the galah

Thats sad shad,but like djokovic you have stuck to your beliefs,so good luck

The latest on that list. Authorities are hoping Lisa Ranger,salesperson for the vet,will cooperate now shes seen whats happened to the vet who she worked for. Her case is still pending and Gural believes theirs a good chance she will hand over the list of products those on the released list bought. He said its either that or she goes through a very,very costly trial and end up with a greater sentence. Maybe Gural and the feds will get what they want.Time will tell. Then Gural said once they have their hands on who bought what,they will go after those who bought the performance enhancers.

As to your theory about the trainers being supplied products with fake claims,well one of the witnesses who gave evidence described a conversation where the disgraced vet said..."mother natures a bitch" then went on to describe how he explained chemically enhancing a horse to perform above its ability,it will eventually come down,detoxing,becoming very sick,falling apart". Do you think that sounds like a good salesmans pitch to peddle his products chief. Or maybe you should consider the obvious. That his products did effect the horses health,and that is why so many became sick,with others dying.

Of course it was rife in the USA.Don't tell me your going to deny that in spite of everything that has come out in the court cases? You can bang on about them being able to test for any performance enhancer because they have such great testing,but no one believes that except you. The point is there are still several harness licence holders who are due to give evidence in upcoming court cases over there. So the USTA,who you you think would want to have the sport have some integrity,have immediately suspended the first couple of licence holders that have given evidence,and the conclusion being drawn by many is the UTSA don't want future witnesses exposing the cheats.

jeff gural clearly chooses his words wisely,but there always seems a reason behind what he says. What he had to say on the Harness racing alumni show this week,which you can hear on harnesslink, is very illuminating. He calls the decision of the Unites states trotting association to immediately ban the first 2 people to have cooperated with federal authorites and given evidence of the widespread use of performance enhancers and corruption as a "mystery". When you listen to him its clear there is an inference that the USTA have taken this action to discourage others from going down the path of revealing the truth. Seemingly some of those with influence within the UTSA do not want others to come forward,fearing they may be implicated. The USTA have often been at loggerheads with Gural in the past. Gural explained certain small time participants,who authorities had significant evidence of using performance enhancers,were deliberately selected as witnesses and given immunity from prosecution, and with the promise that racing jurisdictions such as those that run the meadowlands would treat them with leniency when it came to future participation in the sport. They would get that because of their cooperation in helping clean up the sport by revealing the truth. Gural makes it quite clear that more high profile trainers,with teams of 20-30 were not given immunity or promises of continued participation,as he no longer wanted those bigger,doping trainers participating in the sport in the future. Gural says his goal is to set the example where trainers will see the dopers behind bars for a couple of years,sometimes having lost a fortune in legal fees,and realise that path isn't worth it. The host of the show commented that trainers knew they were only racing for 4th and 5th when they were racing against certain stables at tracks like yonkers.

Can you believe that Adern is now criticising ACT leader david seymour for speaking with the protesters. She has labelled it "irresponsible". She now scolds MP's for daring to engage in conversation with groups who have different views to hers.What happened to communication being a key to resolving issues?Shes fake. I used to respect her,but it seems her true colours are coming through.Yesterday's headline was she said they need to change the laws around protests. I can think of many protests which have involved occupations of others land,but she never talked of changing the law when that happened. I thought Brodie was being extreme when he used to talk about Adern,but it seems Adern and her government have proved him right.

Today at manawatu they fined the driver of aurelia cotta,m johnson,$350 for continuous use of the whip. Well that maybe so but he hardly flicked it much at all. But what was noticeable on trackside today was the replay of Better Talk Art winning last week at addington. R Close the driver never even got a mention for his whip use,yet he appeared to flick and hit it continuously the length of the straight. When you compare the 2 drives,its a bit of a joke to think the driver today got fined and close didn't.Wheres the consistency?

If we have a conversation about that its likely to be "cut short". Do you know what aaron white commented after he saw dave mcdonald come out of the hairdresser. "Hes all dressed up with no hair to go".

Go to the right hairdresser and ask them

Well your again saying i have said the use of performance enhancers is rife,and i again will tell you i have never said that. Maybe one day that might get through. And again i say your wrong when you say that testing can pick up the use of all performance enhancers.I have referred to the US cases many times,but you just completely ignore whatever evidence there is which proves your wrong,so i realise its a a waste of time trying to convince you. As to Anderson. Well you can extoll the virtues of someone who supplies class b drugs to others,who assaults and chokes a woman. But to me the bloke needed and deserved a period away from harness racing to reflect on life,and the choices he made,which put him in that position. And of course in my opinion hes not a driver i would trust from a punting perspective,as i don't think he was always honest. Thats my opinion. And people can change,so if he comes back then good luck to him,but he wouldn't be the top of my list as a trainer or driver until i had seen a long period of consistent honesty.

Those who criticise the RIU on here have loyalties to certain stables involved. Loyalty is a good characteristic for anyone to have,so there's nothing wrong with people criticising the RIU,where some doing the criticising go wrong is they often ignore the evidence,and lose credibility when they do. Of course it can work both ways. And when was the last time you heard of an owner changing trainers because their trainer had more than one positive. It doesn't happen. I don't know why the chief seems to have strong feelings around the RIU,he seems to take on a grizz wylie type persona when attacking the RIU.Thats just the way he sees things and probably just reflects his actual character. Besides,the louder the criticism there is towards the RIU,the more you know they are actually doing their job well. Its their job to police the integrity side,and you don't make friends amongst those who transgress the rules.They just have to be respectful in how they handle the individuals involved. And that has to work both ways as well. Finally,if people are knowingly consistently breaking the rules then they have to be man enough to take the punishment that comes if they get caught.For some it seems they put themselves through hell,when the reality is better to just accept they got it wrong and deal with that.It may be a big thing for them when they get caught,but really they need to get their heads round the possible consequences before they undertake actions that break the rules.

Well chief you could be asking,If the police surveillance evidence has nothing incriminating, then why are the defendants spending top $ in the courts to have it excluded from a racing jurisdiction hearing?

You seem to have more faith in the media than me. I've followed the protest quite closely,and to me the coverage has been strongly pushing the message that the protesters have many different goals and represent many different groups. One media report today referred to white supremacists and maori sovereignty groups amongst them. They have gone down the racist path in several reports. Lets be honest,the media aren't going to change mid stream in how to paint anyone who is anti vaccine mandates. Your right about adern.Today she said she didn't know exactly what the protesters wanted,saying"they had trump and canadian flags". I mean, she can't even work out that the Trump flag is because he is anti vaccine mandates and the canadian flag refers to the truckers who have continually said there protest is against the mandates.She has lost touch.

Actually turns out you do have a point there chief. I had a look at a couple of other clubs. for example for the 2021 year Methven received $917,000 industry funding and paid out $729,939 in stakes. Auckland do appear to have a higher % payout for industry funds received to stakes paid than methven. Maybe that might change.Interesting that they have borrowed an extra $1,000,000 to develop some land into a new subdivision. They are selling 22 lots and you would think they can't go wrong selling bare land as sections at the prices they get now days. I see they even disclosed Ricky May liked one that much that hes bought one, in an arms length transaction. Then i had a look at timaru. They had only the 2020 as the latest. They received $512,580 and paid out $333,740. This year they did increase their stakes quite a bit so maybe the % paid has improved. addington was hard to work out as the exact break down wasn't as clear. But by the looks of it Auckland much better than them as well. Maybe HRNZ or the ATC should publish that % for every club so there is some transparency and people have a better understanding of where each $ goes and how much is returned in stakes..

What other clubs didn't?

Well thats what the 2020 annual accounts said they were for. Why would it change? Well the ATC records them as subsidies received and those races as stakes paid out. The point is a large part of why the ATC was able to say they had a profit recorded last year on the racing side of things was because the industry gave them extra funds.They record that extra funding on the income side of things. In 2020 they paid $90,993 less in stakes than they received funding,yet in 2021 they paid $451,816 less in stakes than they received in funding.Using that logic,why not give them an extra million dollars in industry funding,,then their racing side of things would look even better.Aren't they just cooking the books? The money just doesn't materialise out of nowhere. Giving it to auckland means other areas don't get it.

Extra industry funding for the bigger races and sale series races like the other night.

Thats how it was supposed to look. Not sure why it came out not lined up first time.

Ok i have found the 2021 annual accounts. I'm not a rocket scientist,but i can do maths and all is not what it seems to me if you just look at the $642k profit you refer to.Just take a closer look at the figures. You'll have to excuse how some parts of this post line up. It doesn't come up as i have typed it for some reason. Anyway For the 2021 year 2020 year Industry funding 6,940,524 5,538,787 subsidies 1,055252 927,150 total 7,995,776 6,465,937 Stakes paid 7,543,960 6,375,004 subtract industry funding from stakes paid. In 2021 $451,816 90,933 So the ATC received an increase of $360,883 ,in excess of stakes paid,from the industry than it did the previous year. Then you look at totalisator expenses down $251,000 which must mean less staff and poorer service,workout and trials take up $158,390,i guess they have socked the owners to run at those things. Those type of things along with acceptance fees going up 60% while other things has gone up on average about 18%. So the industry is subsidising them more,owners are having their costs increased, all while services provided are being cut. Thats the real picture around the racing side of the business. Haven't HRNZ shut down clubs who actually did have good books?

Fully agree gammalite. Sad for the horse that it was driven like that. Fully agree that its confidence would be shattered,and when it runs in fields where its courage has to be called upon,i would expect it to take the easy way out. Horses aren't stupid. Having said that its that type of drive that adds excitement,and gets people talking.So if someone wants to drive too aggressively and actually comes off looking stupid,well i don't think they should receive any official penalty. It was the factor that helped set up the Magic Four win,by effectively making rasmussen go too hard to retain her position with franco indie,knowing she could not conceed to a horse that had raced so poorly at its previous start. That should have set up the race for Akuta to win,but he wsn't up to it on the night.It was still a great performance from the reid/mcmullan/p ferguson team to get the win. Also the run of Franco Mac probably put some context into how Magic Four won,and akuta underpeformed,as franco mac only just got beaten after suffering a bad check early. You would think Johnny cox would look at that race,or the Kiss The Girls drive yesterday which was far worse,and wonder maybe i should have defended that charge of not giving a horse its best opportunity. Who knows.

Yes,They are still sticking to the story that the vaccine will protect you,even while admitting that the vaccine people have been given was designed for a covid variant that has been overtaken by a more dominant,far less serious strain. New Zealand is just lucky that we have not had the original variants get here before it morphed into something less serious. And the government does deserve credit for that. But any credit they deserve has been washed away in a wave of idiocy by the policies of discrimination and removal of individuals freedom. I think many of those that have taken the vaccine in a lot of ways want to see the continuation of the scare mongering as in some way it reinforces their belief in having taken the vaccine.That is what our government has made peoples thought processes become.

The reason i asked was because i have read the previous annual reports for the years ending 31 july 2020 and 2019.So i think you have got it wrong this time chief. I would have thought the applicable portion of the annual report was under "racing revenue and expenditure". For 2019 they had a loss of $252,273 and in 2020 a loss of $243,715. It appears the reduced racing due to covid in 2020 meant their losses weren't quite as big as the previous year. The bulk of their funding for stakes comes from industry funding. They also receive industry subsidies(e.g. for running the bigger races).They receive more industry funding and subsidies than they pay out in stakes.

Can you provide a link to the latest annual accounts? Doesn't the previous couple of years show the racing side of things was running at a loss? But if we are to believe what you say,then they have somehow turned that all around in the previous financial year,despite declining horse numbers and covid? That would be a positive if it was true,but can you provide some proof of that?

You don't seem to have any idea where Trumps support increased in the last US election.For example Biden got 60% of the hispanic vote. Trump making a 9% gain with hispanics. Trump made small gains with the black vote as well. He also made gains with White women,but lost some support amongst white men.Recent polling shows he continues to gain support amongst those groups. What is also clear is he made huge gains with blue collar workers,and those without a college degree,especially the hispanics in that group. So either you think Hispanics and blacks are in large numbers turning into white supremist sympathizers, or you have just been sucked in by the media.

Maybe hes come to the same conclusion as expressed in the "dire picture painted by Auckland trotting club auditor" article a couple of months back. Brodsters always on the money.