the galah

curmudgeons. i had to look that up to be sure it meant what i thought.- bad tempered,usually old. That seems to be how you view many on here who post.i think thats its a bit harsh myself. actually i like the new format,it adds a bit of colour. i like the other trackside presenters,they all are good,but thursday nights racing could do with a bit of colour. As you say,they seem to be getting punter particaption,which indicates many tune in and follow them. i'm not sure how long the show will last,maybe the novelty might wear off. I think it adds something,even if that something is for viewers who prefer the old format,to follow their bets and think, they may be a bit all over the place with their betting..

i watched this race last night,did not bet on it ,but when i rread the stipes report i didn't think it was accurate description of what actually hasppened in the race. firstly,it says play the ace, over raced on occasions. just exactly where on the video does it show that happening. on the 2 occassions t mitchell, pushed it hard to hold the lead over about 300m and then again for 200m, during the first 1700m of the race,his horse was not over racing. nor was it over racing for the 50m before he pulled off the trail on 2 different occassions he had another crack at the 2 favorites. The only time the horse over raced if you look at the video was for about 100m with 1300m to run. now i don't know why he adopted the tactics he did ,on the complete outsider who had not raced for several months. My guess would be ,maybe he didn't like the horses personality when warming it up and was having a bad day prior. But of course thats just a guess and not relevant to what actually he did.The horse naturally dropped out a long way from home to finish a tired and distant last. shouldn't the stipes have at least have taken the time to ask the trainer what his instructions and opened an inquiry. i say that,because i can guarantee if that was an amateur driver,they would have been looked at far more closely and my guess,they would have been given a 6 month suspension for such a odd drive(if it was an amateur). then secondly,the stipes report said jaccka opa caused its driver some difficulty in the last 50m of the race. well again,thats not what the video shows. The video cleary shows its driver,k coppins ,ran up in behind the horse in front of her ,then instead of taking hold of her horse when it could no longer progress forward,she angled it out,then realised there was no room to do that without interfering with the horse outside her,so went from turning its head to the right quickly to turning its head to the left quickly .,throwing it off balance. I mean ,it was clearly the manner in which it was driven that was the main contibutor to the horse going off balance. i've mentioned this driver several times in the pasti,because she seems to be getting no guidance from the stipes and repeats the same driving. Why is that?.

this seems to have been the common theme throughout your posts. and the specific case thats been used as the example of what you define as defamation,relates to the trainer mitchell kerr and the horse he trained arcarno. Your defending Mitchell kerrs good name from defamation....yeah i get what you've been saying and you've said it well,but it still seems sort of humourous in some ways. oh and when hrnz made comment about being aware of the fridge gas allegations and make comment ,as they have with other rumours about other illegal substances in the past,do you view them saying ,they are aware of the allegations,as defamation of the whole industry. After all,they have no definitive proof but comment on such things. .patreon,whats that?.. Is that like the nz version of only fans,but including horse dissections? that would be a strange combination if it was? i don't have the spare cash to subscribe to find out. sounds like nairn gets around the world a bit. ireland, scotland and thailand, going by what you and chief say. I mean i have no idea about her,but the self promoting she does sems to be working for her. Its like she has found a niche market. all the talk about her on this forum,gets her known by more,sort of making her even bigger and wouldn't that be making her think this is all playing out in her favour.

i haven't seen anything said in this topic to get irritated about.That includes anything nairn said.And Bit of a yarn's not a forum that has people whose opinions irritate me. but this is a topic(animal welfare and care of ex racehorses) that can be divisive elsewhere,whether its handled delicately or not. just is.And theres people out there who are unhappy with how things are going in life for themselves and seem to transfer their frustration onto others and this can be a topic that draws that out. I'm talking mostly people who support nairn's point of view. I'm not meaing her or anyone else whos posted on this topic either. just people are people in the real world.. Not wrong again. You do like to say that a lot to me. Can you at least say it when i have said something thats wrong,as i think you overuse it and it loses it effect on me. . you said "rehoming agencies retrain horses so they can be rehomed." I said "rehoming places took horses with the intention of rehoming them". You say tomato i say tomato type thing.

thats a chief type of reply. Where someone says i have i said something,in this case your comments makes me uncomfortable,when i have never said that. so comment away as much as you like . My analysis of your comments is you come across as intolerant of what shes doing and saying.Like you think shes got just enough knowledge to irritate you. you asked for proof that arcano was fridge gased by m kerr.. I know that seems to be a constant in many of your posts. but heres the thing as i posted a while back on this topic.. M kerr was rumoured to be doing that,the horse made what many thought was a remarkable turnaround in form within just weeks of m kerr getting it to win easily at addington,then the said horse dropped out next start and then was retired after the next start. Hrnz at the time,had said they were taking allegations of the fridge gas seriously due to the intel they had,had also issued media releases to that effect. M kerr was known at the time to be under immense pressure through his unusual behavior at some race meetings and it was subsequently revealed he had lost millions in gambling and defrauded many people through many different means. then,to add to that, we get this nairtn lady saying she was involved in the rehoming process and after arcano was rehomed ,apparently the horse exhibited issues related to damaged lungs. Then nairn ,to apparently prove a point ,dissected the horse and displayed on her facebook page what she said were the lungs of arcano,pointing to what she said were damaged lungs and gave what she thought was the reason.i.e. treated with fridge gasing by the trainer rumoured to be fridge gasing.. now you can talk as much as you like about the things not stacking up,the lack of definitive proof. And your right,there isn't any definitive proof. nairn's conclusions are based on circumstantial evidence so need to be viewed accordingly. but despite all you have said steven b,i bet you my bottom $,that if you asked people who had knowledge ot the trainer and the horse,they would say they believed nairn. and thats how life works,rightly or wrongly,people make assuptions and draw conclusions and just have to follow their own instincts and knowldge to form their opinions. And in this case,what nairn has said seems entirely plausible to me as well.. i had thought the places like what was once saddle and stirrups, took horses with the intention of rehoming them. you appear to be saying they don't and say nairn should have retained arcano,not rehomed him. i think you know thats not how those rehoming places work.

thanks for the update.Glad to hear the op on her eyelids went well.. Thailand very reasonably priced by the sounds of it, for that type of thing. So shes thinking about getting a tummy tuck in the future? i hope that goes well for her..

look i already know how you think and that you wouldn't view steven b's comments as personal. on the contrary,his style and content is similar to the way you debate things sometimes and of course seeing similaririties in his posts would impress you. I get that. i'm not saying hes not arguing his case well,i'm just saying in my opinion,many would view some of his comments about the lady concerned as being personal and i actually think the verocity of how hes critiqued this becks woman does indicate he ,to some degree fears the message that she carries. like his posts not only tell us a bit about the nairn lady,but also a bit about himself. that of course applies to everyone who posts on here ,but seldom do you see the verocity of such personal comments about her " being a master in emotional manipulation". "visibly enjoying exposure"." taking advantage of the horse(arcarno) and charity ,visibly exploiting them." anyway,you said steven b hasn't made any personal comments. but since he made the following comments,can he or you advise us exactly what type of plastic surgery she had while in thailand and what is the confirmation of her breeding stock(of horses i suppose). after all,some of us who watch the soaps like to find out how the story ends.

you know steven b,don't your words indicate you see her and what she says, as more of a threat than others do.. why is that? much of your comment seems to be about her..why spend so much time attacking her? one can only guess as to why you have done that. maybe you have good reason to have made it about her personality. also if it is personal, then i think you should word it in a way that doesn't come acrooss that way,to get greater effect. thats my 2 cents worth.

its very complicated but major factors as to why its so embedded over there,is the way they have educated recent generations ,especially in recent decades,then of course the political divides where they sell each other ,especially the left which seems to focus on what is bad about the usa,then throw in the mental heath crisis. most say the accurate figure is 1 in every 5 people in the usa of all ages is on anti depressants. some dispute that but it seems to be accurate. Over there everyone used to go to therapy to work out their problems ,now its changed and the focus is more on pushing the pharmaceutical solution,which really treats the symptom and not the cause. i once had a look at some studies of how divided the usa had become half way through trumps first presidency and while the media will tell you it was trump,the historical and the 2018 studies showed the division in the usa speed up significantly under obama and just carried on at the same rate when trump took over in 2016. i get what the chief is saying.. the uk is showing all the signs of becoming a very divided country,the division based on the common mans view of the impacts of immigration.Have you seen some of the protests over there. The political parties are all mixed up.The Farage party is on the rise and have drawn so much support away from the tories that it looks like the tories are never going to be the force they once were unless farge took them over. But while those 2 split there vote the popularity of the labour party is really poor as well. This month they said only 22% have a favorable view of starmer ,69% unfavorable. So thats what their people think of their current government. what strikes me today is just how corrupt out nz media are. the way they portray everything coming out of the usa is so slanted against the trump administration. tonight they had a thing on trump saying paracetamol can cause autism. the tv 1 rubbishing that and refering to trumps claims about cuba and the amish not having much autism. now earlier today i watched that 1 hour usa news conference where rf kennedy jnr and the likes of dr makary ,dr oz and dr bhattacharya spoke,alongside trump. then i turn on the news on tv1 tonight. What struck me was how decitful the tv one news coverage was ,as well as the so called nz health expert they had on. They warped what was actually said at the news conference.its like they hate trump and what he stands for so much they will warp anything in a way that discredits them. now i would say,trump did what trump can do,waffled on a bit and said a couple of things he may have been best keeping to himself,he actually said he recognised he was saying things that were his own opinions and maybe he shouldn't say them. but what the news conference had said was simple,the usa health administration believed the past 20 years of research into the cause of autism had focused on genetics,and that research had not dione anything to reduce the increasing rates of autism,that the current administration believed it was a combination of many factors and that their future research would not be driven by the political influence of big pharma. They said the while some studies had shown no link between paracetamol and autism,they were studies done by groups with skin in the game,i.e. big pharma and that a total review of the totality of studies done showed their was an irrefuttable link between paracetemol and the neurological development of the fetus. But they said the significance was yet to be determined and would require further studies, but their was enough evidence for them to send to all doctors recommendations they only prescribe paracetemol in cases where the pregnant patient was in significant distress.they also said they had linked a folate deficiency to the development of speech in autsisic children and that a cancer drug was being made availble to all doctors to prescribe to autistic childen because they were seeing postive outcomes when used. they made it clear the paracetamol recommendation was out of an abundance of caution and that further studies were being undertaken to confirm the sugnificance,but intial studies warranted the action they had taken.They made it clear they were not claiming paracetamol caused autism but were saying it appeared to be a contributing factor.. trump rambled on a bit and did say thuings like why give 6 month old kids a hep b vaccine when the only way they can get hep b is through sexual transmission. i mean ,how can you argue with obvious common sense like that,but then he went off track with the cuba and amish thing. but what gives tv 1 the right and the nz health authorities the rite to condem what the usa adminsitration is saying without even knowing the basis of why the usa has acted as they have. it reminds me of the ivermectin thing. our media made out, that was trump being a wacko,when in fact if you followed it,even to this day, that is the go to treatment for many doctors in the usa who have specialised in treating covid. I saw one of them giving an interview on ivermectin not that long ago and how the banning of ivermectin treatment had cost the lives of thousands of people,all because it appeared trump had said it was a good treatment early on. That doctor had been involved in 48 cases where they had sued to get ivermectin treatment for her patents, only half were granted it by the court,of the 24 ,3 who got the treatment survived whereas the 24 who lost the court cases all died .. nz media is just propganda.

flicked on tv today ,channel surfed and landed on a harness race in south australia .gaita pullicino was the winning driver. it was won by a horse named regal attire,who was out of a mare that had originated from the usa. regal attire was bred by the breckon brothers and won just under $100,000 in nz when traind by purdon/cullen.Regal attire is a half brother to high gait, who was a good horse as well. Well regal attire has now ended up racing in south australia and his lifetime earnings are just under $250,000.hes still going strong and seems to have plenty of racing left in him as hes still only 7. what struck me was gaita pullicino must now be in her mid to late sixties, but still seems to have the same desire and skill she had donkey years ago.Shes certainly had an interesting career with many stints on the sideline, but she is defintely one of south australias best. She is the type of personality that it would be nice to see her driving in new zealand one day in one of those invited drivers series. her colourful history has included being on a training property when she wasn't supposed to be,caught hiding in a cupboard under the kitchen sink and another time punching a stablehand who had given evidence against her in a doping case and getting a relative to join in . but in recent years she has been keeping her nose clean and drives very well in south australia. Its a wonder greg bennett doesn't try moving there. pullicino has a sister rita burnett who still drives and trains in victoria,she must also be in her 60's and another sister who i think is married to a p weidenbach,or some name like that. actually rita burnett had a strange case ,heard just a couple of weeks ago. The horse appropriately named " i'm the mighty gramps" returned a positive to dexamethasone twice. Apparantly her vet had told her to treat her horse with the anti inflammatory via a nebulizer,but stop 4 days before a race.Well she obviously treated it after that. The strange thing was,after being told her horse had returned a positive ,she then went and treated the same horse,the same way with the same drug 2 weeks later and got another positive. Her previous positives had been 20 years prior. Anyway she got fined $11,000.

that was what racing is all about and is what you can get when you have races run over staying distances. what helped make it such an enthralling contest was the tactics of john dunn. If we were being honest,they were very odd.its very rare to see a driver,in a long distance race, pour the pace on with 1400m to go,then go again and try to slip them with 700m to go.it was a valiant performance by i dream of jeannie to still be holding onto 2nd with 50m to go after being stuffed with 300m to run. when they run races at such spped so far frm hone,its always surprising how advanyaged being on the inside is. Horses like cody banner and paige beat some very nice open class horses but taking advantage of the inside runs when the pace was at its hottest.. its rare to see people clapping as a horse comes down the straight,but your saw that yesterday. I can remember watching i can doosit win that race a few years ago. He didn't win it like oscar bonevena did, He won more on guts that brilliance that day,but his too was a memorable win for those who attended. I can doosit's will to win carried him through that day. Theres something about those really good horses that is great to watch. i wonder how oscar bonevenas progeny go. Purdon trained horses haven't tended to be as successful at stud as one may have expected,but oscar bonevena has the speed factor which may help him . time will tell. he seems very fairly priced at $2500.

i personally think a significant part of the decline in not only turnover but the exposure horse racing gets,has been a result of policies enacted by the tab themselves. And one significant part of that has been the neglect the tab have shown towards the services provided at pub outlets. anyone who goes into pub outlets these days,compared to 20,10 and even 5 years ago can see the massive decline. I've started threads on it and given the cause,whcih i believe has largely beeen a result of tab policies. i could go over them again,but whats the point. The tab over the years knowingly neglected that aspect of their business,screwed the publicans who ran the pub outlets with terminals where you got served by a person and foisted the use of these terminals on to customers who don't like using machines,taking for granted their continued participation at the same levels,knowing many customers thought the machines took forever to put a bet on even if you understand how they work. And the tab knew some of the pubs who had these outlets had staff who had no idea how to help people if they were having trouble with placing a bet on a machine,and the same staff would tell you that, if you asked them. I remember going into one,just 2 years ago,asking about how to fill in a form,being told i don't know i'll get someone,waiting 10 minutes while no one else was in the bar at all but the staff chatted,then when that person turned up being told,i don't know and they they ahd no interest in wanting to know how their machine worked as they weren't silly enough to bet.,or words to that effect.And that was at a pub that they mention a bit when they run races in canterbury. you have to remember who your customers are as well. whos kidding who. The tab was shockingly run in many ways and has accelerated the decline in customer particpation on horse racing. the horse racing footprint in society has been reduced by poiicies of the betting agency that said they were there to promote horse racing. Its like all they did was cut services to make more money ,ignoring that cutting the services would undermine their customer paticipatiojn levels. its been flawed thinking all ther way through. But thas what happens when you just look at one thing,i.e. the profit/loss without factoring in the consequences of your actions on customer particaption. The HRNZ survey of not that long ago said 50% of the people surveyed never used facebook. Well i think ikts safe to say,those same 50% won't like using self service machines. so this promotion of giving bigger odds on selected races on thise self service machines is odd. like you say newmarket,hey ntai/nztab,don't try to make out you care about a certain segment of your customer base when for the last 20 years you have shown you don't.

you've got more followers than the whale by the looks of it nowornever. The tab may run out of ink,they've changed the price of your selection, amendment, that often and its now only paying $3.20,after opening at $10 I see the original favorite in that race,grettymac has gone from $3.70 out to $4.50. Grettymac to be driven by harness racings equivalent of sleepy joe. .What will r mcilwrick do tactically.Will he put the ,wake me when the race is over sign on the back of his helmet, or will he pull a rabbit out of the hat with grettymac. Just depends whether he gets enough sleep on the couch tonigh i suppose. His form reminds me of the southland riugby team recently.. .That race.being part of the invited drivers format where i guess they pick their provinces top drivers.. interesting .. one of your other selections,the b orange drive has shortened into $6.50 from an opening of $8.50. did you see they said on trackside matt cross tipped flyaway at $26 in race 9 on friday. I could be wrong but i seemed to hear them say that withiin a couple of hours of matt cross tipping it,the horse had become a $75,000 liabilty for the tab.Gee,he must have a few followers as well.iif their liabilty was that big,how come its still paying $8.

maybe they are working on the theory that punters may head to the pub for the increased odds,,have a couple of beers ,then be more likely to spend more due to intoxication.Only problem with that is someone needs to tell the tab that the punters may just decide to spend their betting money having an extra beer, then pay for a taxi on the way home,ending up spending less than they would have had they stayed home. seriously,it does make you wonder what the tab people who make up these promotions,are trying to achieve and who it is they are targeting. Its a bit like everyone getting a text today saying you will get bonus bets if you lose up to $25 on one of the aussie races today. I thought we lived in nz and the nz tab would be about promoting nz rtacing.

your a hard man to please sometimes newmarket. Not impressed when your not getting a deposit match and not impressed when you are...lol

Those tasmanian racing people sure like to operate outside the box. this months story was you had the suspension of 1 full time and 4 casual stewards for betting on races. Now it turned out the story beneath the headline really wasn't as bad as it appeared. but if you did happen to read the story, you would have been left feeling sorry for one of the stewards. Over a 2 year period he spent $273.28 and lost $244.08. What a strike rate. Even the worst punters would go better than that. The best advice anyone could give that steward would be ,don't give up your day job,but too late,he now has.His bets were mostly on the dogs. Now as i read about that,i happened to stumble upon the robert walters story again,one of the fellas i mentioned in an earlier post. The fella who i said had forged documentation to show the stipes he had permission to get water through the neignbours property .Well here i was thinking his driving suspension i mentioned earlier, for 6 months,was for some sort of party drug or something to keep him buzzing on the long drive home from the races. But no.His 6 month suspension was because he thought himself too fat and had been on an appetite suppressant drug. Imagine that,one day your looking in the mirror and think to yourself,how did i get so fat. so he tried having a balanced balanced diet. Instead of one big mac in one hand he bought another big mac combo for the other hand,but that didn't work as the tyres on the sulky still looked deflated,despite the air guage saying they were fine. So thats when he consulted the wife and she said what a lot of wifes say,you eat and drink too much you fat b...... and recommends an appetite suppressant. I think we all know what mr walters was thinking when he returned a positive,..sometimes in life you just can't seem to win.

haven't you just used words to imply they mean the same,when they may not. In other words ,"trying" or not,is often not the same as "didn't give horse best chance of winning". you can be trying and at the same time get suspended for not giving the horse the best chance to win.That has happened quite a few times when the stipes have deemed drivers have overdone the speed or tactics used. but when was the last time you heard of a driver getting suspended when they drove in a negative way.That type of driving is not policed the same. i haven't suggested either driver at cambridge should have been suspended,but if i was a stipe on the night i would have asked the question of k coppins as you have to let drivers know that theres an expectation that they give the impression they are trying to drive their horse on its merits.As i have said before,complacency by the stiipes leads to the things that start the likes of operation inca.Stipes in the north isalnd give the impression they treat some paticipants like they are mates or family.

so i expressed an opnion that claude and rough and ready were driven in a manner that indicated they weren't trying to win,even though one was favorite and the other the major win mover. welll lets see how they get driven this week in a race where they can get a penalty free win. In other words,the connections knew if they won last week they would either become ineligible or get worse draws or both,for the race they want to win this week. coincidence or not? Do people think like that.i think they do.

Is pointing out a reality being harsh? I don't think so. One of the biggest perception problems with punters for harness racing, is races with multiple runners from the same stable. I thought it a no brainer that this is defintely a bad thing for harness racing.No one can argue its a good thing. in queensland wouldn't everyone who watches harness racing think the dixons often team drive in the big races.and the turpin horses as well ,although p mcmullen just not as good as the dixons at team driving as the race progresses..Or the e stewart runners do the same in victoria or the mates of each other in nsw do the same thing. Just the way it is. team driving is nothing new,its happened for donkey years,but these days the high profile stables dominate numbers wise more. No one says that about the gallops or the dogs . and races dominated by big stables is something other trainers and owners look at and say,hey even if i'm as good as them i won't beat them because of the team aspect.So why bother. Thats a real perception as well. I can tell you,everyone used to say that. again just reality.

oh and while i'm at it. in 2021 hrnz did a survey. they published the results. 95.93 % of the 500 who replied said they checked the hrnz website and 79% said they did that daily. now i would say,if you doing a survey via the hrnz website,the numbers will obviouly be skewed significantly that way anyway,but still they are noteworthy. yet the hrnz website is just average in my opinion,because it often breaks down, .Just this week it did it again when the races were on and you couldn't access details of the hoses.The uploading of the results and videos is pathetically slow. The gallopers love racing have theirs on within 5 minutes,but with the harness its often hours later.And they fail to have the unhinged content on there. When asked how often do you look at the hrnz facebook page,50% said never.And 83% didn't know hrnz has 2 facebook pages. 87% said they never look at the hrnz twitter account. 38% said hrnz does not communicate well. now thats obviously an indication that hrnz target audience is older.

if i was being honest,i don't think your queensland product is anywhere near as good as our canterbury product and that is why there is not much interest in harness racing there and i think several of the other states have the same public perception issues.I think you seem to agree. i see no reason why it would improve over there and it just makes sense it will get worse as the filelds are often dominated by multiple runners from the high profile stables. your horses are as good,but i've watched enough of your queensland product to realise i just don't think everyone is trying each time and theres too much team driving,so i wouldn't bet on your product again for that reason. And i say that as having been someone who starting during covid, watched and did the form on every race run in queensland for about 8 months and for the last 5 months of those spent about an average of $100 on 2 different accounts($200 total) per race,on every harness race run in queensland.whether it be marburg or redcliffe or albion park i gave up for 2 reasons,1)i didn't trust the drivers to try each time and was often left feeling i was taken for a ride and as you know,i don't like that. and 2)because the nz tab promised they would invite me into the elite punters rewards thing if i met turnover criteria of around $100,000 per annum on any account. I was at that time an elite customer on one account already and they promised to make me the same on the other account when i met that turnover threshold. Well i met the turnover threshlod. But when i rung our tab and asked when am i going to get the email saying i was entitlied to rewards,they told me,tough luck,yes i met the turnover threshold but i wasn't going to be getting into the elite rewards club. No reason given,just tough luck ,don't ring us again type thing. so i was already frustrated with some of the queenland harness drivers,remember i started threads on here about the likes of one of the barnes brothers,so i took my $2000 a day spend on the nz tab on queensland harness racing at the time and stopped all together. thats how the nz tab worked at the time. Just idiots running it. anyway,so i think i have an informed opinion as far as queensland harness racing goes. as to nz.In the last 20 years the intergenerational transfer of interest in the harness racing sport has slowly evaporated. 20 years ago,most people over 45 gambled,whether it be regularly or occasionally on harness racing. But their children haven't . When i worked at the big factory where 25% would have been punters or my other job where 85% were, one of the biggest things that struck me was just how many people over 50 followed the sport. And what also struck me was just how little following the sport got from people in their 20's at that time.if you drew a graph you could see the decline on a steady downwards trend based on age. Most of the under 25 year olds talked about gaming,more smoked weed than didn't and there was some who watched a lot of porn. Actually one bloke, who i ate lunch with each day,he was a bit of a character. Every day i would say to him,what did you do last night. Every day he would say,went home,smoked a bit of week,had a w... while i watched porn and played on line poker and did a bit of gaming. Now occasionally he would add,f... the misses,shes after something ,i guess i'll find out. Actually i'm drifting off topic again,but the point is those blokes will be in their 40's now and i know they won't be betting on racing like the previous genreation did. i've always said ,hrnz and all racing adminsitrators have not put enough resources into promoting the particpation of over 50 year old people. Decade after decade,i call them the dumb administrators,have foccussed resources on getting young people into the game when they would have been far more successful directing those promtional resources into the over 50 year olds and not only getting more over 50 year olds involved,but working on a plan to use those over 50 year olds to expose the younger members of their families and friends to the sport and get that intergenreration transfer of interest.. Like,how many decades have we heard the dumb people say ,we need more young people,yet the bright sparks that say that have never have come up with a strategy that works to get them involved. Its such flawed and dumb as thinking. The current HRNZ people seem some of the dumbest yet in that respect.But ou can't just blame the current administrators as those that have gone before them have had the same mindset. tabforever said earlier,his marketing expert says target existing or past customers to builfd your base back up. I said i fully agreed and said not only that,harness racfing need to also target the same demograophic of the current current or past customers. it actually surprises me that people don't see just how much harness racing is declining in canterbury.They will see in 5-10 years. sadly a lot of is issues are outside the control of any adminstrator or smart thinking person.

those were the days and they still existed just 15-20 years ago. That was when if you went to some of those summer racemeeting,especially the country ones,you had to bob and weave your way through the crowds near the tote as there was that many people standing around. The xmas at the races meetings would have full carparks and i remember the crowd being 4-5 deep the whole length of the straight at some of those christmas at the races meetings. you have a look at the oamaru car park tomorrow. You will be able to count the cars you see beyond the 100m on one hand. It was only 20 years ago they had a racemeeting there, where the entire car park was full. I know as i was there. 20 years ago i had 2 jobs. One had 35 people work there and 29 were regular weekly punters and most focussed on harness racing. Then the other job was a factory type job but 25% of the work force would have been punters. Trackside always playing in the background. Back then,if you had a bet you could listen to it on the radio on the racing channel that was dedicated solely to racing.You had free to air trackside tv. (they stopped that not long after-tv since reintstated recently)You had haness racing with win pools that averaged between $40,000-50,000. Thats just the win pools. I look back on old videos of races 20 years ago and marvel at that.You had no commingling, so punters foccussed on the local product as the australian products pools were too small to matter.20 years ago you had a generation of people aged between 50-70 who had been brought up in an era where racing,particularly harness racing in the south island,was very relevant. Back then you didn't have the tab saturating the customers with thousands of races to bet on like you do now,the focus was on local.You had clubs actively promoting on course attendance. change,well change is definetly not always for the better. Even today,administrators continue to look for new change when the reality is they would be better going back to what worked in the past and building from there. so winning a harness race used to be not only about the excitement of the on course experience but the recognition of a sense of achievement you got from extended family,friends,workmates and the public. as to bernie hackett. for years he drives the same.I really don't think anyone knows whether he is trying or not. I don't even think he knows i think the best way to sum him up is hes a top trainer,but his driving lacks desire and he tends to drive horses who hes just trying to work out how to shoe better. Thats the impression i get from him. actually i put $5 a place on the n chilcott horse in that. And i got a drive that i was saying to myself afterwards,what a waste of $5. Sitting in the 1/1 turning for home,then simply never pulled out and got boxed in with 250m to run.Had she pulled out i'm pretty sure it runs 3rd .it battled on in behind them to be beaten a head for 3rd,but really trotters don't go running up hard on other horses back and it was a no brainer to pull out and give it an opportunity of a clear run. Very basic driving. i think she would have gone for a holiday for 2 months if in the n the south island. Up there the stipes probablycouldn't cope with 2 dodgy drives in the one race. Afterall it was the last race and the stipes up there like to have sleep as much as they can,so wanted to head home.

Winning anywhere used to be a big deal for those involved,like it meant something significant..That still seems to be the case in the south island and at auckland. But when i look at the way they drive and the body language of some of those involved,its like winning or losing is no big deal. Like its just another day at the office, where you go to make a living,but that you would probably be trying harder or having more fun, playing cards with the boys on a weeknight.. cambridge seems mundane to me and punters pick up on that.i often channel surf and see a bit of harness racing in south australia ,where they have meetings with stakes between $3000 and $4500,they seem much more competitive. anyway,i guess the answer for me maybe to watch the 500lb sisters or the 90 day fiance on the reality channel. Just had a look at whats currently on the reality channel. At the moment it is about a massager called dr colon(actual name). What a shit name to have. Anyway it says this week dr colon is treating a woman with cmt(some sort of nerve disorder), who hopes to stand at her daughters wedding and a big breasted woman with extreme neck pain.i once knew a woman who had bad back pain from that. She had whoppers.all natural,had to get them reduced... actually i might record that and watch it next thursday night.

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probably partly right. k coppins,the driver of rough and ready,seems a driver who horses will go ok for,but the race was run hard early,so her decision after 600m to try and place her horse 4 or 5 back the inside was strange,then she seemed to realise that wasn't a good move but thereafter remained indecisive as to what was the best thing to do. Eventually doing nothing then puliing out 6 lengths off the leader with 200m to run,but was able to make up 3 lengths or more on everything in the last 150m. you could say i'm being harsh criticising someone who is a junior driver.Probably partly correct,but i have accurately described what people would have seen had they bet on that horse.She does average 3 drives a week.People who bet,whether big or small,like to get a run for their money ,otherwise they just switch over to the reality channel with the 500lb sisters or the 90 day fiance. So the point is you see a lot of that. K coppins came out and drove the winner of the next race which unfolded with her getting the ideal run from the 1 draw and taking the passing lane to win. like i said,horses run ok for her. What i would find interestingto know is, what are the people who are mentoring some of these drivers saying. Are they saying nice job,we dropped another couple of points in the ratings,or are they saying,don't worry babe we'll get them next week with a similar drive when we strike a 5 horse field. I don't know.But it doesn't seem to be much of a big deal whether they win or lose.