the galah

I see m purdon got a 7 day suspension,plus $300 fine for his whip use. The result showed purdon made all the right moves,as he so often does. But the slow middle half(60.7 seconds) really helped those at the back.I always think if the leaders have gone hard early then they are better to at least maintain a reasonable speed in front than use the fast,slow,fast tactic. Consistency in tempo is what wins races.

I see the property where Spring Park stud operated from had a sold sign when i drove past earlier this week. It was a stud that Neville Benny,a true gentleman,ran with his family for several decades.I know it hasn't been active just recently,but there still seemed to be some horses grazing there until recently. As i drove past it brought back memories of many trips we made to the property to drop off our mare for service and to be looked after. He always did a great job weaning the foals and handling them as well. Nothing lasts forever i suppose,but still sad to see such places steeped in harness racing history to no longer be involved in the industry. Benny stood horses like Clever Innocence, who made it to the top handful of sires for a while. That was about 30 years ago. That was when Nevele R Stud,10 minutes down the road ,had several of the top stallions.Looking at the sires tables,there were around 100 sires. Those were the days.

Comparing todays on course turnovers with those of the past is relevant in many ways,the most obvious is they are a clear indication of the number of people who attended.Given the decline,there should be some reflection on the impact and contributing factors. I agree with your comment that more people bet on their accounts via phones.But just stating that doesn't even scratch the surface of the negatives that goes with that.I know things have changed,but i think they have gone too far. It reminds me of a conversation i once had with a former pokie addict. He told me the worst thing about gambling on the pokies was that it was just you and the pokie machine. He told me,look around next time you observe the players on the pokie machines,there is very little social interaction,little emotion shown,little empathy,etc ,etc.... One of the most important and appealing things that harness racing has, is providing a venue where people with a shared interest can come together and have meaningful social interaction ,enjoying the spectacle of watching talented human and equine athletes display their skills, athleticism and courage.People don't just come to a racecourse to gamble. Punters are drawn by the whole package. The deliberate push by the TAB to have punters,whether they be serious or recreational, use electronic devices has helped undermine one of the main attractions of the sport.Not only on course,but also at TAB agencies we see the push to dehumanize it all.The racetrack(or tab)also once was a place where you could go and hone your human interaction skills,read body language ,empathy,moods,etc. That no longer applies. So the point i make is it has been a deliberate policy of the TAB to prioritise the use of electronic devices,and the negative consequences of such a policy never seem to be given any consideration. To me it seems the defintion of the health of the industry has focused too much on the $,and as a consequence factors just as important in its health have been ignored. Its like the TAB would rather return a profit from a smaller pool of punters,than return a similar type of profit from a much larger pool of punters. I can't follow the logic in some of the decisions of the likes of the TAB. I also think the HRNZ policy of not incentivising clubs to get larger public numbers on course,and the resulting increased turnovers,is not a good strategy.

its hard to work out why they haven't tapped into what you produce. Harness racing people very often can't seem to all agree on a lot,yet everyone who's aware of the unhinged material agree it is something that taps into whats great about the industry. Even the regular promotion of the dunn stable,who you are associated with, is viewed as a positive insight into how the leading stable ticks.Its unique in that it shows an enjoyable work environment for the young people employed by that stable.The beach reports paint a picture of hard working,honest ,differing personalities and horses,from differing stables,who have a job they really enjoy. If HRNZ want people to think positive about the industry,expose as many people as they can to the positives.Seems a logical approach to have.

On course turnovers seem to be something that gets little publicity.Don't now where the general public have access to that nowdays. $50,000 may be pretty good these days as you say. But i can remember the boss in my first job letting me finish work early to go along to the local twilight meetings at the local track 40 years ago,and the on course turnovers always being between $120,000 to $150,000. That in a town with a population of about 30,000. A $ back then would go so much further back then than it does now, which just shows you how things have changed. I remember having a horse in just an average race 20 years ago where the win pool alone on the tote was $50,000,and there were only 8 starters. That was at the ashburton christmas meeting that used to have huge crowds all the way up the straight with people from all ages attending.They don't even run that meeting now. How things have changed. I watch your interviews ,and while i have said it before,i still can't work out why its not part of the HRNZ website. Its unique in that it gives recognition to everyone,from owners,sponsors,drivers,trainers,breeders,the public. Its the current thing thats most likely to sell the harness racing product,because people need to have something they can relate to and it does that.Last time it was raised on here,you said you were hoping to get it on hrnz,but its still not there. Have you made any progress.

HRNZ contributed next to nothing?Are you channeling joe biden? I look up your old posts as i eat breakfast and have a good laugh. Thats always a good starting point for me. .

Well it was a good race. An outstanding horse,driver and trainer. The race turned out pretty much as expected and Copy That never looked like getting beaten. Cambridge a track that is so difficult to make ground wide so Self assured and Better eclipse went ok. No matter what went well for such an inexperienced horse,but galloped like it can if pressured. The telfer runner BD joe dropped out badly,for a distant last. It looked like triple eight had broken gear,but was going to be no chance from where it was when that happened anyway. The final tote win pool was $38,000 according to the tab website. Compare that to say the $13,000 that the non win races had at motukarara last sunday. So the punters bet more than a normal race,but the hype over such a long period of time didn't translate into much tote netting. Overall looked a successful night,good to see a crowd having a good time with the weather helping. i suppose the million dollar stake was all about creating a perception(somewhat false),but in reality had it been promoted the same with half the stake then the result would still have been the same crowd wise and betting wise. But credit was due to those from the club who promoted it so well.

i will pick mr herlihy,group 5.

That about sums it up. in recent years the betting agencies/pubs have seen the % they receive from turnover reduced.Its been going on for the last 2 decades. This has been a result of the tab head office decision makers thinking to increase their income from wagering,they simply pay less commission to the sellers of their product. Problem was, as a result of the cuts in income that the agencies received,those who ran the agencies/ pubs, felt undervalued and the returns they received not enough to make it worthwhile to invest in customer service or in promoting the tab side of the business. Then when the TAB head office realised they had created such disharmony and discontent,they had a brain storm. They decided the best strategy to deal with all the customers who used the agencies and pubs,who were unhappy in the decline in service they were receiving and were threatening to no longer invest in their product. ....well the best strategy was to pay lip service to their complaints all the while pushing them in the direction of purchasing their product online. The problem that the TAB didn't forsee was that when customers were telling them they would no longer be customers,well many actually meant it. So the TAB's problem solvers decided they had to have a different approach and they came up with...forget those customers,racing is only a part of our business,lets invest in promoting and expanding the other sources of income. I.e. the likes of sports betting. Now anyone who has given this some thought and who has watched the decline in the customer service provided at the agencies,well they have come to the realisation that many of the recent(last 2 decades) head honcho's/decision makers at the tab really have been a bunch of morons and that income the racing industry receives from them has been very negatively impacted. And that the damage done by the morons is permanent,.

sounds like you think its inevitable that service,patronage and turnover drop off in these type of tabs and thats just the world we live in so everyone just has to accept it. Well i try to have a more optimistic approach.. Tab's who cant even be bothered putting up the fields for nz race meetings,or having at least one tv that focuses on the nz races are just lazy and useless. How long would it take to do that . Maybe 5 minutes? I do accept that the tab's oversight of the quality of the service in some tab's is next to non existant. It has to be. Every time i go to a tab i think why did i waste my time when the service or staff knowledge of the product or information provided is so poor. After my previous 2 trips to a tab prior to today,i had rung up the 0800 helpline and given feedback about what poor service i had received. I didn't bother today as i've realised it never makes any difference. Actually ,having given it some thought,your probably right,may as well see the writing on the wall and accpet the tab want to close them all down and are happy to see customer be so poor.I'll find another hobby.

Well Madrik i suppose got sent to the unruly again today,I say supposed,because viewers of trackside were advised another horse was sent to the unruly, but no mention of madrik. But he certainly started outside the horse drawn on the unruly. He wasn't there when they first tried to get them all to line up,but was at the second attempt. Several horses being rather fidgety pre start didn't help madrik or each other. The unfortunate thing about that race was backers of the favorite jimmy carter thought they were backing a horse drawn the outside of the unruly,which is where jimmy carter prefers. But unfortunately for his supporters madrik ended up starting outside him and galloped at the start,and then checked jimmy carter out of the race. All a bit unfortunate, but predictable enough once there was to be no running start for anyone in that race. Maybe madrik will officially go back to the unruly next time. Who knows.

Went to the tab today. First time in a while. It was one of those pub tab's in a large city that has a separate part for the tab. Last time i was there a year ago the service was good. Once again the lady who served me today seemed friendly once she realised i was waiting to be served. What struck me was they never had any fields up. I thought ,oh well,i will just get the meeting/race/horse numbers from the tv with the nz races on. Nope. No such luck there, as the tv's only were set to show the next race to go and the tvs besides the ones showing that, showed the race that followed the next race to go.Looked like fields for aussie dogs on all the tv 's. So i wandered around the tab and found one set of the fields for winton and addington sitting on the counter next to the tab terminal. Each meeting with race one on top,with the rest stapled underneath.. Luckily i was the only one in the tab,as i looked around and that was all they had. Not sure what happens if more than 1 person wanted to have a bet. I guess you just peer over someones shoulder and hope they are looking at the page with the race your interested in. Made me think though. Its getting harder to find somewhere that seems interested in encouraging punters to put a bet on at a tab. Just the opposite seems to be the case. Addington on tonight only about 5-10 minutes almost straight down the road from the tab,not that they seemed to know or care.

No ones saying they shouldn't run the established races like the interdominions or nz cup type races.Not sure why you think anyone is suggesting that. When you say 'its like you don't want the locals to see any star horses". Well if it was the star horses that attract the patrons,then how come the crowds were so small for meetings at auckland or cambridge who had the star horses racing recently? You say no trainer watches races they don't have horses in . I guess you mean that in queensland. Well in canterbury or southland,or anywhere in nz for that matter, i'm sure you would be wrong. Maybe not everyone,but nearly all the drivers/trainers know the form. Maybe you need to factor in even the province(canterbury) with the most racing and horses,only has 2 meetings a week and theres only a total of 4 or 5 meetings in the whole of nz most weeks. You think the Aussie raiders create more interest. Well they probably do.My interest in them is how much they get beaten by. If either ran in the top 4 it would be a surprise.Personally not sure why they bothered to turn up. Its not like they are trained by the fella from nsw who can get the nz horses to grow a leg and beat our best. The 2 aussie horses may be good horses,but they have come all this way,only to run against 4 or so better horses who now have better draws on a track thatalways favours the front runners. I think they are little chance. seems a waste of time and effort to me. But maybe they like a holiday. As to tote turnover. Well with all the hype you would hope the tote turnover is 10 times what they get on a non win race in canterbury that gets zero hype or media coverage . I will let you know after the race what it was. But i doubt what you think it will be is anywhere near what will happen. The meeting has been well promoted and will be well attended. Just the same as say a once a year grass track meeting at somewhere like gore,oamakau or geraldine is. Its always nice to see a good crowd no matter where it may be,so i agree with that.

I see the fastest of the several heats run over 2000m,for all classes today at the rangiora trials was run in the workout for unqualified horses.It said the horse was a bob butt trained,s tomlinson driven horse. Imagine that,you turn up at a workout to give your horse its first run ,and you end up competing in a workout where the winner runs them into the ground to win by 10 lengths. How does that happen?

I didn't realise the distance of the race had changed to 2200.Thats how little interest i had taken in the pre race media coverage. The reality is,if you were to ask industry participants whether they would prefer hrnz to use the funds they put towards the grins or instead put those towargs more meetings with the with the racing rewards concept that they ran last week,i think you would find 99.999% would go for the later.Like brodie and i have both expressed,good on them for trying,but there seems to be a disconnect from reality as to what is important to maintain industry participation.

The question is how much is hrnz funding the race. The exact breakdown seems to be a bit hard to find,but someone must know. Obviously slot holders contributed ,hrnz,a raffle apparently and club funds one assumes. The event does get a lot of publicity from the harness media,but their level of enthusiasm is not shared by many. For example i don't think i have bothered to read or ever listened to any of the pre race coverage. I have looked at the field today,but then again i took as much interest in this weeks addington,winton or methven non win race fields. Obviously it gives those who attend and promote it a good reason to have a good night out and gets more people on track at cambridge than normal and gives the 4 or so realistic chances something to look forward to. At least those that came up with the idea are trying i suppose,so good luck to them,but i think its a concept that won't last. Time will tell. So i think to punters and most industry participants,their main interest this week will be on their local harness racing.

draws seem to play heavily in the favour of the 4 main chances. Looks like copy that takes the lead off old town road coming down the straight the first time. Self assured may punch through and sit parked as if he allows bd joe to get across he may struggle to pick copy that or old town road up. If he self assured does push through to sit parked then he mat set it up for akuta to get the 1/1 throughout and he becomes a chance of getting up late in the final straight. Every one else looks like they have no realistic winning chance.

Reminds me of a joke. I had decided to marry my lovely girlfriend. There was just the one thing that bothered me.She had a beautiful younger sister who loved wearing figure hugging mini skirts and generally was bra less. Anyway after we got engaged my future sister in law invited me over to go through the wedding plans. When i got there i found she was alone,wearing her pink mini skirt. She invited me in and immediately told me she could no longer control her desires for me. She invited me to the bedroom for one last fling before i married her sister. I was shocked and watched her go upstairs beckoning me to come join her as she unzipped her mini skirt. what to do. Well i gathered my composure and ran to the front door,i immediately opened the door and started running to my car. to my surprise my future in laws were standing outside and began clapping,with my future father in law shaking my hand and telling me he couldn't be happier to have a son in law with such morals and self restraint..... There is a moral to this story. ...Always keep your condoms in your car...

at least he would be the best dressed there.

Totally agree. More than just you and i who watched it and couldn't understand why the driver didn't have the sense to pull it up. Wilson house normally a kind driver,and i'm sure is in person as well,but that drive just didn't meet an acceptable standard of horsemanship in my opinion.

race 1.1 & 10 2.4 & 16 3.12 & 14 4.5 & 6 5.7 & 9 6.2 & 4 7.10 & 12 8.5 & 10 9.10 & 14 10.8 & 9 11.12 & 14

Race 1 kowhai sundown, at wyndham. Drew outside of the unruly yet started in front of the others on the front line.No mention of that either. All a bit strange.

An exciting race,with the all star horses driven kindly with next week in mind,but still driven to win. Self assured a great horse. Rasmussen just seems to end up in right place every time. Driving great horses helps. Of note was the tactics of simply sam and chimichurri. I heard them say on trackside pre race that chimichurri driver was under instructions to look for the lead,but its hard to understand why they would give the driver such aggressive driving instructions in such a field. I've said it before,the telfer stable is very ,very hard to predict in the north island. Especially in the last 4 or 5 months. They still have won their share of races,but tonight,of the 8 horses that have run,4 have ended up dropping out to very long lasts. Its such a noticeable thing. The south island stable much more consistent.

In race 7 at wyndham today,i see this horse totted for 2 strides,then broke at the start,when seemingly in the clear and a good 2 1/2 lengths behind the horse in front of it.The horse in front of it wasn't breaking or losing momentum. So it was interesting to read it didn't get a warning,and in fact the stipes decided its starting manners were so good that it no longer has to race off the unruly. Seems the stipes noted that jimmy carter had moved out slightly as soon as the start took place,and that by doing that,he ran in the part of the track that madrik wanted to,so madrik breaking was in fact jimmy carters fault. My point is ,if the standard to meet the criteria of good starting manners is what we saw madrik do,then how come they have been giving warnings to other horses in similar circumstances who break when they have a horse running in front of them?Makes you wonder sometimes. I'm guessing now madrik is off the unruly,next time he will be advantaged by being given a running start,as the starter won't want to wait, as he knows the horse consistently struggles to stand still and will delay the start if he doesn't give it that running start. Time will tell i suppose.

They were just a bit too clever for the rest tonight. That is how to drive to assist both stablemates.T mitchell always drives for his own horse,which is a change from what you often see s phelan do.Phelan not driving tonight,but hes often quite happy to sacrifice his own chance for the sake of the better stablemate. Phelan is consistent in what he does,so punters can't complain as they should know what to expect.