the galah

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?

Your right. You can't blame purdon or some others for advocating for a handicapping system that had favored their horses and connections. Its what he should have been doing. Its just the consequences of taking so long to change an unfair handicapping system can't be changed.Many gave up in frustration,which of course ultimately lead to less horses being bred. And you may have noticed a few moths ago they changed it back to the help the young horses again.Ask yourself this. Why should a horse like dashtothebeach be rated 55. Its had 5 wins from 21 starts. Then you have skiddale who running on friday who has had only 2 wins from 15 starts rated the same. How is that fair? Its not.When will they ever learn that just because a group is vocal,does not make them right.

I had also been wondering the very same thing. I hadn't been able to figure it out.Either they have made it less obvious as to how you do it,or for some reason they have decided to make it less transparent. As i have stated before,they hardly ever catch anyone through tc02 testing anymore.Its a tool,but the resources put into it could be used more effectively else where.I think part of the reason is because they want to be able to say we have tested x amount,and it proves harness racing is clean. I've always been of the belief that until recently previous hrnz and riu leadership had no interest whatsoever in being proactive in uncovering the use of performance enhancers. Of course they reaped what they sowed, and recently got the rash of rule breakers most could tell existed,when they actually did some proper enforcement,and of course with that they got the negative publicity that predictably went with it.Sweeping things under the carpet ultimately leads to people noticing and complaining about the increasing lump under the carpet,and eventually they had to do the job they had ignored for so long.

Does it really cost $2000 a month to have a horse trained nowdays.Thats about $70 a day. If thats the case then its easy to see why there are less owners out there. Sounds way too much. O.k. the all stars owners may be happy to pay a lot more given their deep pockets and acceptance of all the extras that go with having a horse trained there,but i can't see most owners being likely to continue with the lesser successful trainers if the figure you have quoted is right. Also why don't hrnz have a website where owners can go to get the approximate training fees of any trainer who wishes to disclose what they charge. Shouldn't there be not be more transparency around this subject. You mention stakes of $7000-$9000 being off putting. Obviously it is a factor,but how important really is an extra say $1000 a race. Take queensland for example. You can't help but notice the fields those $2600 races at marburg on sundays,or those $4000 races at albion park during the week get. They seem to be doing ok.Is that not because they have a better handicapping system that retains horse participation at each level. And how much is the current lack of horse population a result of hrnz operating a handicapping system a few years back that drove the average participant away. Remember the races where the 6 and 7 win 3 year olds would get a penalty free win ,whereas the 4year and older 1 win horses in the same race were given a penalty for the very same race.Hrnz failure to recognise that pandering to the elite at the expense of the bulk of participants,was always going to have long term negative consequences.You can't undo the consequences that previous dumb policy had on current participation.

Thats an amazing stat isn't it. I never realised K bublitz stats were so bad. 82 drives and not one win. Then you have N delany. Doesn't he work for B purdon? Hes only had 2 wins in 88 drives this season. Either these fellas are getting some awful drives,or they aren't going too good.Perhaps thats part of the reason why the current series struggled for entries.Like i've said previously. There are horses being discarded because they are no longer competitive at the rating 40 level. There needs to be a handicapping system where uncompetitive 1 or 2 win horses on r 40 can drop back further and run against non win horses. Those races would have the junior driver conditioned concession attached to them for those that had already won a race..You only need another 15 or so of those horses to have enough to add another race per week,and give the less successful drivers more opportunities. Its common sense to me. Just run them for lower stakes.

That one may have run one good race,but its a stable that had a major drop off in form this season.If you follow southland harness you would have seen that.

If thats the case about watch me now,thats a turnaround in form again from the horse that raced disappointingly from the dolan stable a couple of months ago.I always thought watch me now was a bit hard to follow form wise.They run fast over there don't they.I happened to catch nandolo first up over there a couple of months ago and he put in an amazing run in some ridiculously fast time. I wonder if he has raced since as he looked like he could have run 1.46-47 without raising a sweat if he had a decent draw that night. He's watching is the sire of watch me now. Hes by american ideal from a real desire mare. American ideal has some good ones running at the moment here.

Amazing dream paid $21.Unreal really,given its won so many big races. I didn't back it,but amazing that krug was only paying 2.60 compared to amazing dream.The first 4 paid $479.

Yes ,great win by mark and nathan purdon.I personally thought krug ran up to his best. Not a bad effort by a three year old.Once amazing dream got the trail,those $21 odds were looking pretty amazing. king of swing looks a bit of a champion,so some good racing to come.