the galah

I assume she took the vaccine otherwise she wouldn't have been allowed on course. So her drawing the line on wearing a mask and not on injecting a vaccine into her body, that many had justified doubts over, seems a bit strange. So those who had chosen not to be coerced into doing something they didn't feel comfortable with,knew a consequence was not being able to attend race meetings. So given that, its a bit hard to see any justification in her comments.

Aquaman,you've previously pointed out the type of comments made by waretini about being a victim simply because of the colour of her skin are divisive and unnecessary. Yet no mention of that this time. Wheres the consistency?

I thought i must have been reading the coverage from a CNN reporter or comments from a nz green MP. But no. It was in fact a decision dated 23 march 2023 on the RIB website, surrounding ms waretini's comments to a stipe when asked to wear a mask almost a year ago,when masks were mandatory. Waretini's comments to the stipe when asked to wear a mask...well he accused him of being a racist and picking on the only brown skinned person there. Then when spoken to again and directed to wear a mask she apparently kept yelling out that all the RIB were racist and she was going to take it to the media. People often say stupid things in the heat of the moment,but ms waretini's reaction sure was colourful. Not sure if that is the right word????

It seems the story just gets more publicity each day. More industry participants willing to openly talk about what they view as blatant corruption. All seem to have no confidence in the integrity unit,some even seem to believe the Integrity unit,and in particular one employee are corrupt. Also some have indicated they feel they have been targets of the integrity unit for having previously raised concerns. The racing minister,after originally announcing an inquiry into the allegations was to be done by the integrity unit,now saying it will be an independent review given the allegations against the integrity unit. An opposition vote of no confidence in the racing minister to be tabled. The RSPCA saying they had visited the yole stables 13 times in the last year but the resources required to deal with the situation was greater than they had. Perhaps the saddest thing is you are seeing many in the tasmanian industry ,who have the guts to come forward,speaking up knowing that by doing so,they may be bringing about the demise of the industry they love and participate in.

When you look at the on course attendance of some of the meetings that no longer are allowed to race at their own venues,it does make you wonder if forcing clubs to move is the right path. Waimate is just half an hour from oamaru,but it looked like none of the general public from waimate turned up. Contrast that to if the races had been run at waimate,and you could have guaranteed the club would have received good local support as it always used to. A fine day always brings out the locals. And if you were a local waimate trainer/owner,part of the experience of having a horse is recognition from your local community. Its what leads to continued participation. Clubs like geraldine are the same. Clubs don't seem to have any financial incentive to promote on course attendance these days,and transferring more meetings to the same tracks predictably just dilutes the enthusiasm and energy needed to get people on course at the tracks who hold the meetings. When clubs like the aforementioned use low cost leased grounds, and nothing is gained from the facilities that the clubs had on the leased ground,have results shown that the positives out weigh the negatives.Does it make sense to transfer when the one day a year clubs still want to race locally. In the case of waimate they just had spent $400,000 upgrading everything just 5 years ago after an insurance payout. Wouldn't they have still gotten the same fields at either venue. Harness racing is no different to nearly all other sports in as far as having diminishing participation. For example geraldine had always fielded a senior rugby team,but now finds itself having to combine with another team.They still play half their senior games in geraldine,because they recognise that is what is required to maintain participation. Reality is change isn't always for the better.Nothing wrong with trying something different,its just a matter of recognising whether change worked,or whether it was better as it was.

You have been saying for years now that the nz tab ipolicy of discouraging winning punters from investing would one day cost the industry dearly. At the time you first said that i wasn't convinced,but from speaking to others and my own experiences , now believe you were right all along. for example i know someone(not me) who the tab's takeout of money invested through the TOTE would have been somewhere around $350,00 to $400,000 per annum not that long ago,which would have gone to the industry.(mostly harness). Then the tab had the bright idea not that long ago,well because this person might be making something like $80,000 a year on the ff,,the way to reduce that was to introduce an algorithm that would reduce the ff odds pay out and save the tab money because of that. The person was only making a small profit on the tote, but the tab gives punters rebates on % of turnover which means they in effect were making a reasonable profit from the tote investments.. What the TAB ignore is winning punters on the ff use their profit from ff betting to fund their betting on the tote..They also use their profits to fund investment in other forms of the industry. So the result of the tab doing everything they can to discourage this punter,the tab saved about $150,000 but lost the $400,000 in % of $ invested.on the tote. Now anyone with any sense would realise that the tab ,by their own policy,have reduced their income by about $250,000 per annum from just that one punter. That $250,000 could have been used to fund the harness industry where the bulk of the spend was done. We have people running the tab here who have been making decisions with no analysis of the impact on the profit/loss side of their business. Now you take the above example and start to include the many other punters(like myself), on differing scales who the tab has introduced barriers to prevent their profit on the ff betting. Then you look at how it has impacted their tote turnover. The whole thing is broken . Punters are being discouraged and the industry is and will pay dearly for such stupid policies.

Well done for trying to have anyone take action and be pro active in helping the sport,honest participants in Tasmania and the welfare of the horses that race there. Its easy for the likes of me to post anonymously on a harness chat site,but you backed up your convictions by at least trying to do whats tight and push for change for the better.

I'm not here to defend Archie butterfly,but clearly your comments are a totally inaccurate description of his articles on tasmanian harness racing. Aid and abet means to help someone do something illegal and wrong. Clearly he has been doing the opposite. And he is being proved in this case to have previously reported accurately. For example of a headline for one of his earlier stories was "a sport rort run by one-the man who will destroy it". seems Seems the wheels are in motion for that to come true. Also of note he is predicting more media coverage to come about what he has described as mr yoles barbaric animal cruelty practices.

Reading all that and watching the australian TV coverage, you would have to wonder how authorities ever let it become so bad. Gammalite has been telling us its bad for a while. People may either love or hate archie butterfly/peter profit,but most of the time he is on the money.I'm not a subscriber of his, but you can often read some of his stories if you goggle them. He has given the yole stable a thrashing on his website for a long,long time,but its seemed those who ran harness racing in tasmaina and australia just ignored what he said. He currently is suggesting more shocking media revelations/coverage is imminent . He often refers to mr yole as Ben (chainsaw) Yole. Apparently because of the fate that has often awaited the horses he trains. Probably the most ridiculous of comments came from the integrity unit who police the sport in tasmania. They are on record in that news segment as saying they "did not accept there was a serious risk of team driving" ,even when yole has every runner as he often does.That statement despite being given inside information from multiple sources from within the stable. Perhaps they need to have someone with actual integrity,investigate the integrity unit. The most obvious observation is whats obviously been occurring doesn't happen overnight.

Don't know what archie butterfly would comment. My thoughts are Sams Town the type of horse,who gives 100% every time,has great manners and is in career best form. Hes trained by what i consider are currently nz's best trainers,and has been beautifully driven by gavin smith,blair orange and tim williams. In recent weeks i have thought he won't be able to reproduce such a tough effort next week as I think its unrealistic to expect any horse to keep winning in such a grade,unless you are a self assured or copy that type horse. But sams town has done it. Sams town reminds me of one of my favorite all time horses in jerry garcia,i love watching those type of horses. Reality is there are a lot of horses racing down in the grades who give it every thing they have got week after week for their connections,but most go unrewarded results wise. Its part of racing,but its why connections can grow attached to their horses no matter what the level they achieve.

Because its information about the consequences of serious breaches of hrnz rules and people have an interest in that. Also, I would have thought by giving it coverage it may discourage others from committing such serious offences. One is left to wonder,given some of the background details of this case, does that explain why the lack of coverage. Who knows,but its an obvious thing to consider. Then you are left wondering about what else?

Hasn't this horse put in some wonderful runs. 5 wins in the last 6 starts against good horses. An example of a very tough horse who gives his all each time he runs. Not a horse i have backed myself,but one who i enjoy seeing run. No matter what he does in the future you have to admire horses like him.

I see M Anderson got 5 years 3 months a couple of weeks back. Of note,was the lack of media coverage of such a lengthy disqualification. I would have thought it might have got a mention in hrnz news,or the likes of harnesslink might have given it a mention. Makes you wonder what those who conrtol the content of such sites consider newsworthy. They must think Out of sight,out of mind.

As i have said before. Aren't junior drivers educated and given guidance on how to deal with all aspects of social media. Don't Forbury's comments sometimes reflect more on his state of mind at the time he posts than the content of his posts? Fair enough for people to comment when they think someone has made unreasonable comments,,but having said that any reasonable person should be able to filter out what is fair comment,and what isn't. So when you comment about 'a faceless few that frequent these sites" is it not just a way of saying just ignore certain aspects of the real world that may upset your feelings. Maybe that strategy is effective,maybe its not.

Gammalites reference to driver statistics is a very good point forbury. And if we look at Ben Hopes,then we see he has what most would consider very good overall stats. The stats do to confirm what i have said before, that he has a higher strike rate on trotters than he does on the pacers. He tends to win on the trotters at a greater rate than he does the pacers.Thats why i think he should be considered in the top handful of drivers in nz for trotters. When it comes to the pacers he can be a bit frustrating sometimes from a punters perspective. But not everyone is a blair orange every time. I wonder sometimes how drivers would rate the realistic reactions of punters sometimes.But that doesn't happen. Probably a good thing for the punters. And i think sometimes drivers can be are their own harshest critics. Another day today. More winners to be found and more drives to watch.

This thread has been a bit hard to follow from the start. A bit hard to work out who the chief was having a dig at,but i'm guessing it wasn't intended to be ben hope ,he just chose to mention him when making a point about the condition of a track,for some reason. We all know from some of forbs previous posts that hes not always the cheerleader of the ben hope driving fan club,nor mark purdon as gammalite has mentioned. In this case its hard to see why he would criticise mr hope looking around,as it appeared pretty obvious he didn't want to give his horse any harder run than necessary. But each to there own. The thread shows that when anyone comments on social media about someone,we do so about real people.Personally its good to read mrs hope reply and perspective just to remind us of that. it would have given forbs something to think about.As gammalite has said,hes only talking about mr hopes driving from a punters view.Forbury has said only very positive things about mr hopes character in the past. But even if he hadn't like anyone,its only his opinion. I think its just part of the banter that is associated with professional sports.People tend to express those opinions more on social media than they would in person,sometimes without a filter.Its the world we live in. I think when it comes to people commenting, opinions on whether what they say is acceptable or not,is formed based on their own life experiences. Some people become more thick skinned than others. I know its nothing to do with racing,but saturday night tv never has anything decent on.

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those small fields over a mile at auckland tonight have been a race to the first bend,then go as slow as possible,which is really slow,and then just sprint up the straight again. You can see why the turnovers are so small. That race just run was a joke. The only driver who moved up on the walking pace was the driver who settled 50m last. He made his move 400m later while the drivers 3,4 and 5 back the fence showed no intention of trying. Of note in that race was the telfer runner forever me.Compare its form at nz cup time in the group races to now,and its lost not 1 leg but 2. I see their supposed number 1 stable driver ,j stormont has had only 1 win in 34 drives so far this year,

Lunatic fringe,thats a new one,i'll add that to your list..

thanks for that. I understand the points are the same for every standard bet,whether they be domestic or imported. They differ slightly if they are exotic bets on domestic or imported.. Your correct in that the fixed odds has lower points,but in my case i didn't bet on fixed odds at the time because i wanted to meet the threshold,which i did going on what they told me it was.. As you say,the level of rebates paid depend on which tier threshold you are in,and what type of bet type.You may for example get one and a half % more for bets in exotic pools like trifectas than you would an each way bet on the tote. Perhaps the best way for the TAB to be held accountable on whether they really are encouraging or discouraging so called elite customer spend on harness racing,would be for harness racing to ask for a breakdown in the figures. In other words what is the total spend of elite customers specifically on harness racing. And what % of $ paid out in rebates is a result of spend on harness racing. Then compare those figures to previous years. My opinion is harness racing is not being looked after by the TAB. The TAB or any future partner needs to be held accountable by those that run Harness racing.

And in australia that they had a 12% increase in its excess mortality rate last year over the previous year. Of the 20,000 excess deaths they put 13,000 down to having a covid connection,but that still left a 7,000 increase. They had a 17% increase in heart attack deaths to the normal average year.

When i talk about rebates,ir refers to money spent on someones TAB account only.

I had thought they pay the rebates on % of tote turnover.You need to be turning over large amounts to get much of a rebate. And i can't see the whale spending much on the tote.Every horse he tips pays so far under the odds that he won't be making much money if he is betting on the tote. As i have said before,nearly every major ff odds mover has the same thing happen to it on the tote. So a horse that closes under the odds on the ff market because the whale tipped it,will be doing the same on the tote. Maybe he does get a rebate if he loses on the ff odds. I'm not sure how it works if that were the case. The tab don't always stick to what they say as far as rewarding punters with rebates. I enquired a couple of years ago what the turnover threshold was. I did that turnover within 3 months during covid when there was no nz harness racing,betting on an australian states harness racing.They never rewarded me with rebates . When i inquired they told me the criteria had changed..So i stopped spending the $30,000 a month.I felt they mislead me.I don't spend anything on it now. I do think some of those that are lucky enough to get rebates, are well looked after by the tab people who handle the elite customers. However i would question how many of those receiving rebates from the tab, are receiving them by doing the bulk of their betting on nz harness. Thats a point that is very important to harness racing,and harness racing should not get sucked in by what the tab says around elite customer numbers. i know how it works,and nz harness racing pools have become too small to encourage larger wagering. The TAB with their algorithms on certain accounts are also killing the level of tote betting for some. In my opinion,the tab is doing harness racing a major disservice and part of the reason is because they don't care that much about harness racing anyway.They have other priorities.

1 placing from 4 tonight. To be fair we all have bad runs i suppose.Tomorrow may see his luck change.

Who knows,but maybe the whale reads bit of a yarn. Because this week he has gone for horses paying better prices. But this thread isn't about doubting his knowledge or selections,its about the impact he has on prices. Well tonight his 4 selections $4.50 into $3.60,$13 into $8.50,$3.80 into $2.50,$2.80 into $2.40 Tomorrow $6 into $4.50,$4.50 into $2.80,$8.50 into $6,$3 into $2.70,$2.70 into $2.20 and 1 thats price hasn't dropped. Thats just his whale watch tips above the betting markets on the tab website. So 9 of the 10 horses selected have seen significant drops in prices. All having been win and place movers 3 times in a matter of a few seconds. I would assume he is betting on 3 different tab accounts that the TAB have linked. The reality is tomorrows markets have only just come out and the price drops happened almost immediately. So i would suggest there is your answer why the TAB promote his selections each time on the website. Anyone who is betting on them is getting them at odds well below realistic value. The realistic value is gone with seconds of the odds coming out.So going by the law of averages,the TAB should always come out on top overall because punters are still investing ,despite the unrealistic odds. Maybe its trackside and its presenters who are the ones who should know better than to suggest punters back his selections,knowing they are always paying under the odds.