Walt

I was there that day Gammalite. A screamer of a finish. Ironically, my bet Spry High shit it's self and ran motherless. I went for the Two Mile Geraldine Cup at Orari and punted Master Regal in the Cup who won for Mike DeFilippi. Was November 1978. Geraldine Trotting Club Inc Saturday, 25 November 1978 Race 9 - Waihi Improvers' Handicap, $1500, C1 PACE, 2000m Weather: Fine Track: Fast (Orari Racecourse - Grass) SHOW STIPES Participants for Race 9: Waihi Improvers' Handicap Place Book Horse Barrier Hcap Stakes Fav Time Margin Driver Trainer 1 1 True Peterson fr 975.00 10/10 2-43.8 R A Kennedy Clarrie Rhodes 2 2 Bernsay fr 300.00 15/15 P G Shand (J) 3 3 Butler's Command fr 150.00 11/11 C C Devine 4 4 Freddy Boy fr 75.00 6/4 H R Henderson 5 5 Another Chance fr 0.00 14/13 6 6 Deluxe Circle fr 0.00 8/8 7 7 Out Of Beau fr 0.00 16/16 8 8 Derby Double(1974) fr 0.00 2/2 9 9 Trans Bay fr 0.00 4/3 10 10 Harley(1974) fr 0.00 5/7 11 11 Highview Min fr 0.00 9/9 12 12 Velebit fr 0.00 3/5 13 13 Waimea fr 0.00 13/14 14 14 First Dance(1974) fr 0.00 12/12 15 15 Willie Coon fr 0.00 7/6 16 16 Spry High fr 0.00 1/1 Scratchings Place Book Horse Barrier SCR 17 Kingsdown Lad SCR 18 Opportunity Knocks Dividends $22.20. $6.00. $9.75. $6.40. Quinella $387.10. Margins nose, neck, nose Times Mile Rate: 2-11.7

This to avoid hijacking the thread on Sam. Came by a piece from David McCarthy in 2009 about W.P Walsh and Durban Chief I found interesting & figured Shad and others may also. W P WALSH W P Walsh is associated with 1950s Westport trotter, Durban Chief. But there was a lot more to Billy Walsh's career than that. He tells David McCarthy about some of the highlights of nearly 70 years with horses. There was a family connection with racing when you were young? My father, Claude, was a butcher in Westport and often trained a horse or two for a hobby, sometimes for other people. That is the way I have worked too, really. I took over the management of the butchery for Oxnams of Murchison from dad and later we took it over ourselves. Horses were a sideline, but I have had a tremendous amount of pleasure doing it that way. Deliver the meat with horses? Dad had but it was mostly bikes in my time. When petrol rationing came in after the war it started people coming to the shop instead. I remember dad having to get special coupons to go up the Buller Gorge every couple of weeks just to buy stock. We had up to 26 staff at one time, but now only wholesale. We were the first shop in Westport to sell pre-packed meat and it was a turning point for us. How? We could see the supermarkets coming and were looking to hold our own. Stan Payne was an Englishman who had developed the prepak for Auckland firms and in Christchurch. We saw it with Jack Ferguson in Greymouth and took it on. Later we bought a supermarket and sold a lot of meat through that. It became a Fresh Choice and in the end we accepted an offer we couldn't refuse for it. We have only sold wholesale since then. When did the racing come in? My first winner was Sea Pirate at Westport(1952). Dad trained him. We had got him for £200. He had been a good horse as a youngster. I think he was placed in the Sapling Stakes. He won his first three starts that season but he had been useful before that. We had a good horse in King Bruce about the same time. He was raced by Jimmy McDonald from Ngakawau. He had broken him in and he was a good horse for us. What was it like driving against the Canterbury reinsmen? You and your horses would not have had much practice before the meetings? In those days there were a lot of trainers operating in Westport. Barney White was my best man when I married Gloria and still comes around for a chat. Len Pascoe was a great driver. Frank Watson from Reefton, he won six races one day there; Keith Powell - quite a few of us. We would have our own little trials on Sunday mornings. We held our own alright. I found the visiting drivers pretty fair. Fortunately, Maurice Holmes didn't come up this way much. Other early winners? Queen Jess won for us a Westport. She was another of Jimmy McDonald's horses. And I won one for George Shand one day at Blenheim which was a bit unexpected. How so? It was the second string. George was driving Sam Scott which Sam Woods owned. My horse, Bar None, was a brilliant beginner, but gee he could pull. Well, in this particular race there were two false starts but Bar None began like a bullet each time. Man, he pulled, but he was always clear of them. I see one day when you were driving, Colin Berkett had a horse called Cabot which won a race and went out and won the next one. Do you remeber that? Not offhand but I remember Leo Berkett winning successive races one day with one horse; one of them pacing and one of them trotting. I think it was with Toushay. Durban Chief. He was a bit of a cult horse in his time. How did you become associated with him? He was bred by Mrs Bill Craddock (wife of the West Coast cartage operator) and Bert Woodcock trained him. There were quite a few people with an interest in him. He was leased originally and then bought. I drove him in a lot of his work but it was dad who really set him on the road to fame. How? They were trying to get him to pace and he was proving a bit of a handful. Dad watched him one day and said he thought the horse was wanting to trot and they should try them at that. Had you driven at Addington much before him. Were you nervous? I hadn't driven there before Durban Chief. You worry that you will do something wrong in a big race like that but I liked driving at Addington. All those good drivers. It made it easier in some ways. He won two Dominion Handicaps. Did one stand out ahead of the other? Well, he got the first one on a protest. Recruit was first past the post but he was in a gallop and was relegated to third. I think they put him up to second on appeal. The day of the appeal was one of my most memorable days in racing. How come? Maurice Holmes and I were giving evidence and we had to wait in a seperate room. We were there on our own for about an hour and I have never learned more in a shorter time about racing than on that day. A great man, Maurice. People liked him and when he was on a likely winner he got a few breaks from other drivers because of who he was. The second Dominion? It sounds like a skite, but it was easy. He was off 36 yards and everything went to plan. I think he won by eight lengths. He should have gone through unbeaten on all four days. He won three and ran second in the Worthy Queen Handicap and he should have won that. It was my fault. He set some great records too. Dictation held all the records then but Durban Chief matched them. What became of him? Noel Simpson leased him and he went to America. Before that I took him to Auckland and he won a race there leading up to the Rowe Cup. He won 32 races in America. He was the first New Zealand trotter to run in an International Series up there and measured up to the good ones. When he retired he used to pull a gig for an old couple who looked after him. He deserved it. He was a lovely old horse. Easy to drive? The thing with Durban Chief was that he never wanted to do anything wrong on or off the track. He was great to do anything with around the stable and once he was trotting right he was super smooth, no putting in short or long ones or doing something funny. He just wanted to do it right. In a 2600m race at Addington he would take a while to get fluent. Maybe by the time he got to the showgrounds bend he was right and that would be that. He had a wonderful sprint at the end of his races. The day he won the Dominion he just ran away from them and they were pretty good trotters about then. You could only wish they were all like him. A horse to have a bet on maybe? Yes, probably, but I had learned my lesson about punting before he came along. You did a lot of freelance driving. It could not have all been plain sailing? There was one time when a Canterbury trainer put me on at Westport. We did everything right and won and he was absolutely furious. He had not said anything beforehand about what he wanted. He wasn't happy when I brought it back but then went around town telling everyone I had "had a go" on my own while he had not backed it. What could you do about that? Well, I did talk to the stipe Len Betterfield and I said I thought it was a bit tough being talked about like that. Len had a lot of experience. He came back to me and said "Any trainer who has to ride a bike around Christchurch hasn't amounted to much" and we left it at that. I rated Butterfield far ahead of his predecessor. You drove quite a lot for "Super" Shrives of Reefton. Super could be a bit fiery too? Super could get wound up but we never had a cross word. I remember driving Steel Lady for him once at Nelson and he told me he had let the hopples out eight holes. I said that seemed a bit extreme but he said it would be alright. Well, she just couldn't find her gait and never paced well. The second day he took the hopples up six holes and she won. Repus Bob was a trotter I won a couple with him for Super too. You drove, trained or owned other good ones? I was always a seller and most of the good ones went early. Cedar Kiwi ran a first and a second in two starts and went to America. We had a full brother who was better but was a heartbreak. He was always sore and we spelled him more than once but he always went wrong. The Deputy we sold after he qualified and Johnny Tapp won a lot of races with him in Australia. On of the best horses we had was Hurry On which my father (Claude) raced with Jack Clayton. He won on Show Day at Addington(1964) and was a bit unlucky not to win on Cup Day as well. I drove Remlap three times for three wins. Johnny Gilbert won a Westport Cup. Faberge I won several races with for Brian Woodcock. It is not easy to remember them all now. Chesterfield which I drove for Ransley Reid, won a race at Addington and caused a stir at Omoto one day. In what way? Well, I went down there just to drive Chesterfield. I didn't find out until I got there that he was out and then I was offered the drive on Doctor Jim not long before the race. I went to see the stipes and there was a bit of talk but I was allowed to drive him and he won. Some punters were not impressed because those off course didn't know I was driving it. Cecil Devine hired you one day? Yes, that was for a mare he sent over called Daisy D'oro. I remember him telling me that when he first came to Westport (in the 1940s) at the old Mill Road track he slept the previous night in the grandstand. He went a long way from there. He told me to check out Daist D'oro with Bob Young on raceday because he had driven her. Bob didn't muck around. He just told me she was a "stinking little b...." and he was dead right there. You also drove Golden Rule quite a lot? Yes, but I wasn't on her when she won the Champion Stakes at Ashburton because that meeting clashed with Westport. My father had a racing share in her with Jack Reedy at that stage. I took her up north where she won the Masterton Cup. It's been a great family. She was a lovely mare to handle. Mister Gregory? Yes, we sent him over to Denis Nyhan later which we did in those days with the better ones to cut the travelling down. He won the Timaru Cup for Denis and I am pretty sure he set a track record doing it. I guess with your opportunities you never had a big tally of winners in a season? I think 11 was the best and it wouldn't have been with that many drives, maybe 30 or 40. As I said it was a hobby rather than a business proposition for us. We'd buy a horse at the sales most years looking to sell on. Aveross Seelster we had some fun with. Craig Thornley and Jackie Burrows did a lot of the work with him. We sold him to Perth for very good money and I got a shock when my boys told me one night Aveross Seelster was arriving back in the morning. What was the story? My wife Gloria had died and I was a bit down. I took a long time to get over it. He hadn't done well in Perth. The boys tracked him down, bought him back, and he turned up at home to give me a bit of a lift I suppose.He went a big race for second up but didn't do much after that. He broke a leg out in the paddock one night. Now the next generation is taking an interest? Yes, one of my sons, Graeme, and his wife, Karina, have gone into breeding for the sales here. Actually the only horse I have in work now is a Christian Cullen filly they are retaining for breeding. They have done pretty well so far. It is not an easy business breeding to sell. Christian Cullen. Where did he rate with you among the greatest you have seen? Right up there. One of the really great ones. But Highland Fling has always been my favourite. I saw him race quite a few times. You never forget a horse that could do what he did. You are now 80 and seem to be keeping well? I had a brain bleed a while ago which kept me in hospital for a few weeks but it seems all right. It hardly seems worthwhile asking if you have any regrets? No way. I have met a lot of great people in trotting. A lot of great people. I still follow the game as closely as I always have. It's been an important part of my life. Credit: David McCarthy writing in The Press 5 & 12Dec09

Very conveniently forgot to put the final up Gammalite Scotch Notch was a ripper. I remember the 1983 Dominion Handicap. Turning in Basil Dean had two lengths on them. Then I started smiling when I saw my Sir Castleton coming quickly. My smile didn't last very long at all as Scotch Notch and Graeme Lang was finishing even faster. His Interdominion final victory was just too easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Xf2geviIU

Happy to be proven wrong Shard. That has happened previously. Last occurred on May 9th, 1978 I assumed the 93 year old owner was the son via the numbers alone. Durban Chief was foaled in 1952 some 72 years ago so that owner would have been 21 had he owned it from day 1....early 20's seems very young to be owning him but I stand corrected. Is he Mr E Walsh? Enjoyed reading your input. Will see if I can get a copy of Unhoppled Heroes. My sort of book. The horse of a thousand owners is a term I've heard several times associated with Durban Chief. These horses do great things for the small communities they race out of. Can think of many that fall into that category.

Thought you'd enjoy this replay Gammalite.....McShane beating Scotch Notch who as you know was a superb trotter. As usual, the decent kiwi trotters beat the Australian star trotters

Ex harness trainer Don Dwyer raced Dillon Dale who won the NZ FFA along with his very classy youngster Dillon Dean. Don now dominates the picnic galloping meetings in Australia but still wins them on the metropolitan tracks. I spoke with him several months ago about Durban Chief. Don's mum was a Walsh and he grew up in Westport. His great Uncle Claude trained Durban Chief and was driven by his Uncle Bill Walsh. Westport locals were understandably very proud of the horse. Great tribute to a great horse. Fairly confident the 93 year old "owner" on course for the presentation yesterday would have been the owners son?

I think Sam is a fairly decent driver. I've followed the Westport form for years and have an understanding of which stables go well there. The results on the tote can point to some being surprised by the result but one size doesn't fit all. I have a radar out for stable driving and horses driven quietly etc. It's only annoying when you weren't onto the racehorse career management situation yourself ..that is light years away from race fixing. The moment you speak about "Race Fixing", you need to be certain of your facts or you make yourself look like a bell end and give the impression this awesome site is full of eggplant punters that are bitter their $1 "gamble" didn't pay off. Perhaps a better and fairer way of raising your concerns is to put up a race replay which is easy enough and ask others for their thoughts.

Context is always very important H.R ....but that is the very thing missing from almost all of your input. National were despised in 2020. The only real difference in their setup since is replacing Judith Collins with Christopher Luxon. Polls through 2023 highlighted the majority of New Zealanders didn't trust Luxon. This was at least partly related to his determination to respond to entirely different questions with the exact same answer and the perception that he was carefully keeping his own beliefs hidden from view while attempting to be everything to everybody. Why then did National attract so much of the vote at the election and Labour get sent packing? Most common answers were that the majority of kiwi's hated the incompetency of Labour and the direction they were taking NZ. It was accepted by most that due to their woke beliefs on every issue including crime, NZ was a less safe to live and work in. Most believed they were extremely wasteful with their spending and divided NZ on ethnicity and sexual orientation. If you didn't unconditionally support the transgender movement being forced upon everyone then you are transphobic. If you didn't unconditionally support their prioritizing support and healthcare based on ethnicity rather than need then you were a racist. Labour encouraged the weaponizing of the word "racist". The fact Hipkins is now farcically claiming he doesn't know what he and Labour could have done differently to win the election highlights just how far removed he and Labour are now from reality. Hard work should be encouraged and supported. It wasn't under Labour. Resentment toward the wealthy was encouraged while we kept hearing about were the poor old beneficiaries. A percentage of those people that were on the benefit as a lifestyle choice. They'd come on the news expressing their frustration at not being able to live the entitled life they wanted while on the benefit. Meanwhile, we were having to import a workforce even to do manual labour putting even more pressure on housing. Talk about shitting in your own nest. Those out there working continued to be on the receiving end of a punitive tax system. Supermarkets rorted New Zealanders worse than ever and Labour stood on the sideline incapable of doing anything meaningful. They ended up leaving things up to the very people ripping you off to do the right thing. Supermarkets saw straight through Labour's obviously empty threats. This was another rank failure by Labour. They ended up appointing a grocery commissioner who was only ever going to be perfunctory. Don't get me started on our health system and housing. The icing on the cake was their cornerstone election promise to remove GST off vegetables. What a far king joke. If it was even possible to implement it wouldn't take effect until 2025 and even then it needed the people ripping you off at the Supermarket to pass on that small saving to shoppers. Yea right. How much was that saving going to be? A massive $4.50 a week should you buy $30 worth of vegetables. .....but Hipkins say he still doesn't know what he could have done to win the election. Really? Here's what I believe are absolute facts. 1) Had Labour been an even half way decent Government, National would not be back in Government now. If you're going to blame anyone for this outcome, you should blame Labour for creating this dynamic. 2) If the changes being implemented now had come into play prior to 2017, New Zealanders would have mostly accepted them and just believed they were necessary. What's changed? An unprecedented sense of entitlement from Maori to the point they are threatening insurrection now if a democratically elected Government has the audacity to explore what's best for the majority instead of the minority. Resentment toward the bad white man and those that have been successful in life has been encouraged and is now at disturbing levels. Protesting from the Woke over virtually everything is now the new normal. 3) Labour has encouraged Maori to believe their language should be forced onto everyone at rocket speed with dubious widespread buy-in because for them in their echo chamber, that's the right and justified course of action. Many Maori now believe anything but a continuation of Labour's divisive agenda is an attack on Maori language and culture. It's not. It's a quest for balance to the betterment of all kiwi's, not just a minority. 4) The carnage Labour created will take many years to recover from.

"Two months on from Labour's election-night shellacking, leader Chris Hipkins still cannot pinpoint what the party could have done differently during the campaign to win" https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/12/chris-hipkins-reflects-on-2023.html

Chris Hipkins announcing just before the Christmas break that he wants a "reset" for himself and the Labour Party.....haha hilarious Let's unpick that. "Reset" was the term Mrs Ed used to describe the Kiwibuild catastrophe. It's a euphemism for "we totally farked up with totally unachievable promises and wasted enormous amounts of tax payer funds as we always do....but now we want to change the narrative by having a "reset" without admitted we totally farked up. We just want you to stop talking about it and reminding us of just how inept we really are. In reality we just moved the goal posts and replaced one clueless clown with an obese clueless clown. The timing of Hipkins latest bullshit statement is no coincidence. He is VERY aware the knives for him will be out over the summer break. Labour can't possibly go forward with Hipkins unless of course they have learned zero from their election drubbing and the demented sounds in their echo chamber are still telling them Hipkins is on the right track....haha Hipkins and Labour are now totally irrelevant. Only the demented sycophants (morning H.R) still believe Labour are on the right track. Their recent front bench announcement highlights Labour are just doing the "same shit, different day". Labour are woke. They no longer represent the working man / women of NZ. Just like the Greens who are only "Green" by name, Labour represent those with brown faces, the unemployed by circumstance or choice and of course the LGBT community. They divided our beautiful country more than any Government in decades. How did that work for them? They got arseholed out left a divided country in their wake. Now they want a "reset" ? ...I only have to words for them and the second word is, off I like many others believe the following to be 100% accurate. Labour have been so deeply entrenched in their own echo chamber that they don't realize just how despised they are by huge numbers of good New Zealanders. If Labour are ever going to be a political force in NZ they need a complete reset. New leader and deputy leader. New front bench. Go back to old school Labour Party principles. Wave goodbye to virtue signaling. Representing and prioritizing the minority is never the way forward for the majority. If Labour come back after the summer break and vote out the leader and deputy leader and announced a new front bench, they will have owned their "shit" and made the first steps in the very long road back. If they don't do that they will have proven yet again just how inept, useless and irrelevant they really are. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/22-12-2023/chris-hipkins-wants-to-reset-the-labour-party-and-himself

beep wrong!....you've misrepresented what I said HR. I stated at lease some on here will know exactly who the conservative US commentators are. "At least some" means some and possibly more. It's a bit sad that you're so keen to have someone agree with you that you misrepresent what was said. I will encourage you so you don't feel so lost, lonely and confused by saying this. If you start making some sense and ignore the Labour Party narrative, I will likely happily agree with you.

Maybe but I prefer the description "conservative commentators" to right wing. Just the term "right wing" lends weight to extremist type thinking which is 100% incorrect with all those I quoted. I also believe at least some on here will know exactly who they are.

Mark Jones is in my opinion, the master at working the current system. He dislikes the system but works it to perfection. Nobody should be surprised. He was world drivers champion. Son of Peter Jones who is from the top drawer of drivers and grandson of the legendry D.G. All three were / are strategic and critical thinkers. What a dynasty and of course an important part of the family tree are the Butt and Dalgety families

Was an impressive and dominant win that will likely enhance the value of future Interdoms. I have found myself watching less racing on TV these days but there has been a lot of hype about the Interdom Final. I was looking forward to seeing all the important post race celebrations etc. Instead they did the very thing that has been turning me cold for many months. They left Albion Park and went to a greyhound race which would have been one in many hundreds of dog races that day / night. I didn't bother with the Trotters final in case of the same BS. On NZ Cup day at Addington I was in the members / owners area. They had a TV blasting dog racing despite me not seeing a single person looking at the TV screen while a dog race was on. Yesterday I was especially interested to see if Damian Oliver could win on his last ever ride and make it a treble of wins in his last three rides. The crew of presenters described that if he pulled it off it would still be talked about in 100 years time. The TV stayed with the ship after he rode a magnificent race to win and to see the big dismount and then off to another dog race. Racing can't afford to lose such special moments and to do so for dog racing is pretty short sighted.

Sean Plunket is a terrible interviewer. He incessantly cuts off and talks over the person having the discussion with him. That aside, he provides a platform for voices to be heard that are silenced elsewhere for having the wrong narrative for the vested interest media. That's the only reason why I listen to him. He doesn't deserve to be in the same sentence as Tucker, Matt Walsh, Mark Levin or Ben Shapiro etc etc.

Rise....Sir Winston

Not as left field (pardon the pun) as it seems Aquaman. He is a big voice within Labour and I believe why Mrs Ed cut tail and ran. She knew Labour couldn't win the 2023 election with some of it's most contentious Maori policies but Willie Jackson on behalf of their Maori Caucus refused to yield. Nek minute....Ardern .........has no gas left in the tank. Despite Maori and most others dumping Labour like a cup of vomit, they are as committed to their virtue signaling as much as ever. With that in mind, Willie Jackson would be a perfect leader for them and an authentic reflection of who and what they are now.

Have often wondered what the record books would if the whip laws that are in place now were in place in years past. Some horses just can't be driven quietly and still produce their best. Some of the big names of yesteryear in Australia fall into that category. I wonder how long a holiday Pete would have got in 1985 when he won the Cup with Borana in what I felt was a superb drive. If that happened now would Borana even hold the Cup?

Hey HJ, Forcing Maori culture / language onto people should never be the way forward. Anyone that resents what's unfolded is of course quickly deemed a red neck racist. If things were handled in a slow and respectful manner to all, "buy in" on a far bigger scale would almost certainly have been achieved. Instead, Labour, arrogantly drove a bulldozer over it. They created a sense of entitlement among Maori and resentment among non Maori. Ironically, Labour made very little positive difference and ended up pissing everyone off and that was highlighted with the election outcome. Just prior to the election a poll showed the majority of New Zealanders believed race relations were worse now and headed in the wrong direction. It's appropriate and timely that the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi are examined.....but clearly, the minority in a democracy don't want that and are threatening mayhem. Hipkins had an opportunity to connect with the majority of New Zealanders and in doing so, win the election. His plan was to play on the "boy from the Hutt' bs and being a sausage roll muncher. Honestly, do you really think the majority of Kiwi's are that shallow? He missed the boat on the trans gender issue and that situation was highlighted by his attack on Winston Peters for having the audacity to state that Female toilets and changing rooms need to be a safe place for Women and Girls......Hipkins farcically described that statement as "encouraging hate toward the transgender community". Hipkins is all about virtue signaling. Even during the election campaign almost every photo you saw of him was with a sea of brown faces. It was exactly as if he was ashamed of his own ethnicity in a similar way that another previous Labour leader David Cunliffe was ashamed to be a man. Maori, Pacifica, LBGT etc were the gamble of a weak Hipkins and that is what he will be remembered for. He couldn't possibly change his spots now and even the eggplants at Labour know that. He has a 0% of winning in 2026 which is why he has a 0% chance of being the leader at that time. It's just a matter of when he gets rolled. They needed the leader to steady the ship after the election drubbing. He did that eventually after running away and hiding for several days. There will be a plan hatched up during the summer and when Parliament resumes Hipkins will be replaced as Labour's leader. When you look at who Labour have in their echo chamber, it's impossible to get enthused about who Hipkins replacement will be.