the galah

Do you really believe that putting horses in a retention barn stops for 48 hours stops the use of performance enhancers? Maybe go look up how they increase the red cells of racehorses with performance enhancing treatment and the time frames around that,and you will realise the 48 hour retention barn seems ineffective and just for appearances.

Thanks for that.Good to hear the stipes have followed through. Your suggestion re how they could keep the public informed is a good one. Transparency is a must.As i have pointed out,there have been cases in the past which have been adjourned sine die,with no public notification of the result. So how is anyone to know this wasn't going to be the same.

Just watching the races today at timaru and the difference between the in form drivers and the out of form drivers really is quite large. The likes of williamson,close,dunn,orange,willaims and even an in form may, seem to be have a gap over most of the others. That last race just run,was a typical race.You had close and dunn fighting out the finish with dunn pushing out ben hope to get a run,when hope seemed to fall asleep. The easiest way to pick winners is to just limit your selections to the better drivers on days like this.

So on the 13th of may,6 1/2 weeks ago the stewards opened an inquiry into the D Ferguson case. As i have stated earlier,in my opinion his drive on the night was the most obvious case of team driving seen in recent times. So what did the stipes do about it. Well it appears either they have forgotten all about it,or they have deliberately buried it on the assumption that the mugs who bet on harness racing will forget about it. I would go for the later. I have seen this on a handful of occasions before. They adjourn a case sine die,never to see the light of day again. The only way this case will get heard,is if it gets more publicity. So what conclusions have i come to. Well ferguson got 3 days earlier in the year for seemingly not trying on a hot favorite,so while i have started a positive thread about him on this forum,whenever i see him drive i have doubts,irrespective of his talent. And the second conclusion is the north island stipes are just useless. If they are going to hear it,why wait so long???And if they have decided not to proceed,then why has there been no mention in their reports since. Well i know the answer if it is the suspected later. Its because they know it was a dishonest drive,and that by not taking action they would be seen as condoning dishonesty. That of course makes the stipes way more dishonest than ferguson.

Whats happening with albion park?Did the harness industry gain anything from how its played out?

I guess your joking,but having lived in christchurch and a handful of places south thereof,i must say i've never come across any of the racist groups you have referred to.I once did live in a town that got nationwide publicity for having a group equivalent of the kkk. But the problem with those stories was at the time there was actually only a handful of people who were recognised as belonging to that small group,and 2 of the 5 were half maori. I know from speaking to those 2 people they thought the vast media coverage was a joke,but still the media pushed the story for a good 12 months.I have at times had a job where i came across many individuals with prejudicial views based on race,but those times were most evident when media and government pushed the view that one group had been historically oppressed and unfairly treated,and whether that was true or not,the constant messaging stirred racist views,especially from the group whom it was supposed to help. As far as north island racing goes. As i've said before,the disastrous business decisons made by those in charge of the Auckland trotting club will haunt north island racing for many years to come. And i ask again,why do the talking heads we see on trackside continue to ignore the failings. People go on and on about the RIU,yet the Auckland trotting club can blow eye boggling tens of millions of capital they had on a failed project,and the racing media just ignore it.

Yes,american dealer was very average. Looked tired. I know it was its first start over there,but still looked like it needs a spell. Copy that looked the same before he left,so time will tell. Given how much hard racing those 2 horses have had this season,maybe they have decided to earn as much as they can now against their own age group,but the down side to that would be they won't be as competitive in nz in the future.Thats my take on how it will play out. Some may call me a knocker,i just think i'm a realist and horses aren't machines. I thought tommy lincoln ran up to his best nz form when he ran 6th in the jewels after getting the trail throughout,and he hasn't had the relentless number of gut busting runs that the other 2 have had,so maybe he can keep going for a while. Krugs the interesting one. I thought he had a bit over the other 3year olds in nz,and may not have been as taxed as the others,and therefore would last a bit longer,but his jewels run was disappointing. Was it a one off or not.

I think c wigg probably deserves more credit than she gets. She certainly has an amazing record on the horse dreaminsover. I've never thought it would win more than 1 race,but its now won 5 times.. Its had 133 starts and c wigg has driven it 8 times for 4 wins and a placing. Not even blair orange could have got that horse to perform like c wigg has.

gammalite,i quite like k newman as a driver. I'm not entirely sure what he did half way down straight when he lifted his leg,but i assumed he may have been releasing the ear plugs. i think he always tries his best,which is important.

The more reliant trainers become on the vets and their treatments ,the more costly it is to the owners. The more advances "legal theraputics"(not so much referring to joint injections), have on improving horse performance,the greater the gap in results between the 5% of trainers that use them and the 95% of trainers that don't. The less competitive the 95% of trainers become....the smaller the number of owners and trainers there becomes. The smaller the number of owners and trainers participating in the sport,the greater the decline in the industry. You are embracing and actively promoting a practice which will ultimately help the industries decline. Your painting a picture of reality,i just lament the negative side effects of such practices. I also point out one fact you can't deny. Some trainers clearly have become reliant on vets. There was a time when trainers would adjust training routines,now the vet is the first go to person to solve the problem.Thats a negative in my book,but thats just my opinion.

well you asked,so i will reply. Newmarkets pointed out that the injections given by the vet to the 3 Hope horses, were given just prior to the jewels. The jewels are big races. Your saying that such injections can be for preventative reasons. We are saying given the timing of the injections,they were most likely not given for preventative reasons,but given to reduce some possible inflammation which they may have believed was there,and had become apparent in some form when the horses were being trained. Given the likely reason. Some of the conclusions could be.1)Does it not highlight what some stables use to get horses to continue to race.(i'm just pointing that out,not having a go at anyone in particular).2) the cost. 3)does it not highlight that its either a breed issue,or highlights many young horses struggle to cope with the training required to get them to race when so young. 4)that there is a price to pay,and that will be the longevity of their racing careers will be shortened because their bodies were asked to do more than they were able to cope with when they were young. As i've said,you argue that the likes of the all star stables are ahead of the game as far as taking such steps. I argue that the reason so many of their top horses have injuries is because of that very strategy. Just making an observation that i think should be debated more.You have to look at both the positive and negatives surrounding this type of thing.

You seem to have changed your tune,as i remember you complaining about the driving on amateur races in the past. I don't agree with your change to your above stated position though.Reasonable standards of driving should apply no matter what the level. If they don't ,someone will get hurt.I'm sure those competing in the amateur ranks would accept that.

I see they adjourned the inquiry into the interference.I can see why,as while i thought it looked initially like c negus had angled in too quick,a closer look could possibly place some blame on j buckland-stevens,who may have already started to squeeze for room those inside her before negus then moved in on her. Either way that race would give the stipes a headache. I see they suspended our favorite amateur s wigg for 2 months for using the whip wrong,and mrs mcintyre also got a suspension for the same thing. I hope they have enough amateur drivers left for the next race.Just a shame there aren't more amateur drivers with a bit of experience coming through the ranks.

Ran a nice 3rd today. Strange thing was 3 starts ago they put the half hopples on,which it hadn't had on in recent starts, and that seemed to work and it ran 4th. But for its next start(last week)they took the half hopples off again and it went back to its poor manners and broke. Then they put them on again today and it runs 3rd.

yes there was some very average driving in those first couple of races.I guess thats why the likes of blair orange and john dunn stand out. They are such great judges of pace,and when they are there you know they will put their horse in the race if the pace is slow.

.

Well not to be out done the professionals ran a middle 800m in a sprint race in 67seconds. Can't blame the leader cristiano buccini driven by ben hope,as anyone who has seen that horse race knows it has a very short sprint and always looks for cover.Yet we had g smith,bob butt and sarah o'reilly sit at the back on 3 of the favorites giving their horses no chance of winning,eventually with the smith driven horse breaking because it got sick of pulling. (Just putting some balance into my topic)

I have just started a topic on that.Agree some very poor driving,but in no way did fitzgerald do anything wrong.

Another quinella to the wiggs,so well done to them,but there was some substandard driving in that race. First you had petes dash driven by c negus clearly knocking over 2 of the favorites after 150m,although the only reason unfazed driven by s murtha was where he was,was because he didn't bother to have his horse in its correct front line position at the start point. Then if the clock on the trackside tv is right,they ran a quarter down the back the first time in over 35 seconds,then the next one in under 29 seconds. The answer for punters is to just back the wiggs,but that wasn't a good advertisement for amateur races.

I get what your saying,but from what i've read there seems to be some debate amongst vets as to whether regularly injecting horses joints is the right thing to do or not. Is it not a case of treating the sympton,while often not addressing the cause? From what you say it seems part of the reason for many trainers success is the fact that their owners are happy to pay big vet bills. That puts 95% of owners at a disadvantage to those with the big cheque books,even if they did see it that way. And its not as if taking the preventative action you describe prevents injuries.If it was such a successful strategy,how come the All stars had so many of their high profile horses have injuries in the last couple of years. You could draw the conclusion that preventative action simply delays the inevitable injury,sometimes the end result is far worse for the horse.

So your saying the zoning of the ground currently has restricted use? Won't a developer just get the zoning changed. Isn't that how it works. Given the housing development that has gone on all around,and right beside the all stars property,you would think they are sitting on a gold mine if they wanted to cash up or move.

So your saying some stables inject horses joints that have no soreness,but as a way of preventing their horses getting sore in the future. i'm not saying your wrong,but vets must love trainers like that if that were the case. I don't have an endless supply of money,so doing that makes no sense to me.

your obviously right that having hock injections may improve performance if the horse has some soreness. That would be the only reason you would give that type of injection would it not? I have done a little reading on it,and that seems to be the case.Your not going to inject a sound horse surely. So your left with the assumption that all 3 of Hopes horses must have some degree of soreness.They already are beach trained,and one was a 2yo with only 4 starts.

What would the all stars property be worth these days. Must be a lot given its prime position as rolleston has rapidly expanded around it. I have just been reading an article on stuff about some web site selling sections in rolleston crashing today due to excess demand,leaving hundreds of would be section buyers disappointed. Last week i happened to pass through rolleston,and struck up a conversation with a customer in the bank about the cost of sections. Don't know how accurate he was,but he seemed insistent that what he said was true. He said there are no sections for sale in rolleston,that only the developers could get them. He told me he paid $195,000 12 months ago for a section,but they had gone up about 65% more,saying one next to his which he described as very small had just sold for $325,000. He said he sold his house in rolleston 3 months ago,had expected to get just over gv,and was amazed that he got $120,000 over gv within 2 days.. He called his house sale a mad frenzy,with 56 different buyers expressing genuine interest in the property. He was loath to guess how much it would have gone up in the 3 months since he sold it. He called the housing market in rolleston crazy. He said down the road there were over 1000 new sections in lincoln,but unless you were a developer you would not be able to buy one. I also know you if you want to buy 10 hectares of bare land somewhere in the country,say 20 minutes from christchurch the real estate agents will say you need close to $700,000. Imagine someone wanting to set them selves up to become a trainer. Virtually unobtainable without a major benefactor.That is part of the reason why harness racing will decline in years to come.

On jewels day an interesting riu tweet,also repeated on trackside,was that the hope stable had advised muscle mountain,midnight dash and the 2 year old mr love had their joints injected. These notifications are nothing new,certain stables seem to do it quite often. I'm not suggesting anything dodgy,but i think it reasonable to ask why?. Mr love was a 2 year old with only 4 starts,and muscle mountain certainly hasn't been over raced. If beach training is supposed to help,then why are beach trained horses needing joint injections when so young. Is this an indication that soreness will impact the longevity of their racing careers?