nomates

Just watched the first at hastings and i am a loss as to what M McNab was doing on the $2.20 Fav Arlington Gold , after sitting 3 wide on the second line for a 1000mtrs he finally decided he wasn't going to get cover so moved to go to take the lead but never fully committed so the leader kicked up then the other horse on the pace went at him again , so poor bloody horse never got a break the whole race and faded . Now this horse led the whole way at his last start so it was not like it would have taken him out off his comfort zone , so i have no idea why McNab took a 1000 mtrs to decide to do something . Punters deserve better than this , as do the connections , will he be questioned , i doubt it . So maybe someone can mitigate the ride for him , i would be bloody livid if i owned him . This is why punters can't bet with confidence in NZ , far too much of this piss poor riding .

Why are they not putting this 2 day meeting back a week , i have had a good look at the derby field and i see nothing in it that is going to be competitive in Sydney if it wins , and i'm sure the 2nd day events won't impact the Sydney aspirations of any of the older horses to any great degree . Run the races in the best interests of racing in NZ first , i'm sure if the NZ races didn't fit into a horse with Aussie races in mind the connections wouldn't race here just to help NZ racing . We should not be a supporting act .

Succinctley stating what we have all known for a while now , underperforming , underachieving and heart breakingly underwhelming , for an industry that is screaming out for strong powerful leadership it continues to get weak and feeble management . Simply being carried along on a wave of Covid spending . Management meetings will be interesting at the moment , everybody sitting round the table with shoulder casts from giving themselves constant pats on the back . Just waiting for the cronic apologists to jump to their defence now . It will be denial in it's purist form .

Aegon would eat him , that i agree with . Perhaps the change of trainer and environment has helped , and a run under his belt .

I was just pointing the result out . Wasn't looking for analysis . Something turned him around , if only he could tell us .

Well , Lunar Fox , very poor in the Gns prelude , so on go the blinkers and would you believe it gets up and wins the G1 Australian Gns , Jock said he was much more on his game out of the barriers . 14 length turn around on Tangaloa . Good on the connections .

Yes , foreman alluded last start was down to rider error and she just doubled up , but a lot of our younger riders lack the ability to ride a race , the horse simply has to be good enough to do it on it's own , with the jock just along for the ride . Look at L hemi's ride in the first , how she can get blocked for a run in a 4 horse field i have no idea , especially when sitting in 3rd in the clear , but she did . Poor and slow decision making . Owners must be pulling their hair out . I did not have a bet on it .

Have to say i don't follow trotting as much as i used when younger , but it appears you guys are as f*^ked up as us gallops boys . As for plans , wouldn't hold your breath if your top guys are as poor as ours . It's a sad situation all over .

Only if they follow the , hear no evil , see no evil , speak no evil mantra . Or they are gullible , which is a strong possibility .

Hey guys , you know what i said above about sharing the bone , well even the bone is putting up the white flag .

People having opinions about the quality of a race will have no bearing on whether NZ racing can get some traction and start improving , our problems much deeper than opinions . Chief posted a video of Grey Way winning the Easter Hcp , go have a look , that was NZ's G1 standard . I would think Avantage would struggle to wiegh in in that field . It's because more hasn't been said about our dropping quality that has allowed it to fall so far . While it may under pin a flow of money , and i am guilty of it , it is because of this continuing sale of large numbers , tried and untried that has put us in the position we find ourselves in . We are in a position where we are left with a pool of horses that is very light on quality , hence we regularly see 1 or 2 outstanding horses take home all the spoils . The mindset that needs to change is the people charged with overseeing our once great sport , they need to start coming up with incentives i.e. much improved stakes for one , and ideas to start getting people to start keeping their horses to race here and not sell the young promising horses that show some ability . I recently had a small share in a horse that ran 4th in it's first trial , would have won with any sort of luck and showed a great turn of foot , sold for 150k to Melbourne , i voted to keep , i was out voted ,and i'm not upset with the others , christ 150k for a horse having it's first trial . What chance have we got when now even that level of horse is being sourced . Hard to stay positive when you see nothing being done to curb this flood out of NZ , and if it continues unchecked the things will only get worse . Take Te Akau out of the picture who keep their well bred purchases in NZ to race and the picture is even more dire . And if you think the Chief is being negative about the quality of one of our G1's try asking an Aussie , they will laugh at you .

Thats why i said it , we are both on the same side of the fence . My point being that a lot of decisions are made by pinheads in a windowless room who wont bear any consequences of his cost to risk decision . That's why we have rules around both , but as in anything you can't mitigate for every situation , drunk / speeding drivers , Jockeys who aren't capabale , but people do these things by choice , hopefully understanding the risks . As for the principle , he deserves a pat on the back , he's measuring risk v reward , the risk , a broken arm , the reward , hopefully an understanding by the kid of risk . It's not an all one way or all the other , balance , that's all that is required . So i'm stopping at this stage because i am not Thomas , and i am happy to share the bone with you .

Is this for the track as a whole or are we looking at the inside , middle and outside strips as seperate entities ?

Don't believe i have said anywhere that i wanted to blame someone , i have said where practable mitigate the risk , i have also said i understand that you can't mitigate for every eventuality . Are you saying that if you lost your child in situation where it could have been prevented that you would cop it if some bureaucrat turned around and said , " yea well the cost outwieghed the risk , sorry ".

I do wonder if you would roll this line out if your child lost it's life in a cost v risk situation , Oh it's ok my boy died , because i understand the cost outwieghed the value of his life .

I've seen way more horses go thru a gate than over , in fact i've never seen a horse that for whatever reason is on a wild gallop clear a gate or wire fence cleanly , uaually clean it out . I was standing at the Levin tie ups one morning and watched a horse appear through a 2 mtr high corregated fence attached to 3 4x2 railings and gallop up Mako Mako Rd to State Highway 1 , smashed straight thru , never seen anything like it , never found out the reason why , all ended well . But as i said earlier you can't mitigate for every possible scenario . There are some obvious precautions that can be taken around race tracks and in the main they have been implimented .

Don't you need the plums to be a sire in the first instance , then some pedigree .

Plenty of instances from memory but fortunately no deaths or serious accident , so the general public doesn't hear about , but the warnings were there . I've seen horses make the Levin township , fortunatley nothing serious coming from them . As i said , you can't mitigate every situation but you can the obvious ones i.e. where horses are useing public roads , as MRC have done .

Ha , welcome to same problem we have in the gallops , G2 on Sat for 2yo fillies at Matamata , very disappointing field , only 2 winners . Seems mediocrity is seeping into all parts of NZ racing . I thought you guys were travelling better than us to , maybe not .

Yea i get all that , the Awapuni incident was if i remember correctly a young horse dumping it's rider and galloping , not going for a wander or jaunt , down Te Wanaka Rd onto the main road . Any of number of stables exit onto Te Wanaka Rd so they put a fence up one side of Te Wanaka so any incidents were kept in an enclosed area , i think at the same time all rcecourses had to put gates , electronic in most cases , at all course entries . You can't mitigate for all situations but certain safety precautions can be put in place where practicable . No further incidents since at Awapuni , unfortunately too late for one family . And the risk v cost argument , well it works until it is you or one of yours that it costs .

Ha , Livingston had more idea of what direction he was going in than NZTR has . " Somewhat " slightly underestimates our plight and lack of direction .

Wow what a line up , not just those you mention , every runner a very good horse , i would suggest nearly all that field could win a G1 now . And what about the great Syd Tonks , marvelous to hear his commentary , certainly a golden age of NZ racing , won't be seen again , but if we could just get back to 50% of that i would take it .

STOP IT !!! Your getting me all misty .

I totally agree , but as for loose horses getting onto roads i doubt very much the family of the man killed by a loose horse colliding with his car outside Awapuni a few years ago would agree , the fencing went up on Te Wanaka Rd after that , but too late for that gentleman . And they had plenty of scares prior that should have alerted them to the dangers . I'm sure there are other instances .

Unfortunately the young lady in question has a long history of volitile behavior , i was told from a couple of trainers that no longer train there that apparently most mornings she could be heard giving someone or something a good bellowing out , she could be heard from a couple of hundred mtrs away , she is not scared to voice her opinion if things aren't going well .