Special Agent

What dirty tactics. This is not a game. There are horse and human lives at stake. Professionalism and transparency, my arse!! Admit mistakes were made, write the synthetics off, and move on.

Absolute FACT. RACE have local trainers who rent facilities over a barrel. These trainers are reluctant to speak out or even ask questions in case they do a "Gary Vile" on them.

Yes granted but NZTR are providing relevant machinery these days. I don't know staffing levels across the country, at some tracks there seems to be ample. There are courses track managers are sent on as well. Now it sounds like I am sticking up for NZTR and clubs, which I am not. The Awapuni and Riccarton synthetic tracks at the very least should be disposed of. Feedback from the latest Awapuni meeting is at least two bowed tendons. As they are not deaths they won't figure on many reports. More trainers vowing never again. Shame they didn't make that declaration earlier. Many trainers still send their horses out without checking the surfaces they will be racing on in advance. Owners are paying for and relying on their trainer's expertise and advice.

I guess it's alright if you are left to do your job without anyone poking their nose in.

In this age of health & safety, and animal welfare, I do not think it is unreasonable to expect properly prepared track surfaces that have consistent penetrometer readings track to track.

In the twilight of his career? 6 years old with 16 runs under his belt, and 6 wins. What?

Hard news to take. Johnathan was in the 1000 club with so many memorable wins to his credit. One of the nice guys to boot. Happy on the outside. Rest in peace Parkesy.

I can liken the money given to set the all weather tracks up to the cheapest part of a racehorse being it's purchase price. Due diligence was lacking in this exercise in the quest to gain these "state of the art" facilities. Without the subsidising from NZTR I can only assume the NZ AWT demise. In hindsight is NZTR shooting the industry in the foot by propping these tracks up? Field size already shows trainer and/or owner reluctance. I feel left to club maintenance only at least the southern most two would fold very quickly.

Can't help but notice the ironies. 1. The boys in charge of two iconic now failing and flailing clubs/tracks are both Tim's. 2. The northern Tim is wearing a LoveRacing jacket, when clearly his love is other horse power racing and real estate.

Agreed.

A very important point, in my opinion.

He's hit his straps now.

Kane Smith

Looking at the track surfaces at Otaki and Ellerslie the current curator at Otaki is doing a much superior job than whoever dares put their hand up at Ellerslie. Moving the Otaki WFA to Auckland really is a DUMB idea!! Probably won't be the last dumb idea coming out of headquarters I would suspect.

There is still no proof Cobalt is a performance enhancing drug. Interesting Brendon was given warning of an elevated Cobalt reading in 2022. Neither Peter McKenzie nor Graham Richardson were afforded this courtesy. The reading was definitely high and this is not the first time the expert veterinarian has suggested administration must have been very close to start time, which is ridiculous. To me there is a common denominator with Hemoplex being one of the administered drugs in more than this case. Assuming Hempoplex is sourced from a vet, there is some poor information handed onto the trainers.

I suppose they don't even have to be accountable with the donation from Auckland. I'm picking the jumps have sat gathering dust for the past 12 months.

"Support"? Pull the other one.

Ditto!!!!!!

Pardon my ignorance. I thought Stuart rode over fences. Did Amanda race ride too? I hope she gets to spend some quality time with her family. We bitch and moan about the racing fraternity but, you'd have to be proud of how everyone has rallied around to raise some much needed funds. Well done. Thoughts with Amanda and her young family.

Who can take those statistics as gospel? Of course the numbers of horses and trainers are down, not to mention jumping venues. What are they thinking to mention that Riccarton is the only South Island course to run jumping events? All by design and all to get rid of jumping completely. No decision to be made till 31 October?? Are we supposed to believe the decision has not already been made? The $400 jumps riding fee was easy to put in place because the jumping short term was already known.

There is no evidence that Cobalt is performance enhancing. There appears to be Cobalt in just about everything you can buy to promote the health of your horse which means prior to racing you have to knock off using tonics, iron supplements, mineral salts and salt licks. Interesting reading this week was the Geraldine based greyhound trainer Pringle who returned a Cobalt positive for using the cheaper Ironcyclen substitute which sits in the feed room of many racehorse trainers. Pick another trace element and maybe the RIB could change it's threshold too so Cobalt is not the most sought after positive offender.

Commissioned vs suggestion. "Largely" accepted and endorsed. Where did this come from? "Those at the coalface". Who? How many will stand up and be counted?

Is this a serious comment?

This all smacks of a poor attempt to force connections to the AWT's. With field restrictions alone, they are dreaming. Who is monitoring the actions of NZTR officials? When will they be accountable?

So what? It is winter time. I doubt 19mm would make the track unsafe. The jockey who tested the Taranaki track has enough experience to make a call on safety. Don't put rules in that NZTR have no intentions following. I have spoken to reliable people at both Hastings and Taranaki who think the tracks could have been raced on. Protocols are no good if they are not followed. What a joke, Taranaki moves to Hawera, ANOTHER TRACK NOT REQUIRED. Didn't Opunake move from Hawera for the better track in New Plymouth?