the galah

Well,if the reaction of the lady in the article is anything to go by,then the tax has achieved in some ways what it set out to do. i.e. make having multiple rental properties less attractive as an investment. And the lady in the article says thats what other investors in housing are saying as well. So not such a silly tax given that would have been one of labours goals. As to rents going up. Well people just get more of an accommodation allowance. More reason to vote labour. We seem to somehow have wandered off the topic, as we do sometimes.

Jacinda ardern ruled out the capitol gains tax on property other than the family home,yet last year a poll said 54% supported one and 32% didn't ,the rest undecided.Just makes sense to me to have one given the cost of housing. Also national like immigration to stimulate the economy don't they . How does that help housing costs.. Housing is an issue that effects everyone one way or another.I'm just happy that Ardern is no longer the prime minister.Each to their own opinions.

National still a party who's policies push the wealth gap between those that have and those that haven't further. Just read a story on stuff about some woman saying if labour win the election she will sell one of her 4 investment properties and if national win she will buy a 5th. National promising a tax change to benefit people who invest in multiple properties.Last year nz was named the 6th least affordable country in the world to buy a property. National obviously don't care given some of their policies. That just an example of why the labour party still a chance despite what they are doing. So many are effected by the cost of housing,whether it be owning or renting and they see labour as the best at helping them survive in that regard..

The unruly horses starting far back from where they are allowed to start is something that just seems to be accepted. Drivers like blair orange always seem to start as close as they can,but others appear to want a moving start and are happy to handicap themselves almost out of contention.Theres not a consistency to it for some. Just seems to be how it is for some reason.

Well put Walt. A $2750 fine seems an over the top penalty. Teaz made comments that anyone who read them,with any sense, would have seen reflected more negatively on Teaz than it did on those he was commenting about. Thats the context that his comments should be taken in. We live in a world where peoples emotional wellness is prioritized over speaking what you actually think. The thing about that,is that approach doesn't seem to be helping peoples mental wellbeing,The stats say more people are depressed today than ever before. Also theres an irony here, Teaz is being punished for the perception of possibly offending people and effecting their mental wellbeing by doing so,yet it is Teaz who admits to having that issue. I think he should have just been told again to "pull your head in",your not doing yourself any favours. And maybe as a penalty have him agree to no longer post on social media for say 12 months .Hopefully he still feels comfortable with expressing his opinions in the future,because if worded right,he has a perspective that is worth hearing on many subjects involving harness racing.

i can just see the Brodster walking down the street with his mask, sunglasses and hat on ,always looking down. Is he finally taking the covid thing seriously....No hes off to the TAB..

I thought a top drive last night was A harrison on chimchurri. She knew orange would not run the risk of being blocked on the fence and showed good thinking by moving at just the right time to get the perfect run on oranges back. It was a move that the horse between her and orange could have made,but she read the tactics of the drivers concerned well.They are the moves that win and lose races,there being a fine line sometimes. But the better drivers seem to get it right every time.

I saw the drive of n rasmussen the opposite. Normally she gets the tactics spot on,but in that race she didn't in my opinion.Kango runs its best races in front and was never going to give the lead to self assured without a fight.Had kango trailed he had no chance of winning. Unfortunately for Butcher,he probably didn't think Rasmussen would persist to the point where it would leave both kango and self assured vulnerable in the finish. You have to also factor in he beat her fair and square the week before by using the same tactics, which is even more reason to think the lead was never going to be there. Having said that,its things like that,that made for an exciting race.Mark purdon again got the perfect run. He just seems to do that so often that you can't help but admire his driving skills,even taking into account hes always on the better chances .

I think the harm protection policy,and the ability of government to have influence and control over the NZ TAB in respect of that sounds full of merit.The current situation of government having no control of enforcing overseas operators in that respect was something that we can all understand needed change.I guess that is part of how they influence public opinion of those who have little interest in gambling, to accept possible growth by the NZTAB. But like you have said brodie,Why should winning punters think they will be assisted by the tab or Entain. McAnulty said winning punters who beat the bookies shouldn't be restricted. Well why didn't he say that part of the deal was to include a regulation or law or whatever,that ensured exactly that. Had he done so, he might have won your vote on that alone. Maybe,...nah,probably not.

Good question.Its like they have cherry picked the best bits for the announcement to the racing industry but given the broad sweeping statements,is there a full report that gives actual detail that those who are interested can read so they can have a more informed opinion. Mr McAnulty does seem to at least understand the issues. Its just we've heard so called game changing announcements before,and they failed to deliver.We all remember seeing John allen go on and on about the new TAB website in 2019 being a game changer to improve revenue. That was a disaster that never made sense.And so it proved. At least this some of the claims by mcanulty appear to make sense to a certain degree.

That announcement said the tab would have the monopoly over racing and sports betting. But then it said that will happen once further work has been done. How long does that take as they first started looking into it in 2019. McAnulty seems to be pushing for positive change,but what it actually all means does need to be put into words that everyone can understand. When he said the nz tab will receive more punter support,because nz punters won't have anywhere else to go...well does that mean any betting on the likes of the overseas betting agencies like betfair will be prohibited in the future? sounds like it,but when are the laws for that coming into effect. And what about the online casions's,lotteries and the fastest form of gambling in nz the on line pokie machines. Are they part of what he has said will be the tab's monopoly of on line gambling.He says the tab will remove its 500 nz class 4 gaming licences(is that 500 pokies or 500 venues for pokies).What does that actually mean as far as income sources for the likes of the clubs who currently benefit. If so,will the TAB in the future provide those type of products online and if so where does the money go.Currently the overseas agencies for the likes of the pokies don't have any harm minimalization commitments, is that what he is talking about when he talks about reducing problem gambling harm,or do they just carry on as is. Whats this facial recognition the entain talks about. They refer to it as a way of stopping problem gamblers placing bets,but will that be another way of restricting winning punters. McAnulty said in his press conference that punters who beat the bookies shouldn't be restricted. Is that not a bit of a fairy tale claim which makes you wonder how accurate the rest of what he said is. Given the NZ tab clearly has a policy of doing everything they can to stop winning punters from investing,as do overseas bookmakers which i thought entain was,then why is much going to change. Like i said,how much of what he says actually be delivered and how much will turn out to be hot air speculation? And what are the timelines?

You need to do your form a bit more newmarket. The field it raced against a couple of nights ago included 1 that had won a group one race,another who had placed in a group 1 and won a listed race the week before,and another who had run 4th in a group 1 race. And the rest were all mares who had very nice records. So superstar legend actually ran a very respectable race. The week before when it won,it was a handy field and a very nice stake,but not as strong as the latest race.

team 3 for me

That about sums it up. if you look at recent performances,the form reversal came from the driver,not the horse. If they had a write up for the driver,it would be....capable on his day,but normally running on far too late.Expect much of the same tonight... That would turn out to be accurate 95% of the time,but last night we saw the 5% of the time.

I think the first thing the ambulance crew do is put all those wires on you and do an ECG while ascertaining what the symptoms were. If the ecg shows you've got a blocked artery ,they get the big needle out and give you something to dissolve the clot that has caused the blockage.Obviously the sooner they get to you and can clear the blockage the better,as damage is done to heart muscle while you have a blockage.Sometimes they wait till they get to hospital to give you the treatment,sometimes they do it where ever they find you depending on how far away from the hospital you are.,because time is so important. They can give you aspirin sometimes. My wife always makes sure we carry a couple of aspirin where ever we go just in case. I often wonder about people who live more than a few minutes away from emergency services.I suppose no one expects to have the likes of a heart attack,but shouldn't quick access to emergency services be a factor in where you chose to live as you get a bit older.After all,if you happen to have a heart attack,for many it can be a very life changing event.

I had it rated as the top selection but didn't bother having a bet as i thought wilson house would probably go back from his outside draw,like he did last start. I always think his go to tactics are go back to last if drawn wide. Instead he drove a very well judged race. It went very well last start,running home well in a race run in near record time. The previous 2 starts it never had much room to improve in the straights,when travelling ok at the time. It had won the most races and earned the most money previously than anything in the field,so was very well graded.Half the field had only won 1 race and it had won 10 prior. So it wasn't a form reversal,just a positive drive when you don't normally see that from house. I have to admit,after 100m i was kicking myself for not having a bet,but well done to the house team. Also good to see the Tappers who own it back in the winners circle. I think they trained a dominion handicap winner at one stage.

Actually i would imagine it must be rather strange for someone seeing people commenting on social media about your health issues. I find it that anyway. Everyone has different levels of empathy about all things,often based on whether they have seen the consequences first hand.

heart attacks have always been called serious medical events haven't they?Certainly could be life changing for whoever had one and their families, if they survive it.

thanks chief. I was actually meaning the unhinged part afterwards that you somehow seem to have worked out how to post on here previously.

Chief,dont know how you do the above,but are you able to put up the one for big mama morris at rangiora last week. I'm sure people would enjoy seeing that one.

i think maureen pugh was the national MP who Luxon censored for simply saying she was engaged in dialogue with the protesters at the beehive. The galloping industry does seem to employ a lot of people from overseas. So many industries do,obviously because they are mostly hard working and committed to working what are often long hours for just average reimbursement and stressful work environments. The rest home industry a classic example. One thing which i think deserves more discussion than it gets is the amount of remittances that foreign workers send back home to there families overseas. For example i just looked it up and in 2017 the world bank estimated $2,408,000,000(2 billion,408 million in words i think) was sent by people working in nz,back to countries overseas.They estimated,from data they had,that china got $624 million,india $341 million,australia $248m,uk 215,philippines 189m,samoa$65 m,south korea$63m,south africa $60,tonaga $55.m. Yet nz only had about 1/5 of that coming in. Australia $228m,uk 21m,usa 12m and brunei $10 the highest 4 countries.. Those figures would have gone up significantly prior to the covid thing,and no doubt are on the way back up again now. So all that money going out of the economy.Not being spent locally. Oh well,i will get back to picking a winner for the weekend.

I agree,but the national party also was fully supportive of the vaccine mandates and only called for the relaxation of mandate rules near the end. Luxon wouldn't allow any of his party to even engage in dialogue with the beehive protesters. Remember mick guerin going on the box seat and saying those who didn't take the vaccine didn't deserve to be on a racetrack and were not deserving of any respect. I read an article earlier this week about the only doctor left in murupara in the bay of plenty,currently flying in unvaccinated doctors from the south island to help out.The murupara area had seen 2 of its 4 doctors go for being unvaccinated,the only doctor now left had been stood down at one stage for expressing his concerns about the vaccine. Now he can't find any doctors in the north island,hence the use of a southland doctor as a fill in. The unvaccinated southland doctor went on record to say,the reason she was travelling so far for work was because,being unvaccinated, she couldn't find a job in southland.Thats despite recent news coverage of a crippling lack of doctors in southland. Last month they had a court of appeal case involving unvaccinated teachers. It was being argued by the unvaccinated teachers that despite the easing of mandates,the effect of them still remained. It said over 3000 teachers had been forced out because of the mandates,and most of them remain out of the profession.Yet the nz government has recently been pushing hard to recruit overseas teachers and the funding of costs to come here. Of course,even today, there are many other professions where there are major shortages,where the government would rather look overseas than have the local unvaccinated.

Not sure about that chief. I was watching the race with someone and we both commented on what cox did at the time he did it.. Your right in that he has no doubt done what he did because he felt the trailing horse may have possibly injured him,but his reaction did seem over the top,and a mitigating factor was he did it more than just the once. it was a race,and the horse he was trying to hit had most of the field behind it and as you would know,the horse concerned may have reacted differently and galloped,so there was possible nasty consequences to what he did,which of course is why other drivers don't ever react like he did. I guess in his defence,The horse causing him the discomfort,obviously didn't worry too much about contact with him before he reacted,so most likely wasn't likely to after. I think he may have been better calling out to holmes to tell him of his discomfort. Holmes made a move off his back as soon as he realised cox's discomfort.

I obviously don't agree,but each to their own. From your posts i guess who you are thinking about,but i don't think that a fair comment about him anyway. From your posts,we wouldn't agree on that much,but i think we would actually get on well if we met. I like a lot about how you think.

I'm referring to the reason(error) for the stable having more race deaths in such a short space of time along with the higher number of horses dropping out of races,than any other stable i can ever think of. Obviously i believe there has been a pattern of events. Thats indisputable, even though not everyone acknowledges it. I think the most likely cause is the horses have been treated with something(not saying anything illegal here), and the adverse, unintentional effects of treatment, has impacted the racing performances/health of some of the horses from that stable. I haven't heard any other explanation yet that makes any sense. Its nothing to do with cullen,as you must know. i think he is a man of very high integrity. Thats probably part of why the telfers wanted him as part of their team. As i have said before,i think this topic is fading into past news. New horses will come through the stable,and the stable will put it all behind them. The topic to me is just another reason why harness racing has been on the decline. People place too much emphasis on defending reputations and standing. No one is perfect,people make mistakes,consequences often far outweigh actions,etc ,etc. But for harness racing,many people in the industry have this go to defense mechanism to observations or criticism.Too often the response to mistakes made are to always paint those who transgress as infallible, always maintaining virtuous behavior. However there is also often an undeniable double standard,depending on the level of success of the people involved. Why are the high achievers somehow incapable of errors and possessing of more virtue than the less achievers?Anyway,thats me done on this topic..