the galah

Your the one saying its revenue. I believe there are many other factors just as relevant to speeding up the decline in numbers participating,which are not being addressed.. Basic stuff.I'll give one obvious example.Say you want to train a horse,where can you do it? Racecourses are normally closed shops run by people with no interest whatsoever in accommodating new participants.I've previously pointed out that too many racecourses would rather lease ground to committee members or relations for farming than have horses trained there.Have you ever contacted one of these clubs.I actually did the other day. Third time. Same response,i'll get back to you .Of course they never do.Also have you not seen or heard of the infighting that goes on at some of those tracks?.They talk the talk but never walk the walk. So what next. If your in canterbury,you have to pay $650-700,000 for a 10 hectare block within 30 minutes of christchurch.Whos going to do that? Don't say you need to get off your arse and ask around. I can tell you from an experience i had about 5 years ago that trainers,big and small,have little interest in having others train from their facilities even if they had spaces available. I don't blame them,just point out the reality.Thats in canterbury where the industry is still relatively strong. Its happening throughout the country.Answer this. If you were from auckland or one of its outer suburbs and you wanted to train a couple of horses where are you going to do it? People go on and on about the lack of horses racing at auckland and point out how few trainers there are,yet never talk about the most obvious thing,which is if i want to train where can i do it near where i live. Well the answer is you can't,so go get another job or hobby. What does hrnz do to help co ordinate linking those wanting to use training facilities with the rare example of someone having them available. Nothing . It shouldn't take einstein to realise what i have just said is linked to why the big trainers are getting bigger and the small trainers are disappearing.Thats only one aspect. I could go on about others issues that need addressed to stop the decline,but i can't be bothered.

Sounds like you got a nice collect. well done. While amazing dream paid an amazing dividend again,i guess anyone backing it was going on its win a couple of weeks ago,and not its run last week when it was beaten into 3rd in a weaker mares race. Obviously those that backed it got it right. King of swing didn't seem to have much gate speed tonight,so probably had himself to blame for getting into the position he did early,not sure whether he was checked. The commentator over there is really good. He helps make the racing exciting.

The form of american dealer over there has been quite a turnaround. Before he left for queensland his form was noticeably dropping away,and he always seemed to be best driven with one run at them. He hadn't beaten krug in their previous 5 meetings,but did beat him 9 months ago. Now his form is the complete opposite on all fronts. And krug who was the dominant 3 year old prior to his below par jewels run,only struggled into 3rd tonight,beaten easily by american dealer. A butt is winning a lot, thats one consistent thing.

i haven't said the big stables are the cause. I have said the increased numbers in stables like telfer is a symptom of the drop in numbers!

I read a woodlands stud article,which i have just looked up again.i assume it is accurate. It said individual mares served as follows 2016/17 2584 2017/18 2359 2018/19 2333 2019/20 2193 2020/21 1969. So its obvious there is less being bred,less being owned and therefore available to be raced and trained. And if the the bigger stables like telfers have increased numbers at the same time as there being less horses available,then common sense says that there is decreased participation levels of both licenceholders,owners and breeders. Anyone who thinks the telfers having increased numbers is a positive sign for the future of the industry is ignoring the big picture.

So thats your take from my post. Not that i am wrong,just ask me how do i know overall participation is dropping? Whats any different from the all stars runners end of season participation numbers to any previous season. Are you aware of how many all star horses are pre trained elsewhere,and of the numbers waiting to get into that barn.Likewise the dunns.What does that tell you of how many owners view and don't want to support the small time trainers. What do you think of tasmania harness racing and the domination of the big stables.From memory you've posted more than once about its negative impacts on that states harness racing. Hows the breeding industry going,with its ever dwindling number of studs and domination by a handful of studs. Do you actually think its a good thing that the bigger studs have got bigger,while the smaller players are no longer financially viable. Harness racing is no different to any sport. Without a strong base things become too top heavy.Thats reality. I've commented on what the telfer stable reflects the future holds.

I read the article on the telfers and thought this is what nz harness racing is becoming. The bigger stables like the all stars,dunns and telfers continue to have increasing numbers on their books,while overall participation drops.Anyone who thinks that is a good thing for the future of the sport is mistaken and oblivious to the difference between what is good and bad.Its no fault of the aforementioned,but it is definitely a bad trend and not a good indication as regards the future of harness racing.

Maybe it was ben hope. Its the first time i've seen him intent on staying in front for a long time. Also could have been one of the whale money launderer followers? The whales tips often get bets in the thousands which the tab is happy to take.Or maybe matt cross,it was his bet of the night and maybe hes getting paid more than he lets on? Or maybe brodie has listened to ranga and got his wifes sisters brother in law to put the brodsters bets on. No that can't be right as that would still be brodie.

The only thing i would clarify re your comments on the rating system is that a horse that has 8 starts where its placed 6th or worse,will generally be back to the same grade it won in 8 starts ago,so should be competitive again. Not 10 races as you have mentioned ,although not much difference i guess.Also I had said earlier most winners go up 6 points,i think to be correct they get re rated up to 8 points for a win unless they are those age concession horses. You do see with those house horses that they can put 2 or 3 good results together. I think there are probably 2 or 3 factors for that,but no doubt the self belief those seasoned horses gain from a win would be part of it.

The grading system isn't that hard to understand once its explained to you. You just have to go to the hrnz website and click on the rating next to each horse and it will show the rating history of each horse. Basically they are either mr(for non winners) or r(for winners). Then next to that they have their current rating.If you look the ratings will go up i think 6 points for a win,stay the same if 2nd to 5th,and go down 1 point if placed further back if the horse had a current rating of r60 or below. I think they can drop an extra point or two if rated 60 and above and run 6th or worse. The only difference to that is horses with 2 or more wins don't drop below r45,and you get the 2 and 3 yo given concession ratings. Personally i think the current rating system is o.k.,but i do think there should be changes made so as to retain greater horse numbers at the bottom end of the rating system,as that is where the most leakage horse numbers wise is.

The hrnz website has a story on it where it infers the owners of Copy That have turned down a million dollar offer. Just goes to show what they are willing to pay for a good horse. Personally i still think Copy That will not last that long at the top level due to the amount of hard racing he has had in a relatively short period of time ,but thats just my opinion. Good on the owners for hanging on to him though.I guess they aren't in the sport just for the money.

Have you read the article in the bloombergbusinessweek on the 1st of july . Makes for a very interesting read. While it only touches the surface of the whole picture and those involved,it does talk about the 2 trainers you've referred to. I don't know how to post it for others to read,otherwise i would.It actually has a brief reference to what you have talked about. It refers to how there was a common feeling amongst many participants and punters/racegoers that cheaters were over running the sport at certain tracks. In particular the article focused on the dishonest crooked horse trainers Navarro(a.k.a. the juice man) and Servis who appear to have been comrades in the widespread use of performance enhancers. There was a widespread network of trainers,co trainers,vets and chemists distributing and administering performance enhancers across both codes.While the article seems to focus on the thoroughbred trainers,the leading trainers at tracks like yonkers have of course been charged.They peddled products from the lab known as snake venom,bronk(broncodilator) and monkey(endurance) amongst other things. Some interesting phone conversations and texts. One from navarro to servis "i've been using it on almost evrything,we'll sit down and talk about this shit,i don't want to talk about this on the phone" then another from navarro..."he would have caught our asses f..ing pumping and pumping and fuming(milkshaking) everything thats run today" then one from a navarro associate"you know how many f..king horses he f..king killed and broke down that i made disappear" Of course the drugs involved were generally accepted as not being detected.

Unfounded conclusions??? Obviously you never read the jca reports. Are you still ridiculing the coronavirus escaping from a lab theory?

So your talking about the 1/2 hour after the last race,once they get home? Robert dunn got done in that mix up where they gave it to kirk larsens horse by mistake,before larsens raced at forbury about 3 years ago.That was the rule which said you can't bring performance enhancers to the racecourse,whether they be for after race administration. You always defend those who are involved in these type of cases. Your not the only one. Your consistent. Thank goodness your not in charge of the riu,as any wrongdoing would never see the light of day. For those involved isn't the wise thing to do is just operate within the rules.?Why can't they. Don't they think they are competitive without the pre race treatment?

The dairy industry does things no other industry does.About 3 years ago i used to know a fellow who worked at a local abattoir that processed bobby calves. His job was to herd them into the area where they were processed. He often appeared very tired,which he explained was a result of the effort involved in getting animals often only 4 or 5 days old to walk to where they needed to go. He said the calves were often exhausted from the travel involved to get there,and had to have coped with no feed for up to 24 hours.He said it wasn't uncommon to help carry them to their fate. He had real sympathy for what he thought was often inhumane circumstances the calves had to deal with.He said it was a depressing job,but paid the bills.

Seems a pretty tame article to me.What are the factual inaccuracies in the article you refer to?

Its a slow day on a bit of yarn. Apart from mr a butts proud daughter pointing out his wonderful skills which he showcased again at the weekend,we have had a bit of to and fro between spatchcock and brodie. To better understand this relationship i did a little research and found... spatchcock apart from being an avid reader of all brodies posts is"a chicken or game bird split open or grilled"....then we have bubbles,which we used to think of as "a thin sphere of liquid enclosing air or another gas",we now know is actually..a.k.a. as alicia harrison...and recently a.k.a. as k bublitz......Then of course we have brodie,who until recently it was believed was much loved by all bit of a yarn contributors. Spatchcock should know Brodie is known to be to have the motto "the superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability,and is not distressed by the fact men/woman,do not recognise the ability he has... Better a diamond with a flaw,than a pebble without. So i'm guessing brodie(often bit of a yarns confucius) would not really want to cry fowl,but instead say to spatchcock...Your time is limited,so don't waste time living someone elses life.

I had to look hard,but i knew spatchcock would come round to appreciating the "brodsters" insight. Just took her(i'm guessing) a while to warm to brodie.

One thing for sure is they do effect the prices. Everything the whale tips has its price shortened and win or lose,they pay a bit less than they probably should..And the south island commentators selections always seem to shorten when they discuss their thoughts close to start time. I guess that means there are a lot of punters who think they are worth listening to.

who is bubbles?

great win by copy that and Butt. I did think before the race that it would be obvious king of swing would follow through his stablemate and renowned fast beginner in alta orlando,and that way keep in front of his main danger copy that who had drawn wide,but thats not how it worked out,with Mccarthy electing to drop back to last. After that king of swing went huge to be only beaten a nose,but A Butt had taken advantage of the mccarthy move,and really deserved the win. It was an exciting finish and a top race. Amazing dream was a bit disappointing,but she hasn't always raced up to her best this season and thats why she paid $21 last week. Having said that the winner of that race looped the field from last so thoroughly deserved its win. Good article there gammalite about it. It only paid $124 to win here.

While i'm not commenting on those involved,as there is not enough information to do so,it is a good thing that the RIU are taking steps to ensure people aren't breaking any rules around pre race treatments.Its something that everyone should agree on.

Jenabella,vesnina and skidaddle were the three who were in a position to make a from the back,but no doubt the drivers of jenabella and vesnina would have been told that both those horses are best driven as sit sprinters.And maybe skidaddle driver,who was following them didn't realise that,and simply didn't show much initiative. It probably wasn't as bad as it looked,just they probably showed a lack of confidence to go against the driving instructions given the way the race panned out.

I 'm not sure who caused the interference but thought thornley made the right tactical decision,just her horse did look to knock off and may need a wee freshen up or driver change just to see. Personally i thought hopes drive was a bit poor. Why strangle a horse to the point it gets that annoyed it breaks. Doesn't matter whether it was checked or not,looked a poor drive to me. Why is it he drives pacers so stop start,and trotters at a nice even speed. Its got me beat how different he drives them. Some of the hope pacers really can improve their form when he gets off them.Yet he drives the trotters so well.I didn't have a bet myself,so the result didn't worry me either way.

I agree with you on the mile racing brodie.It doesn't appeal to me as a punter. And from a spectator perspective,even worse are tracks like ashburton,whose track is not designed to encourage people to attend.Your always too far away and its inside a galloping track. Menangle looks like its been designed to encourage the public to stay at home. The public want to get close to the action.Thats part of the appeal of grass tracks. People attend one off days like oamakau,i went there once,big crowd,but given i was there to watch the races ,i wouldn't go again as even against the rails its was impossible to get a decent look at the on track action because you weren't allowed anywhere near it. How many of those that turn up for that day get an experience that makes them want to come back to the non holiday race meetings? And if mile racing is a successful strategy,hows harness racing in the usa going?