Joe Kidd

Fair enough question and not the first time questions have been asked about this stable and at this same venue. Huey Lewis always had the opportunity with Blair Orange driving from the pole to hold up but the stablemate Feel The Money was the very short priced fav. John Dunn knew the way that race was unfolding, he had 0% hope of beating Huey Lewis. Despite that fact, he didn't move a muscle on Feel The Money until victory was assured for the stablemate. Having said that, he seemed determined to nail second. Had Huey Lewis not been in the same race, would Feel The Money have been driven differently? Below is a link to Feel The Money's previous victory in late October at Kaikoura. Did some work to lead, then dominated the race for an easy victory. That evidence highlights the fact hot fav Feel The Money can work in a race and still dominate. If that is accepted fact, why was Feel The Money driven conservatively until the home straight yesterday? Should be pointed out that the stable only had one representative in the Kaikoura race. Would stables being restricted to one runner per race increase the likelihood of a more authentic result and also a more level playing field? https://harness.hrnz.co.nz/gws/ws/r/infohorsews/wsd06x?Arg=hrnzg-Ptype&Arg=RaceVideo&Arg=hrnzg-RacehdrID&Arg=255576 Feel The Money is in the last race again tomorrow so will be interesting to see if she is driven the same as she was on the first day or similar to Kaikoura. I'm picking the later but they do have Spot On in tomorrows race also. Which stable runner would they prefer winning? If they have no preference, Feel The Money wins.

Haven't see the race for numerous reasons. One was I just can't stomach the caller. If there is a question about potential dubious driving, I always ask if any said horse would have been driven differently had it been the sole stable representative in the race. If the answer is absolutely yes, it turns my blood cold. Same situation applies to horses handing up very meekly to a stablemate. If the leader would have fought tooth and nail to retain the lead if it was a non stable challenger but gifts the lead in a contrived manner to a stablemate, i put my cue back in the rack and walk away from the meeting. Many of these "races" are all about controlling every aspect of the event and stablemates are routinely used to ensure that is the status quo. These events are closer to a farce than an actual race.

I had a slightly different take on her run. Began well for the first time in a while. Was used up to make it around to the front. Never looked like putting a foot wrong but the effort told in the home straight. Was beaten very close to home by a decent totter that hugged the fence. I thought it was a very good confidence building run. In her last few races, Scarlett Banner has had an early shower. That sort of thing does not help overall race fitness. I'm sure in training there has been an emphasis just getting her away recently so the run would have done her a power of good. To my eye, she's a special in race 7 tomorrow. Tokyo Joe is the biggest threat to her outside of her losing the plot and Zsa Zoe is a very safe place bet. Trifecta in one. 1st. Scarlett Banner. 2nd. Tokyo Joe 3rd. Zsa Zoe. Bonnie Highlander has a lot of upside and will be a mare to keep a close eye on in upcoming weeks. She beat Scarlett Banners conqueror in a recent workout.

Interesting perspective and with some merit Flagship. Small moments during races almost always end in big moments at the end of the race. I'm not a big fan of multiple family members driving in the same race. It leaves the door wide open to less competitive driving at key moments which influence the outcome. Here's a hypothetical example. I own a horse in the Derby. It's drawn badly so dropping back and looping the field for a better position at a later stage if the race is the prudent action. When to move is absolutely critical. If a dominant stable at the sharp end refuse to surrender position, I'm left posted and it's race and dream over. I know that and the dominant stable know that. It's huge and my seasons plans can go down the shitter in seconds. The dominant stable however don't have that enormous dilemma especially if they have multiple runners. One will generally hand up without the normally very competitive driver not even batting an eye lid. The result of the race was decided right there. It's a massive advantage over the other runners. In the 1980's Roy and BP used their numerical advantage to bully other contenders in open class races, especially any contender who was a threat to their dominance. If you doubt that, go ask the connections of Franco Ice and Dillon Dean etc. Using one of your multiple runners as a sacrificial lamb was routine. I have a catalog of races in mind where the sacrificial lamb ran a distance behind the field but safe in the knowledge the stablemate managed to nab the threat to the stable dominance late in the race. Hardly a level playing field. Thankfully we are at least spared this sort of activity these days.

The prelude and the cup are run for farcical money. Even the Marlborough Cup is worth twice as much from memory. The meeting timing is about cashing in on the summer holiday crowd. Richmond Park, Nelson is a venue I sincerely believe should have Jewels meetings. The place would need investment in facilities but is in such a great location it's crying out to be utilized.

Hi Globe, Thank you for the offer. I appreciate it especially as I prefer the square-gaiters. I cut my teeth following Nigel Craig around. When I'm ready to get back into horse ownership even on a small scale, I will PM you. Cheers I wish to clarify my perspective on the All Stars. I've noticed there is a divide between the supporters of the A.S and those who see them via different lenses. I feel some of the supporters deliberately misrepresent what the non supporters are saying. Why do they do so? It's my contention that they want to portray them as being ignorant and envious etc. All that does is create an even bigger divide. I'm actually a big fan of Mark Purdon. He has a terrific eye for spotting potential top liners. He's a magnificent conditioner of a horse. He puts plans in place that virtually guarantee success. He's a superb driver. As for him personally. He comes across as an affable, respectful, and sincere man. He's great with the media. Always obliging. I'm in no way envious of him. Quite the contrary in fact. That aside, the game is not just about one trainer and a small group of owners. In order for our sport to flourish and evolve, it needs investment. If a growing number of people find it increasing difficult to justify the investment, they will eventually give up the ghost. Feature race meetings have become an All Stars benefit day. How many feature races will they dominate on bla bla bla day? All is invariably the correct answer. Long term, it can't be good watching all the biggest and best spoils in the game repeatedly headed in the same direction. What then when that day is done? Look forward to the Jewels or Cup day and watch exactly the same thing unfold again Ad Infinitum.

The question is often asked if the dominance of the All Stars in just about every feature race in NZ is good for the sport. Personally, I believe it's not. I don't begrudge the All Stars their phenomenal success. They are without doubt the best at what they do. I don't subscribe to theories doing the rounds that their success is at least partly related to dubious "additives" etc. They have owners with deep pockets. They know exactly what are the right horses to buy. Their training methods achieve a level of fitness and stamina that is greater than the overwhelming majority. Both Mark and Natalie are world class drivers. They invariably have multiple runners in the feature races that gifts them the luxury of formulating "race plans" that one way or another will not only virtually guarantee they win the race, but usually dominate the placings also. Most of the lesser trainers have no realistic hope of competing with them. If a rare gem shows up from another stable along the way, the All Stars will ensure the bottom of that horse is found sooner rather than later. Even a Franco Ice, The Bru Czar type of horse would have a very short shelf life now. When that premature end occurs, what stable has an uninterrupted return back to the status quo? Would have loved to have seen The Orange Agent race for several more seasons and become the next Bonnies Chance / Armalight but longevity is almost unheard of for any contender that goes up against the all conquering blue and silver stars. Talk of other trainers needing to lift their game is fantasy and bereft of merit. Even the likes of Cran Dalgety and Robert Dunn etc can only fight over the scraps. The only feature races the blue army don't have a complete mortgage on are trotting races like the Rowe Cup and Dominion so if I had money to invest in the game, that's where I'd look or not at all. Must admit, I would much rather watch one open class group 1 race than a dozen 2 and 3 year old group 1 races with huge stakes. In any sport, it's the elite events that the competitors aspire to. If you know you've got virtually no realistic hope of winning those elite races, it's inevitable that rival owners and trainers will eventually give up the ghost. As an owner, I've never been fortunate enough to win a group race. We don't race any horses at this time. That is not related to the All Stars dominance. We've won many lesser races and they were all huge thrills. Can only imagine how it feels to win a group 1. When i see the same names coming up in the ownership of most of our elite race winners, I can't help but wonder if that is just another one for the same old same old. Everything is relative but if the same people were winning lotto every week the other lotto ticket buyers would eventually flag it away.

I hear what you're saying and you may well be correct to give her a wide berth but instinct along with numerous other factors are telling me this is the very time to love like you've never had your heart broken and then back up on Sunday. Scarlett Banner ending her race career with back to back wins is very likely to my eye.

I agree that trialing serial offender unruly horses to the satisfaction of the stipes making good sense. That is especially so for horses that always attract a lot of support. No fun hearing the caller say your ticket on bla bla bla is confetti after only 5 seconds of the race. Having said that, the whole punting caper is a gamble with every runner, it's just that gamble is bigger with certain runners. One thing for certain, the mare is there to win at Nelson and as a punter, that knowledge can be gold. I disagree about her being fav on Friday. She likely will be a short fav on Sunday but you may get a price on Friday due to many having abandoned ship.

Nelson trots @ Richmond Park is always one of my favourite meetings on the calendar. A lot of scope to win a hat full. Find a trainer with a few likely runners and if he shows form, back all his runners with confidence. Did exactly that from the get go on the West Coast with Darren Keast. Robert Dunn will grab his share of winners over the two days as he always does at sunny Nelson. Here's my first tip for Nelson. You have to be brave as this mare has cost punters a fortune since November. Scarlett Banner in race 7. Nelson is a long way to go just to put on another rodeo act. Instinct tells me she is ready to play the game. The fact another of Gavin Smith's trotters Red Hot Rocket finally got it right at Oamaru yesterday is a good sign for Scarlett Banner. I predict she will win both days at Nelson and pay the believers of which, I'm one. Local trainer Murray Pash has two runners who will both run well. Jazelle in the first. Blair Orange driving and in the famous Berkett colours. Filly goes ok. Stablemate Zippidy Doodah stood up on the Coast and the locals will be keen on this mares chances. A Nelson quinella seems very likely. Dadndave is trained at West Melton by ex Nelson boy Tim Trathen for John. My dear old mum is a big fan of Uncle Remus and the Song of the South so she will enjoy the connection.

I'm fairly sure he was referring to the horse who like an all night chemist, never shuts up. Mark obviously had that one on standby in his bag of tricks. I'm confident being the colourful caller with a personality he is, will likely only use that gem once where as if it was another caller, we could look forward to hearing it three times in every race he calls for the next eight years.

It's the biggest rort in town. The staff should wear masks when they charge you. We are fortunate in that we have a family friend who has all the big movies for us to watch for what Paddy shot at and while they are still on at the cinema. Not crap cam versions either. Having said that, my good lady enjoys going out to the cinema so we go fairly often. She's very lucky as I let her take me. Her bag is normally full with our drinks and eats. Would never consider paying their diabolical prices for food and drink. Maybe the Queen makes the popcorn and it's delivered to Hoyts via the moon. There was me all those years thinking it was just corn that had been popped.

Feeling more than a tad frustrated with our TAB. Whenever an outfit makes a big change such as our TAB has just done, their help desk gets run off their feet. As a result, prudent firms have numerous extra staff bought in to meet the predictable demand. It appears that remarkably, the TAB has failed to make that fundamental move. I find that farcical under the circumstances. I rang their helpdesk yesterday. Was on hold for 55 minutes before they hung up on me before even having the chance to say a word. I rang this morning at 9am. Was on hold for 40 minutes until I gave up. I rang at 10.45am and gave up waiting after 30 minutes. My email has been rejected. I've had enough and won't try again. This is even worse than Vodafone and Sky TV customer service which I gave the flick to. NZ TAB just lost another customer. I put a decent amount through my account and I've given them every opportunity to treat me and my account with even a tiny bit of respect. They failed...again. I've put up with so much of their 0/10 over the years. This was the last straw. Had a deadset winner at Oamaru today but will take my business elsewhere. NZ TAB...Thank you...for nothing.

Being banned from Racecafe is a little bit like being defriended on Facebook by Martin Shrelki. Almost a badge of honour that you've managed to wade through the sewer pond and come out the other side clean. Thank you scoobydoo. Must be bloody difficult not knowing who to ban and who to carry on sucking up to. Must leave a bitter after taste. Sorry for your loss.

Did anyone have any issues making credit card deposits into their TAB a/c today? I went to use the same credit card I always use and it wouldn't accept my deposit. I tried several times and then flagged it away.

If she was a Trackside presenter and wore that, It wouldn't matter what she said about race 28 at the Wallomululu greyhounds, I would take it all on-board and respect her thought provoking input. Having said that, she could probably convert me to Islam if she asked me to sign up at the right / wrong moment.

There will always be teething errors with any new system. I've encountered a few issues that may also be pilot error. Time will tell. Have not enjoyed being kept in the dark with exotic dividends and have been caught out with their timer saying six minutes to jump when in fact there was less than one minute to the off. We are all familiar with the old system even with all it's faults so it can be a steep learning curve getting your head around all the changes in short order. Will give it and myself time before giving my final verdict. I did try to put a treble on earlier and gave up on it. Took a bet on a NSW harness race and tuned in to watch it but no coverage. Surely, they could have both channels covering live racing on this landmark day ?

With today being the start of the TAB's new site and app, I hope other areas are addressed to improve the whole experience. I enjoy Trackside and appreciate what we have. I grew up with almost no TV coverage of racing where often the best way to hear the races was stand on the roof on one leg with a transistor while facing Mecca. As a result, I understandably consider Trackside to be a godsend. Having said that, I don't believe they utilize both channels correctly. Having one channel covering old results etc while there is live racing occurring needs to be addressed as does having the same race on both channels at the same time while other races receive no coverage at all. With some tinkering, they could increase the viewing experience considerably. An area I'd like to see more of is coverage from the room. Many of us have a vested interest in protests so the need for transparency is considerable. Must admit, some of the best entertainment and tension I've seen on Trackside is when they show what's being said etc by all concerned in the protest. Unfortunately, the coverage there has to be ended prematurely so we can watch greyhounds taking a dump on the way around to the start for the next race at Wallomazooville. I don't see the introduction of wall to wall American racing on Trackside as a positive. When you see pools with virtually nothing in them and not a single dollar wagered on dividend bearing runners, you have to wonder what's going on. There may be a few out there that value Trackside studio presenters input, but I don't count myself as one of them. I enjoy watching and listening to anyone who knows which way is up in the game but we've had a long run of studio presenters who only seem capable of clicking their pen, stating the bleeding obvious and or repeating verbatim exactly what the race caller stated at the end of his call. I've never wagered on anything based on their encouragement and it would be my contention that anyone who bet on a horse based on the studio presenters input would be on the fast track to failure. Do they actually increase turnover with their incessant yapping when they seem frightened to even stop for a breath? The majority of these studio presenters are females in their 20's. Some have a background with horses but most come across like they don't know the stern end of a horse from the bow. Perhaps if they started presenting while wearing a bikini, I may start valuing their input more When we have Australian coverage at night, it all ticks over smoothly without a studio presenter. Hope that catches on here. I do enjoy the oncourse presenters we have who I believe overall do a very good job.

Apart from gambling, this clip has nothing to do with harness racing. That aside, I enjoyed it and recommend it as being well worth watching.

Gay Gordon. There's a name I haven't heard for years. The sire of course of Mighty Gay who I won a small fortune from in the 70's. Shit, am I that old? I think he won both legs of a double when I was cutting my teeth in the game. I assume "Gay" had a different meaning back in the day. Not sure you could get away with calling a horse "Mighty Gay" now. The world has gone nuts. The world is so worried about offending some precious soul that we can't say things that need to be said. I do recall Bill Cheery. My memory may be playing tricks on me but I can vaguely remember Bill calling my double home at Wingatui. Armbrose Lodge won the first leg and First Tuesday the second leg if those runners make any sense. Funny how some names stick.

One bet for me today. Number 1, Si Si Senor in race 4. Drawn 1 with Blair doing the driving. Trained by Mark Jones who has had a very good run recently. To be honest, I'd be picking this horse to win here even if he'd drawn the outside of the second line so drawing the ace makes this race his to lose. 2.80 is money for old rope. I expect him to start yours for theirs. Only bad luck beats him.

I agree on the RP callers. We all have our favs and the ones that turn us off. I was never a fan of Mike O'Sullivan. To be 100% honest, I'm not a big fan of George Simon either. George is accurate and colourful but has dominated Northern racing for so long that most things about his calls seem tired these days. Same old same old. I won't be disappointed if someone like Bruce Sherwin takes over but Bruce may be in the rest home by the time George gives up his spot. I must own my bias here and admit that I had great respect and admiration for Keith Haub who George replaced years before Keith had done his dash. Keith was exciting to listen to and very accurate. He was also a great entertainer who always had new material to bring a smile. I miss the days of Paddy, Mary and Keith doing their radio racing show on a Saturday morning. I remember a race Keith called where there was about a head between six or seven runners. Could have been an Easter? Nose nose, nose etc and Keith nailed it exactly right from first to sixth. Incredible. There was a photo of the race finish on the front page of the Friday Flash. Whenever I think of colourful Lachie Marshall, I recall a race he was calling at Forbury. Lord Module was a raging hot fav and had the race at his mercy. Lachie felt Ces was not there to win and said so during his call. Never heard anything like that since. Anyone else recall that call? Always enjoyed his calls. Anyone remember Gordon Matheson down South? I was listening to a call with my dad as a young fella and Gordon was having an extended yarn about the seagulls in the infield while the race was on. It was hard case. My dad was yelling at the radio. %%^## the seagulls!

Nice result which was really never in doubt especially after she got such a good run through from her average draw. Will win her share for sure. Is held in high regard. My second runner would have been the cream on the cake but alas, it wasn't to be. Not really the sort of horse that can work and still be winning. I assumed it would lead and repeat Addington but Machsgain had other ideas. Once it handed up, i knew it would have to settle for a minor placing. Early start at Cromwell tomorrow. Couple of fair horses going around so we should be able to find a winner or two. Cheers my new cyber friends and thank you for the welcome.

Lets hope there are no burglars in the race to slow down what Reg would describe as giant strides.

I respect the fact his pet names and the incessant use of them during races does not bother you. I wish I felt the same way. My wife turns the idiot box on when she's busy in the kitchen. The issue for me there is when the commercials come on. They are louder than the show she was watching and some are an assault on my senses. She however just blanks them out. Callers having trademark descriptions is fine and dandy as Forest would say. The issue arises when those descriptions are ridiculous and the caller insists on hitting listeners over the head with them as often as possible during race calls. Can you share with me please how calling Todd Mitchell "The Wizard" eight times in one race alone added to the excitement / colour of the race and in any way made said race less boring? How in Gods name is David Butcher "the chief"? What is he chief of? It's a bloody ridiculous,irrelevant and totally unnecessary name. Why not start calling all drivers pet names? The Godfather hasn't been used yet. Who wants that handle? I'm sure we could call one of our lovely female drivers "Tinkerbelle" and be sure to use it repeatedly during the race until everyone turns on the mute. When asked why he used that pet name, the caller can say he was making the race more exciting / less boring. The Lovable Rogue, The Midnight Toker, The Pierced Nipple, The Hitman, The Snowflake, The Big Pecker, The Hairy Backed One, The Goblin and The Shaved One are also still available. We could just do away with horse names and call races on the drivers pet names. At least we could have a laugh. Call me old fashioned possum but I'm one of those weirdo's that place zero value on false / contrived excitement and prefer David, Todd, Maurice, Blair and Tony etc all be called by their given names, especially during races. Let the race provide the colour and excitement and the caller just describe that. There's a novel idea.