the galah

Its been like that for most of the afternoon. It often happens. Imagine if it happens again next week.

Thats the thing isn't it. When they had the big team racing everywhere they used to be driven by b orange and s ottley and s o'relly and s thornley and the likes and you knew the drivers were after the wins. But as you have said'when they want to". Thats the present day when you have w house driving them. The stable appears to assess pre race whether they think they have a chance,and if they don't think they have,then you get very negative driving.And sometimes opportunities to earn are missed. But the thinking seems to be ,each unplaced run is one run closer to the next win for the connections of horses that go up and down in the grades. Ultimately thats how to earn the most money from the current handicapping system .If you have a horse that can win up to a r 45 race,with 6 subsequent unplaced runs your back to a r39,then you get into the r35-39 races and bouce back almost straight away to r45 with another win or maybe 2 if you put a concession junior on.Thats why the big earners these days are horses like rubys a delight. Thats why the current handicapping system is great if you own some horses ,but also why some get disillusioned when they see their handy horses winning early on,then having no choice but to run against horses that have won heaps more races than them,so often those horses are sold overseas or retired.

He actually was locked away 5 back the fence but then pushed out with 600m to go,going from the inside to the 3 wide line in about 20m and then made his sweeping move with about 350m to go. Johnny mac is a horse i've been waiting to back when he got in the right race. Today he looked a top chance,but he was only paying $5 and i thought that just not enough given how hes always been driven for the last year or so. Personally i like bigger odds if i am to bet on a w house drive.But hey,like i have said,hes driving well at the moment. Johnny mac was a 9 win horse.The hot favorite and the 3rd favorite in that race had only raced once in their careers. Yet they started on the same mark as johnny mac. Just another illustration of how harshly 1 start horses are treated if they win first up.

Not sure whats happened to this driver,but its like hes a man on a mission to give all his recent drives a chance of winning.. Normally we are used to seeing him pop out for a late run from the back with 100m to go. Is b orange secretly jumped into the house colours?

I didn't realise betfair did promos. I never had one in the entire time i was at betfair. They used to have better odds on australian racing but from my observations the odds on the nz harness were more often less than what you get on the tote and ff in nz.The only advantge of betting on betfair on nz harness is you weren't being monitored by the nz tab,but you couldn't really get much on at any decent prices anyway as so little was offered at reasonable prices. To be honest having no betfair account neither here nor there,it was just they treat you like your nothing and simply say,we don't have to tell you anything about why they close someones account. With me they closed it and i couldn't log back in even though i still had $71 in there. I had to ring them and complain to get them to give me my remaining $71.Arseholes

Maybe a ew bet total,that way may help pick some roughies,although anything you decide will be good.

I rung them instead. they asked for the swift code and i thought that was that done. Then when i saw it said account closed i rung them and they sent me an email saying the account was closed permanently and i could never reopen one again with them. In a subsequent call to them they just said,as in the email,we don't have to tell you why. The couple of people who answered the phone calls had no idea,other than one saying it was a nz issue. Betfair the worst betting agency i have ever dealt with.

Got it. you say over a 20 year period,worldwide,people bought stuff from fishman that he said were performance enhancers that could beat the testing regime,and none of them cottoned on to it being "snake oil" as you put it. You say it was coincidental that the trainers jumped to the top of the premiership tables at the likes of yonkers at the same time they started getting fishmans stuff. You say the 7 vets who onsold his products were duped. Everyone of his clients was a mug. You think testing picks up all perfromance enhancers. By the way,Gural was sued and they chucked the cases out of court. His comments after were to the effect,bring it on again if you dare and it makes him want to go harder after the cheats and that he had the money to deal with any such stupid lawsuits. Nothing of what you argue makes any sense to me. So we will have to agree to disagree.

But his name is on that list.So it is there. the list was taken in 2020. It did not say whether the clients named were current or historical and whether the purchases being made were for anything illegal or not. Gural has subsequently recently obtained information about which current trainers/owners participating at the meadowlands purchased epogen and thymosyn. Thats why hes just banned another 33. What i'm saying is,if he can obtain what the clients were purchasing then nz authorities should make similar enquires. Then if its all fine and above board,then good,but if not they should take similar action here. You have to ask yourself though,given the evidence that such large numbers knew about Mr Fishman,wouldn't you be wanting to avoid making purchases off him if you were honest. The list also has people like peter tritton,father of shane tritton who was at the forefront of discussions around the use of performance enhancers when he was in australisa.Now you can guarantee tritton would have known about the vets reputation,but that is not evidence of what he was buying from him. But as you say its all supposition with no exact proof. But gural at least had the will to take steps to obtain the truth and punish the dishonest.

Look,you know i named the person as john curtin,owner of auckland reactor. The man who made regular trips to new york The first nz person to get covid. The person who used harnesslink to attavk gural for banning certain trainers. The one who used his website to criticise anyone who said the all stars were on anything. Remember blue magic and how that came to be in use. I named him because harnesslink actually published the list on their website....

For petes sake. Here is the United States attorneys office statement after his sentencing. "seth Fishman received a 11 year jail sentence today for his role at the helm of an approxiamtely 20 year scheme to mayfacture,market and sell to racehorse trainers and others in the racing industry untestable performance drugs for use in professional racing.Gishman was one of over 30 defendants charged...each arising from this offices multi year investigation of the abuse of racehorses through the use of performancing enhancing drugs..... Fishman created and marketed these drugs as untestable under typical anti doping screens and extolled the virtues of these illegal drugs by describing his method of creating customised products. Fishman incorporated a sham business operation designed to appear that it was outside US juridiction and pressured employees into signing non disclosure agreements.... he designed labels so as to give no hint of the provenance of the unsage drugs he was shipping across the country. He vragged how he had used political favors to quash a 2011 incestuigation.Drugs seized included blood building drugs(for example bb3 and other epogen mimetic substances),vasodialators and bags of bleeder drugs each designed to increase performance." Of course if you had followed the cases chief,you would realise that for example at the yonkers track,the leading trainers were his clients and there was a direct link in how they had gone to the top of the trainers table and when they became his clients.

Just had the same problem with betfair. Went to withdraw money from the account but it said needed to contact them as no longer could withdraw payments into the card that was used to deposit,like i had for the previous 2 years i had operated the account. When i rung them and gave them what they wanted,a bank account number with some swift code,they said it would take up to 10 business days. The person i spoke to said the issue was with nz customers. Then when i went to login againjust to see if i had any balance in there,it said account closed. I rang them and they said the account was permanently closed and no point speaking to them as they didn't know why and don't make those decisions,but confirmed once the account closed that i could never open an account with them again. Now i didn'tt use the account that much and i rememeber looking at my profit/loss a couple of months ago,and for the previous couple of months had a profit of $300,so i'm not a problem gambler,but i think it rather disturbing that they will take your money,but once you try and withdraw money from betfair they will immediately close your account permanently. So i would advise anyone who may have a betfair account,to check and see if you can actually withdraw money. Remember i had no problem depositing,they only closed the account when i wanted to withdraw money. Obviously newmarket had that problem not that long ago. Given the phone operator said,oh yes,your from nz and the issue was a nz customer one,are others also still having this problem?

Whenever we discuss this we both end up saying the same things. You say i said "some theory about widespread drug cheating" to which i say i never said it was widespread. What fact you ask. The thing i said was a fact. i.e. That a nz person was a client of the vet who got 11 years for peddling performance enhancers. I don't know exactly what he was buying,but suggested nz authorities should find out ,because it was well known amongst yonkers trainers what that vet sold. You say the 30 people or so,who nearly all went to jail and had to forfeit most of their assets,plead guilty to mostly 1 charge of label fraud. I say if you bothered to read the evidence and the coverage it always referred to racehorse doping, performance enhancers and animal abuse and fraud. i have said that everytime someone like gural says that perfomance enhancers are being used,you get this avalanche of people saying no they aren't. Then it all ends up down the track that gural was right and often the people who criticse gural the most have been those associated with those accused. I saythat type of scenario plays out around the world. The only difference being at the meadowlands they actually want to catch the cheats because they know how harmful it is to the industry. You say,no positives i a sign that no one is using performance enhancers,i say well just look at the usa and you will see thats not true because the majority who admitted to using peformance enhancers returned no positives and all many boosted that they were using stuff that wouldn't be picked up in testing and that the corrupt vet made sure of that. Then you and i sort of come to the end of our concersation,you thinking well i have to put it out there that i don't agree with the galh and me thinking,if nz authorities really are interested in catching drug cheats,wouldn't you think they would at least make enquiries with USA authoriities about what and why the high profile nz person was dealing with someone that was widely known to peddle performance enhancers.

What is destructive and harmful is people who would rather bury there head in the sand. I'm just stating a fact. Just look up the list of clients that the corrupt vet that they ordered to forfeit 3 million,fined $250,000 and jailed for 11 years for supplying so many trainers with performance enhancers.His business turned over a million a year. Just scroll down to where it has NZ beside his name.

If you've got a spare 2.5 million i think i could mount an investigation which could gather enough evidence to get authorities to take some action.Thats what those connected with the meadowlands spent. Lets put that to one side. The question i have is,does hrnz or our RIB have plans to contact US authorities? If they are really interested in tracking down cheats over here, you would think they would want to know what products the new zealander was purchasing. The one who's name they published as being on the list of clients of the corrupt vet. Surely we don't want owners in nz buying performance enhancers overseas,or knowingly using trainers in the USA who use them.If he was going to do that,its reasonable to ask what would have stopped him from bringing them here after his many visits to the USA. I have always thought it was easy enough to put 2 and 2 together and get 4 ,when gural chose to have the nz name published,instead of having it blanked out like he did some. My guess would be it was because of the personal attacks the nz person made against him.. Then once they got what products he was paying for,they could either exonerate him, or if not,they could undertake a proper investigation and see where all that leads. Of course i think that would be the last thing HRNZ would want to do for obvious reasons.They wouldn't want to turn that rock over would they.

.

I think jeff gural hit the nail on the head with something he said about trainers and owners. .. "Honest trainers have got to Feed their famalies". They must be given a fair chance to do so.

Now this man is someone who clearly knows what he is talking about. Much maligned for banning a few trainers not that many years ago,but in those cases it turned out he already had access to the evidence that those he was labelling cheats,were just that. Well hes doing it again,based on all the evidence gathered by authoritites in that recent huge drug cheating scandel in the USA.Turns out he helped fund the investigation to the tune of $2.5 million of their own money. So this is part of what he said when banning another 33 trainers,who he has evidence of having used the likes of EPO.Many had been setting their horses for upcoming racing at the meadowlands.He expects to ban more as the authorities release exactly who else was buying the performance enhancers for use on their harness racehorses. "The whole thing is terrible. They lucked out that i kept the meadowlands open,but their luck ran out because I am honest. ITS SAD BECAUSE THERE WERE PEOPLE WHO HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO CHEAT. THEY FELT THEY HAD TO FEED THEIR FAMALIES AND THEY COULDN'T WIN A RACE UNLESS THEY DID. Whats sad is Howard Taylor.Hes an owner,not a trainer.He had to be giving EPO to his trainers to use and NOT A SINGLE TRAINER PICKED UP THE PHONE AND SAID I HAVE AN OWNWER WHO WANTS ME TO USE EPO ON HIS HORSES.HE HAS 150 HORSES AND LOTS OF TRAINERS. YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT AT LEAST ONE TRAINER WOULD HAVE PICKED UP THE PHONE AND TOLD US WHAT WAS GOING ON...".But they didn't. Jeff Gural is not stupid. People in australasia aren't stupid either. They know this type of thing happens even here.Obviously not on the same scale,but it happens and authorities need to focus on it.

i think yes they did improve the 3 lengths that they seemed to lack for a month or so,but i also think the likes of sunndees sister,dalton shard,hadron collider and magic four(through a handicap let up),were all dropping in grade. I think that was the main component which saw them winning. The temporary slump in form i believe was real.You just had to compare previous performances. Not all the team,just most. But why that was is somewhat unknown,so given it was only a slight drop off,we can only guess what the reason was. They are a stable that come the big days,i personally don't put in the small category of trainers who have real major changes in form.Those that do are the ones i wonder more about.

I think he argues his point well. I'm like you,i don't agree with all he says,but i think he has some very good points. Is it not an obvious question to ask after watching Luberon. If she is sensitive to the whip being used,why don't they just run it without the whip? It just seems so logical.

Sure is a pretty horse to look at. Went all the way to queensland ,but didn't like the place and kept galloping.Certainly won easy tonight although he can gallop sometimes for no reason,just like he did in the dominion last year.I've read his trainer has a higher udr that anyone previously. certainly would go straight to the top in nsw i think. Southlanders no doubt enjoy seeing him win,but no doubt secretly wish he would move to canterbury as well. Surprising that his horse wag star paying so much later tonight. Go back a couple of starts and he would clearly have been the best 3yold around.It will be interesting to see in say 3 years how much longevity his best horses got. He doesn't over race them. Bolt for brillance i thought just ran like he has when he has come south recently. i thought he never looked like he was going any good,even if he was slow early.

well the dunn stable back winning. It had to happen.Well done to them. To be fair magic four,sunnies sister and dalton shard and the quinella hadron collider and mikis courage all looked like they should have won easy,even on recent form. They all good horses and had well placed tonight.Magic four handicapped to win and finally driven to race on speed. Surprising dalton shard paid so much. I always think k newman is a driver that given the chance of driving a horse that looks a winner on form,he will got the job done. Personally i think hes a bit under rated by some. Just on recent form,the only one that surprised me a little was who's delight. i had thought francom indie a bit of a stand out in that one,but who's delight used the draw and driven the same way he had when winning previously,so returned to the form of 3 or 4 starts ago. They ended their long losing streak with a bang,thats for sure.

Driver officially warned to exercise greater care. I guess the fact that the horse outside didn't break helped his cause. Hes got a fast sprint on him that winner on grass. May be a chance in something like the westport cup. it will be interesting to see where they place him in the future.

probably get a couple of days. It was a bit risky but a winning move and no harm done.If it was a southland or auckland stipes report they would say the horses outside him were hanging in and that was a contributing factor.It may still say that as maybe it was. That race was a r35-49. Just how unfairly 1 win horses are rated can be seen by comparing the records of horses in that race. For example the horse kirkman who won its first start will now be rated ahead of every runner except the winner blue rock dancer. So you have r52 blue rock dancer 4 wins 6 placings from 18 starts. then r50 kirkman 1 win 1 start, r48 topaz 3 wins 18 starts, r47 goodasgold 1 win 4 starts,kalasa 2 w 5 p 18 starts, then it dtrops to r44 american sniper 2 w 13 p 40 s,rapid response 3 w 5p 24 s r 43 takemybreath away 9w 11p 99s, r39,kennedy 4 w 6 p 79s,hes a jackalack 3w 5p 19s, r38 on report 2 w,8 p 35s, r36 lets go ringo 2w 9p 43 s r35megarock 3w,19p 71 s. So you can see by that the rating system is set up so horses who win early in their careers are forced to run against horses with superior records and it would take them to run there horse unplaced at least once a week for 3 months just to get down to a level where they could take on 9 win horses or a horse with 3 wins and 5 placings hes a jackalak. about 6 months ago i started a thread acout adesanya,a 2 win horse from the dunn stable who appeared to be slaughtered in the rating system after just his 2nd win. Well 6 months later where is he. Well hes dropped to a r45 after having been raced for virtually 6 months non stop for 1 3rd placing and a few 4ths. Now,to me he is a horse with his share of abilty who doesn't try that hard sometimes because he realised ,whats the point, due to having run in races he was so unfairly forced to run in.Obviously its up to his owners,but i wpuld imagine they must have known they would have had to pay 6 months training and racinf fees just to get back into a grade where he may have a chance.Personally i would have thought most owners would have sold him long ago to australia . but the point is the rating system is encouraging some to keep racing,but also forcing others to be realistic and make decisions to sell after only a couple of starts.,unless they have deep pockets. To me there should be a syatem which caters for both. It should have a $won factor. They do everywhere else so why doesn't nz.

Trackside sometimes captures some good clips of happy punters. The last race at kaikoura today one of those . They celebrate different in the north island. The finish of race 7 at cambridge on 12 october an example of that. all good fun i suppose