Rusty

Thank God they finally brought back the trotters.

Starting 5 December a new weekly racing publication is hitting the shelves at selected retailers and TABs. Incorporates Best Bets but will also have extended form, views and news. Good to see Garrick Knight as a contributor to provide some harness racing insight.

Bad news.... Out of the interdoms, no Auckland Cup, no miracle mile... leg injury.

Be pretty hard to get sufficient evidence on this charge wouldn't it? Especially with in house vets. No pun intended.

I backed the 2nd placed runner and have now gone back and watched the replay a couple of times. No complaints from me on this occasion. Her horse was running outta gas pretty quickly and would have slept well last night. But jesus she never thrashed the horse and her hands hardly moved in the whip/rein flick action that she demonstrated. I hope K Barclay is successful in defending the charge.

And just to add some balance to the conversation, one thing that should be noted is that there always seems to be a reference to the number of BGP (Facebook) members. 15k or something from memory. The admin people at BGP do a great job, and they "screen" potential members (people that want to join the Facebook group), before adding them. So they don't add anyone or everyone. One thing that might be overlooked is the actual number of ACTIVE participants from that 15,000 membership base. Be lucky to be 500 I reckon. I have mates and work colleagues that I have introduced to the group and some of them wouldn't know one end of a horse from the other... or the difference between a dead track and a dead cert, nonetheless the database of numbers is impressive. Not to mention data is the new precious resource.

Luke is a good man and has a head on his shoulders. Not to mention a lot on his plate. Had the pleasure to meet him on the BGP trip to the Cox Plate last year. Recently the lads got a BGP app up and running. Well worth downloading and having a look. Also on insta as well, not just Facebook. Disclosure: yeah I have the BGP shirt, and cap etc so I am biased.

Hit the nail on the head Happy. And you did call it with the UR for CA. Was a good win today, but he had the run of the race with the sweetest trip. Much like his sires stakes win. At the top level of the game often it just comes down to the run of the race and luck in the running, as most can reel off a final 27 quarter etc. Reverse the run, reverse the result. But good win all the same. Should go well in the interdoms.

Flemington 1200m.

There were some pretty arsenary performances on Cup day.

Cup eve and some are looking up the reserve bank inflation calculator hahaha jesus they must be poor fields....

Good point Dougie, you're on to it mate. Back in '99 the first 3 races (after the first 2 races on another meeting code, (don't ask)) were all $15k with the winner receiving $9,065 and a dress rug. But back in '94... The first three races were worth $10,500-$11,000. And an advert in the racebook has 21 inch Philips TVs (with built in teletext and remote control) going for an amazing price of only $999 at Smiths City. Winning owners back in '94 could have bought 6, possibly 7 of those tvs. Win a race tomorrow and the winning owners could buy way more tvs, that are way bigger and better (admittedly without free to air trackside shown for all races and no teletext). So that has left me wondering.... is stake money better now than '94 ?!?!?

Like this bet. Especially with the favourite being over-rated in my book. Biggest threat will again be the moose. May even be worth a gold coin on the nose final field with the promo on offer for this race.

Correct, 1980 was the last time 9 races were held. Interesting enough the C2 race was called the "Riccarton Handicap". Punters would be forgiven for thinking they were at Riccarton and not Addington.

Only 9 races? On Cup day?

Please do not remind me. I was going to collect the equivalent of a small country's GDP next Tuesday, having invested some coin on him after his third race day start, to win the Cup (after ringing up Ladbrokes and getting him added to the market). The pain of it all. Time does not heal.

I keep coming back to my point that I go on about all the time.... If this race was worth $200k less, the same horses would be there.

It has that possibility written all over it, unless something really spectacular occured.

Nah the weather during the running of the Cup will be fine. The only thing surer than that is Lamb buggering up the start.

Every chance of that mate. I just can't seem to get too excited about this years cup field for some reason, and that's despite a family member being in the Chase Auckland syndicate. Good luck to all runners. By God they will need it with starter Lamb still having a job there.

Thanks for posting this Happy. What are people's first thoughts on seeing this list?

The vet read this thread. Specifically Hunter's post.

For what it is worth, I've never met him, but I don't mind B Hope, I think he goes alright and on the whole a pretty good driver. Just like every other driver they can go through ups and downs. Happy - that J Morrison stat surprised me.

Haven't read it all through yet, but I think so. Usually the bonus bets can be used on any race/sports event, so long as they are only used on the Final Field options, not the tote. Then of course they take the original stake of the bonus bet out, from any winning dividend. And there's also an expiry period too, so use or lose it. The bonus bet I am talking about!