Joe Bloggs

On rat cafe the bloke that might be wearing arrow patten pyjamas shortly is now defending the board, best board in memory he says, the euphoria of all that moula pouring in from the America's Cup has jumbled his grey matter, he's lost the plot, is the air heavy with hooch smoke down there in the Viaduct? Defending Saundry and George? and the board,......there has to be an ulterior motive,......surely.

Great noms for Otaki, it appears many of the trainers west of the divide are avoiding Tauherenikau, it can be like concrete, or a skating rink, Otaki a lovely sole of grass.......same stakes, so there's got to be a reason.

There's a lot of driftwood in Petone Curious.

What happens if you come off and break a limb, a man/woman could drown when the tide comes in. Do you carry a mask and snorkel just in case? at a least you don't have snake bite to contend with.

The track manager is called 'Hughie', he's on holidays Freda, it was his birthday a few days ago.

Having said that, don't believe a word Callander says, he's a fraudster remember and a blight on our press/media for appointing him to a journalists role. He's the head of the NSW trainers association also, so it's comedy/tragedy row here. How he never went to jail for his role in defrauding the owners of Lil'Caesar is beyond me, he admitted it, broke down blubbering, he has NO credibility amongst many of the racing fraternity here.

Victoria deserve him Tesio, he'll fit straight back in, along with Pakula, and Andrews, what a brilliant Trifecta, NOT.

The problem lays in Petone, fair and square, I bet most of them need a GPS to find Timaru, would struggle to spell it, and have never been anywhere near there, and, have no ambition to either I'm betting. Grass roots racing is fundamental to the integrity of racing, Saundry was not considered a success at his previous employment, well, by many trainers and owners that is, especially the delightful Kate Goodrich, and Cameron George and Bernard have just sent out a stomach churning thank you to all the owners out there, it makes me sick, and you now have two Australians overseeing a sunset industry that has suffered a procession of 'imports' that did SFA and collected obscene salaries that coalface people found offensive. Saundry has had tenure during the saddest demise of all, and now George is the new messiah? Denying a venue such as Timaru for that period is disgusting and once the AWT starts breaking up, as it will, they'll go cap in hand to the Timaru committee. What a farce this all is.

Quite thick Huey, but they are not short on thickness at the Taj Mahal. Their reasoning will be, so many are trialling, there were 30 trials at the latest Waikato roll up, but most were maidens, so, why not offer a full maiden program? the attrition rate is shocking, cater for those that are putting their hands up? if you program a maiden meeting and they don't turn up, put the fee up for trialling, I mean put it right up.......and whack the revenue from the lunatics back into stakes for those that do want to race, either that, or put in into infrastructure and do the industry a favour........it's a fools paradise.

They'd rather trial, deserve what they get, feel sorry for the genuine triers, the sellers will eventually be the perpetrators of death.

And distorts the sires table/premiership Huey, as it's a restricted race the prizemoney SHOULD not be included in the leading sires tabulation.....end of.

If that's not a champion post, nothing is.

I reckon the blokes at Petone need some flank whipping, you reckon? a bit of pain for a bit of gain, can I garnish some support? after all they show very little response, they are way out of contention, and have little chance of passing the winning post.

Were the milkshakes malted?

What a bloody shame and shambles, Hawera back in 68, we had a set of caddy gates up the back and we had our horses jumping out and running up 600/800 whenever we wanted, back then the likes of Deac, Wally McEwan, Ginner Hart, Herbie Bergerson, to name the larger stables would organise the Jumpouts and 'or we had enough to run our own......no fees, no fools either, and if the track was rooted through bad weather, up the road to Pihama, and the old racecourse to gallop......to think you are still jumping from Wooden gates, christ almighty, how the mighty Riccarton has gone backward. Educating our babies, as Deac had 4 apprentices, not uncommon to work 4, gallop, jostle them about, make a bit of noise, get them to go through gaps,..... serious, but good fun for horse and rider. Being taught by Campbell and Walker helped, 2 of the countries leading jockeys never mind apprentices, it was different back then, times have changed, health and safety and new rules, the horsemanship is just not there with these young ones, in general I mean......there are some outstanding young riders coming on, Hazel S for example, but her boss id old school, his Dad was the best as was the uncle, so Hazel has a huge head start........IMO of course. Not your fault, but why hasn't the bloke with the leviathan team spoken out.........

And hooks meant spurs, you never hear that term used now, same as harp was a term for jigger, except for QLD.......LOL.

Yep, we old timers used that term....

What a quality ride it was, put it to sleep on the fence and was able to command a run at the top of the straight due to the run he gave it earlier.......apprentices take note, age shall not weary them, well done to one of the best......ever.

Japan has the Yukuza, NZ has the Aussie mafia, whoda thought it.

Just missed Mr Mink, I asked Deac when I last saw him, ''who was the best horse you trained''.......Copper Belt he said, I never saw Copper Belt, he must have been some horse as Deac had a lot of good ones. BTW, Maurice is still riding work here on the Goldie, not as agile as he was let me tell you, aren't we all?

Gee, you're pushing my memory TC, I remember Rapid Win, I used to ride her work, she was either a half sis, sis or out of Grand Win, you might know better than I. I hit Deacs in 68, wouldn't put me on a horse for 3 months, just did waters, run feeds and watched. Lasted 3 1/2 years, big blue with Deac, ended up friends, he asked me to find a jock when I was training at Flemington, for Sky Flyer in the Cup, he didn't want to run him, Jarvis made him, he was year too soon Deac said, a year later he wins the Brisbane Cup in a canter......Deac had a temper, he was hard, but boy could he train a horse and an apprentice.......I'm so glad we patched it up, my last memories of Deac and Pauline were from Rosehill when he brought Sky Danza over for the Lord Mayors Cup, she won of course and we had a great old time....Pauline was ecstatic.......good memories TC........

The way this is going there'll be lots of crying in their beer/champers then. Team USA pulled their pants down, the recidivist defendant will never be nervous though, there's as much lucre to be had at a wake as there is at a celebration.

C'mon now, he's got an America's cup iconic venue to run, give the bloke a break, you know full well AKL can't function without him!

Why did he bolt when I asked him a few questions then?

Google him, I'm not saying it's him until someone posts the story, however google him, the story re Perth and his life at MRC. I only met him once, at Fairdale Stud during an open day, when he found out I was at Caulfield for 5 years, he bolted, I was very interested in his life in Oz for obvious reasons, but we couldn't find him and the crowd was not that big.......funny that.