest the relation is.

I think of the some really top australian trainers from not that many years gone by. They could get horses to race at the top for several seasons. So many,the mighty quinn,gammalite,smoken up,popular alm,scoth notch,westburn grant ,sir vancelot,paleface adios and many more.Maybe leap to fame can be the next.All had different trainers and all became household names. Thats the problem now.Top horses just don't last as long as they used to. I think part of the problem is the treatments horses get given nowdays,while they don't return positives,enables them to run faster then their bodies are made to cope with and very few last past 4 or 5 years old... Thats one thing that you have to credit and say the all stars have also been able to do,get some to race 3 or 4 seasons at the top,even if they have a lot that don't last that long.

fair enough. we just see things differently as far as the stewart stable goes. He was a blue magic man wasn't he.I once knew a nz trainer who had trained in aussie who knew the father. One day he was talking about a good horse he had trained over there. He said the key was when he spoke to tonkins father who then sent him a product with no label each time.. He said it made a really big difference,even though he never knew what it was.

its a bit sad seeing that.They had 23 more starters last week. Don't know where some of those have got to. Maybe some racing at oamaru on sunday ,maybe the time of year and the cost pf petrol.Taking a horse from canterbury would cost a lot i would imagine.. For years i backed on every harness race run in nz every year but some of the betting fields these days just aren't appealing enough to warrant investing.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Dropping stakes,turnovers,breeding numbers in victoria. Obviously the stewart stable domination isn't helping any of those. Owners may be queing to join the stable like you say.The reason for that is they know the trainers that trained their horses in the past simply can't get results anymore.And their former trainers would know it.The proof is in the results.That will be the mindset....In my opinion that is even more proof of what i say.

Those races with so many Emma stewart runners surely is a really bad thing for victorian harness racing.In fields where there will be only 12 starters they have 8,7,4x3.They dominate the pacing fields. Last week they had 9 winners at melton on saturday. I can't understand why in tasmania they complain about how bad things are because the yole team dominates numbers wise so many races. Yet when it comes to victoria the media sell it as being a great thing and people seem to go along with that. I really don't get why people are being told something that obviously is untrue. Any stable dominating anywhere is not a good thing. Just look at breeding figures in australia. The 2 states with one stable dominating,victoria and tasmania ,were the 2 states with the biggest decline in breeding numbers last season. Victora was a 23% decline and tasmania was 17%. In tasmania the media blame the yole stable, yet in victoria they go on and on about what a great thing the emma stewart stable is doing. It just makes no sense to me. In victoria they cut prizemoney this coming season by $3.9 million due to wagering falling 8% and they are making a further $6 million operational cuts. The media tryed to blame the reduction in breeding numbers on Harness racing australia for introducing a levy for shuttle stallions which meant in effect breeders were funding the $2 million slot race for 10 owners that started in that race. Funnily enough won by an emma stewart runner. Now that may have been part of the cause,but why did that impact victoria and tasmania more than other states. Well the most logical answer was there were other factors in play. The worst thing that happens in harness racing anywhere is when you have grass roots owners and breeders seeing races dominated by one or two stables and seeing the horses from those stables run in a way that people think they are on something. Also the biggest turn off for the average punter is races dominated by one or two stables where you know for sure there will be team driving. Punters who love the $1.60 favorites are not the majority of punters. I know that for certain. personally i understand they are out there as social media seems to have people say that. But i can't ever recall meeting a single punter who likes those type of races to bet on. Harness racing in victoria is on the slide downhill that they won't get off. Of course there are other factors,but not as significant.

Reading about hair testing. It seems it has its limits. It doesn't detect recent use.Normally they say it takes at least 10 days to show in hair. So as well as being more expensive,you can see why they do urine and blood. As to the original topic. The bute positive by the telfer team. The amount of bute given to a horse will decrease by 50% on average every 7.22 hours. Each horse metabolises at a different speed,some may be as fast as 5 hours and some as slow as 9 hours,but the average is 7.22 hours. So by the end of day one,90% has been metabolized and by the end of day 2 only 1% of the original dose remains. So if a horse is given the recommended dose he should not be returning a positive above the threshold level around 2 days, long before the withholding time which is 9.8 days. Then there is also a measurement uncertainty level which labs factor in to cover a horse that metabolizes it slowly. Again,with that measurement uncertainty factored in,even a slow metabolizing horse should be under the threshold level around 2 days after treatment. Also the levels in the horse include all its tissue,not just the bloodstream so in effect the bloodstream level should be slightly lower. So really theres no excuses for a horse to be presented to race with bute above the threshold level if the withholding time had been adhered to.

By the way chief,i see you sort of answered my question with your reply. Hopefully your right and they can always detect it that way. It would be interesting to know what % of tests in victorian gallops racing are done on hair compared to urine and blood. And what about nz,what % ,.i guess they would only do that if they had intelligence or a positive from urine or blood. They should be transparent about stuff like that. I would imagine ,given the higher cost,the % for hair testing would be very low It all seems like doing something after the fact. If they really want to catch cheats,in my opinion they should do more out of competition testing. I have always thought they should be working more closely with customs as well.But they don't seem to bother doing that. Personally i think recentlythere has been a shift and some who are employed by the riu are actually keen to catch cheats,not everyone though . And i think HRNZ isn't on the same page and would rather they didn't,especially anyone high profile. I think its nearly always been like that.

They said it was because they had washed the curtains and the thermal lining stuck to them. You would know more about that type of stuff with your property background. I'm with you though. I think it was mould as it was black and the previous tenant didn't open his windows and we noticed they dried the washing inside.people should air their house shouldn't they. More healthy that way. I guess it pays to check the curtains beforehand like you mention. I Did find a product that removes mould from curtains. Only $70.made in nz.

Talking about testing.Not horse related,but not that long ago we rented a house that appeared it may have mould on the back of some curtains when we moved in. A nice house,but hadn't noticed the back of the curtains. Anyway,the real estate lady said they had been told it wasn't mould,even though they agreed it looked like mould.So i did my own inquiries. I found to do the proper test for mould would cost me over $2000. That curtains aren't covered in the tenancy act according to the tenancy tribunal lady and the healthy homes people said that wasn't their area of expertise. Luckily the real estate people agreed to replace the curtains but i found it all a bit strange and seemed to be a loophole to expect a tenant to have to pay such high testing costs to prove mould.

I haven't been able to find anything specifically about that or what people or trainers do to avoid detection of that method,but maybe they should focus on hair testing more.All thats a bit over my head. it obviously would be an expensive process.

So say your a trainer, or say you were a bloodstock agent on the client list of the recent performance enhancing dope pusher in the usa and made regular trips to where many of his other clients were,or say you were an owner associated with a stable,or a combination of these Your saying every time they travel overseas, they are searched at the airport or mail they may have sent to themselves or an intermediary person is searched by customs. Who are you kidding.You know that happening is very rare. No i haven't contradicted myself. As far as links,i don't know how to post them.Just google it . Many there .the most recent one i read was from about 4 years ago. If you insist it can be detected at least a month after use like you say it can,then how about you post the link to that. i don't think that exists.

Yes ,i have assumed guilt.Its like getting caught for drink driving. Theres the same assumption of guilt as test results are pretty straight forward. Just googled it and it comes up for sale on line,mostly overseas gyms and places that sell body builder products. Read some of the body building chat sites and they talk about the high it gives users,that the sense of well being is unreal,that they feel a million bucks,etc. From the studies i have read,after use it only is testable for days,not weeks like you suggest. Also depends on whether the horse is treated with something else to help limit the time its testable. The best way to test is out of competition testing. Thats how they caught the trainer of regazzo mach. He was using a different steroid. Also ,depends on the type and capabilities of the testing to uncover it. To avoid detection and still gain benefits,its used in pre training to gain muscle mass which will be retained for a period of time after steroid use is discontinued.Thats why out of competition is so important. They should be focusing on out of competition in nz more,instead of using resources to target people who obviously don't give their horses anything.They should be doing regular out of competition testing at stables that have had positives in the last 5 years. The theory you have about no one off/top up treatments. Why would a user not do that if they believe that it is not testable after just a few days.

I don't need to google again. I never mentioned one shot,so don't know why you suggest i did.. If they are going to use performance enhancers,then i'm sure they would have taken advice as to how to use them to get the best effects. Obviously given the positives,they got the testable time frame wrong. Anabolic steroids are used to increase the bodies natural rate of building muscle and in turn fat burning capabilities when adhering to a healthy exercise and diet regimen. So when anabolic steroids are used with a healthy body,their body will use the hormones to increase their weight through muscle gain,thus improvung performance. I think the trainers concerned don't treat their horses with the respect they should. i goggled the harness trainer gammalite mentioned,Mark reed who trained regazzo mach.He was found to have used a different anabolic steroid on Regazzo mach.That was after out of competition testing,not race day testing. Gammalite said they paid a big price for him. Now hes stood down from raving for 12 months. People shouldn't have any sympathy for the owner of regazzo mach. He had his horse trained by someone with a terrible record. I googled Mark reed and he has been put out several times over the last 2 decades for milkshaking both harness and gallopers as well 3 times being put out for his own drug use for the likes of meth.Twice in the last 5 years. And that is who the owner of regazzo mach sent his his horse to. What a mug. Mark Reed actually is what i believe is a typical case.I believe the trainers who use performance enhancers in the past, will very likely be looking to gain an edge in the future,irrespective of whether they have been caught previously.And trainers who take drugs themselves,whether it be meth or mdma or whatever,are most likely to view the use of drugs on their horses as being acceptable.

Google is a great thing if you want to learn about this stuff. After doing a bit of research my take is these trainers are highly likely cheats who will access and use the latest designer drug that they think they can get away with. Why would a feed merchant have any of this stuff and why if they did would they put it in the feed they sell. That explanation makes no sense at all to me. I don't profess to be an expert on all the different things that some steroids metabolise into when put into a horses or humans body,but what is logical is the drugs that were detected in the system of the 5 trainers horses who returned positives,were designed to enhance performance and build muscle and increase strength. Formestane has been recognised as a performance enhancer and been banned from human sports for some time and its use in equine sports has been detected in the last decade or so and banned in equine sports as well due to integrity being compromised. It seems formestane rapidly breaks down in the body, it metabolises into several different things,one of which is hydroxytesterone which is an anabolic androgenic steroids(AAS). AAS make the body build muscle and increase strength. Anabolic steroids can have long lasting performance enhancing effects while no longer being detectable in testing. Studies have shown the use of formestane is best detected by testing for hydroxytesterone and one study said can be detected up to 34 hours after use. These type of steroids are associated with delayed development of epiphyseal growth plates in standardbreds which are crucial in bone growth and elongation. There use has potential long term risks of injuries in training and racing. Obviously if used in standardbreds,trainers may have to use things like pain inhibitors to allow horses to race and be trained while having soreness. These trainers deserve to be disqualified for some time in my opinion.

My thoughts?No one uses a known detectable drug. They only use drugs that they believe aren't detectable or believe will have left the horses system enough to not show up in testing,but still can enhance performance.E.g. epo Your comments about the control sample appear correct.I bet someone was relieved they got that done. I think gammalite has very likely hit the nail on the head when he has said ........might be the same sort of stuff doing the rounds. History shows when you get clusters of these things,they often can be traced back to one particular source.

yes a good summary of what happened. Bdjoe too good. The Telfers have him back to his best. 3.11 a very good time from a stand first up. my tip All americanlover went a nice race but just worked a bit hard when taken on early. Johnny cox continued his good form when harold smith was too good. Hes a very fast horse with speed to match all but muscle mountain and may be able to sneek a place in some of those better trots,although may need another season to get used to the best. Beach ball was a good win. He looked the one but i wondered whether he would back up on his hard run last week,but kevin chapman seems to condition them to be able to do that. Tokyo rose showed big improvement in her race,but maybe the field may not have been as strong. Still she won easily.black pearl and cyren shard went well in that race given the runs they had. Now i'm going to watch and see if olivia thornley can get With Style off the fence to win the last. An entertaining nights racing it has been.

Yes a nice john dunn drive and aardiebythehill toughed it out very well.. Rather unfortunate that the starter let them go when midnight dash was in the process of swinging side on. i think horses that do that just before they start,they often keep going sideways and that is exactly what midnight dash did and Muscle mountain copped a very bad check. rather unfortunate,but it happens sometimes.

A wilson house ,wake me when its over drive in race 3 tonight on johnny mac.. I wasn't on,so had a chuckle,but he must be getting close to being ready to let loose? Problem is he just killed any next up dividend by coming home too quick and you still can't be sure what he will do next time. Oh well.

The hrnz website advises that the gore all weather track is back in action later this month. As far as racetracks go,gore's is pretty and has a relaxed feel to it. I think its a good thing they can race there again as apart from re engaging the locals,it provides a track with a different style of racing and suits horses who have good manners and can get around the smaller tracks well. Also,importantly,in the past if you wanted to find a track which had a welcoming attitude to visiting trainers and also how they did their best to cater for anyone who was looking to train a horse, then gore was such a place. Sometimes some racetracks are run by interest groups who while well meaning,often cater to their own personal interests when it comes to the management of land and facilities and put self interest ahead of the sport and ahead of supporting those wishing to find somewhere to train. Gore previously was run how racetracks should be run. To promote harness racing and participation in the sport. Hopefully things are still the same now as they were not so long ago when they used to race all their meetings on their home track. The hrnz decision to change to allow racing at gore i think is a good one.

I see the terms of the bonus relating to nz bred stallions includes clauses "A breeder or breeding entity ceases to exist if they have had no service attempts in the previous 5 years on the hrnz infohorse system". Also "if a breeder or breeding entity ceases to exist there will be no further bonus paid". So from that i take it that the breeders of nz bred horses that earn stakemoney this season, will have to have bred from a mare in the previous 5 seasons. So if you bred a nz bred horse say with the wife in 2017 and it earnt say $20,000 this season,then in theory if you and the wife had bred another horse in nz in the last 5 years you would get 10% of stakes won by the horse you bred in 2017,in other words $2,000 (or $1000 for you and $1000 for the wife).That seems straight forward enough. However,what isn't clear from the terms is for example whether the horse you bred from in the last 5 years was one that was just in your name and not jointly with your wife. Given that is a different entity,does that mean you get no bonus.Or do you still get the 50% share of the bonus the 2017 horse you bred has earned? Given the just published terms and conditions say a breeding entity has ceased to exist if they weren't the ones breeding in the last 5 years,so that appears to mean no you won't get the bonus?

Read what the above actually says. "Clear results for prohibited substances'. It does Not say that the results found no trace of the use of prohibited substances. Theres clearly a difference. Its all in the wording to create a perception that they want people to have. My conclusion from reading the press releases was that prohibited substances may have been found,but at levels below the threshold that would make them illegal. If they truly wanted to be transparent and stop speculation,they would have released the results of the toxicology tests they undertook.Sometimes its more about what information they have that isn't disclosed.

Is that the horse nathan williamson trained. how is he going in australia?