billy connolly

Note that Bossche promotes a preventative healthy diet and lifestyle (vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc and quercetin) in favor of vaccination. Note also that many other physicians and medical researchers have called for a halt to the current trillion-dollar vaccine bonanza for big drug companies. IMO alcohol is a bigger danger than covid !

How does one recognize a positive case? Any similarities to a head case, nut case, sad case or hard case?

Absolute fact, people are like sheep, the world is full of idiots / imbeciles, don't be one. I don't give a continental either, yesterday walked unmolested into supermarket, today had to stand outside hypotherminating, then upon entering was molested by a gay lesbian with vaginal lube, condoms, clown masks etc. and told to push a fucking trolley when I only wanted one item. Preposterous !!!

That Young Runaway horse paid $95 and $22 a place and trifecta was $32,760 !!! Races were televised but the commentator was late arriving on course and a North Island commentator covered the first race from afar. The Young Runaway also won a maiden and an ounce of gold at Reefton, the gold is now worth as much, if not more than the winning stakes. Won't see those days again.

Yes, and coincidentally won his first race (at his first start) at Rangiora. Not a fair comparison. Reefton race once per year, Rangiora would've raced at least a half dozen times per year. Are you referring to one of your old West Coast girlfriends ???

Didn't say Rangiora was safe, no track is 100% safe. What I said was Rangiora by its nature causes the field to race tighter than they would on an uncambered 1000m track like Reefton and as stated earlier, if a horse falls at Rangiora it invariably takes others with it which was the case with Lawson, McGartland and Jamieson. I should quantify that I have nothing against Reefton per se... have won the Reefton Cup (and 3 ounces of gold) in the past and have always enjoyed the atmosphere and hospitality afforded by Reefton as no doubt many others have.

Take it from me squire, Reefton is by far the most dangerous track in the South Island.... and Greymouth isn't far behind ! I have respect for M. Pitman but wouldn't ask (or rate his opinion) on track safety, if I wanted a correct and honest opinion on Rangiora the first and probably only person I'd ask is C. Johnson, he knows Rangiora (and so do I) better than most. Rangiora has never been neglected, it was unsafe 60 years ago but after Kevin Berry was killed there the track was heavily banked with cambered bends etc. The trade-off with a banked circuit like Rangiora is... when a horse falls it nearly always falls inwards which results in carnage behind as the horses following have nowhere to go and are invariably brought down as well (as in Lawson's case) whereas at the dangerous unbanked bullrings like Reefton the opposite occurs and horses usually fall outwards which is a better result for the horses following.

A prime example of how stupid NZTR (Foskett et al) are/were. They permit racing at bullrings like Reefton (1000m) and Greymouth (1100m) yet deregister the banked and cambered 1600m Rangiora track. Not going to go into the reasons behind Rangiora's demise here, except to say Rangiora were hugely unlucky with the weather and timing of a couple of their racedays after a track refurbishment and were dealt a major blow with a couple of serious race falls. Whilst talking NZTR I counted approx 50 paid employees - https://loveracing.nz/nztr/info-and-comms/staff-contacts

Back in the day of full grandstands and full fields the CEO (secretary) was a part-timer with another full-time (usually Accountancy) job... and many of them went out and personally canvassed for nominations. I can recall a former secretary regularly attending trackwork on Monday mornings (in all weathers) taking noms from trainers before going to his main place of employment !

Thank fuck for that, you're a know-all.... and a troll.

What are the requirements to become a policeman other than no education and no university degree? Maybe a couple of years at police college and a few tattoos will suffice, then work your way up the social ladder!

Correct, what heavy ground does is bring the quality horse back to the opposition, nothing (not even weight) will take the speed out of a horses legs more than heavy ground will. Occasionally you'll get a breed (usually the paternal sire line) that leaves horses adept in any ground but these are/were rare in my experience.

It could be argued that horses have a preference for Turf over Synthetic but wouldn't a horse who had the ability to win on Synthetic be a better selling proposition than a horse that has saluted slogging through the Ellerslie mud? Mr. Waterhouse and his wife have gambled many millions of client funds on yearling purchases over the years for not much return, maybe their wealthy clients would've been better off buying a (tried) Synthetic track winner... at a fraction of the cost!

FFS, do we need 5 personnel with big tickets doing what is essentially the SPCA's job? Are they all vegetarians? I wrote off a car taking evasive action to miss a couple of ducks on the road once. Never again!

Only walked the last 600 metres. With the exception of a 3 metre strip on the very inside which hasn't had much recent use it looks patchy and feels rough and appears to have taken a hammering, it also seems relatively firm for this time of year. IMO the track requires at least a 3 month break over Spring and a thorough reseeding followed by a heavy rolling, the rye-grass is healthy but there's not enough of it (not dense enough.) Before Laing's fiddled with this track 25 years ago it usually had a very good sole of carpet-like perennial rye-grass through Spring/Summer/Autumn that provided excellent footing with cushion. Not anymore.

Walked Riccarton's all weather recently, don't know anything about the materials used, all I saw were deeply compacted stone chips coated in bitumen separated by concrete foundations inside and out. Positives: - Bends and camber appear satisfactory. Spectators will be closer to action. Negatives: - Track doesn't appear to be wide enough, I paced it at approximately 10 metres in width which would be lucky to accommodate 12 horses. Home straight is short (approx 250 metres) - will need to be in first 4 on the turn, back runners will need to sustain long sweeping runs well before turn and they'll need to be very good to win! Not enough ground has been used, there's an approx 20 metre wide strip between the outside of Synthetic and inside of Course Proper in back straight that could have been utilized and which would've negated the need for the 1200 and 1400 start chutes. The 1200 and 1400 chutes have decimated much of the remainder of the track. For its (small) size this track has used up a large slice of real estate, it will require maintenance but will be a good training/trial facility and maybe an occasional winter race day but it's not a patch on the main turf track.

An ineffective loud mouth of no consequence. Half of the world's human population are starving to death.... that's a Monumental Fucup !

Many do win and many more would've won but for losing their compass in transit. With the compressed handicaps and less quality of horse the weight factor today is certainly not as great as it was yesteryear where some great horses carried phenomenal weights on 45kg minimums. The late Bill Skelton's favourite saying was "an ounce of luck is worth a ton of judgement."

It could be argued that your head's in the sand. I'd have thought that you'd know it's invariably the class horses that injure themselves under pressure, you could line slow bastards up every day of the week without incident! Ask any trainer worth their salt why it is that good horses sustain the most injuries and to a man (or woman) they'll tell you it's because the good ones try harder. These are preposterous measures by Racing Victoria, they (and their half-baked vets) may as well be training the horses.

Molloy has achieved quite a bit in this game and one thing he has never lacked is intelligence!

The best track in the South now but its location means Riverton's days are numbered, another underrated South Island track is Omakau whose days must also be numbered. In halcyon days Riverton's (3 day) Easter and Omakau's (2 day) Christmas meetings fizzed with atmosphere.

Is this guy the progeny of Bevan Laming, can't see any resemblance?

The track has never been the same since Laing's half-arsed attempt at a reconstruction 25 years ago, the topsoil they removed was many hundreds of years in the making courtesy of Canterbury's north west gales and is/was irreplaceable. The CJC Board at the time who sanctioned the work have a lot to answer for.

The old Turf Registers of yesteryear were a good source of jockey/trainer information, they listed every calendar race including horse, jockey and winning trainer each season dating back to the 1940's. Many of those successful jockeys would've hailed from the Coast. Here's a few: - Ned Thistoll, Acka Cowan, Spider Fox. Miles Better, Mr Ay Bee and The Twinkle (all chestnuts) had a turn of foot over any distance and Miles Better could also handle very wet tracks, had a good collect off him one day at Riccarton! Mellseur also a very good galloper.

D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.