Gammalite

For 2 year old fillies I think. Have a crack at picking this one then Ranga. A big Leonard Memorial winner in her day to test those memory banks lol.....

Absolutely an ability to decipher if the horse is making the error , or the driver . (or the trainer)

Might be a bridge too far to beat MADRID after the Barrier draw. Madrid went 1.54 in heat leading and would probably lead again drawing nicely in 4 in the Oaks Final Sat. Meanwhile Nathan Purdons nice filly drawn awkwardly in 8 , so a tough job . hope she goes close though !!

Thats for sure ! only gotta look at the drivers on the road and you wonder did weet-bix have a special or something dishing out licences hehehe Breeding you can do by proxy, I'm sure sheep and cattle farmed for human consumption have industry regulations that would involve 'knowing' who is involved in supplying the meat ? lol.. I go to races once or twice a year, and the stewards aren't happy with me, as they eye me up and down, not having even a stable-hands licence these days, while helping out with old mates down the stable area. (they turn a blind eye once i'm recognised though) You have to have some sort of licence to be handling horses at the races ,makes sense really. who wants unknowns hanging around the stabling area?. sure !!! if you do it in private at a private facility you can break in, drive your fork lift into a tree, crash the car unlicenced into the fence whatever you like, but you would have difficulty 'claiming ' anything ?. Insurance , compo , etc without fibs....... Better to be Licenced in the advent of mishap I would think. At races or at home.

Why would you do such a dangerous activity unlicenced ? with health and safety paramount for claims these days. You can't drive a fork-lift unlicenced at any place , and claim anything .... or can you? not at a company anyway.

good point. I spose any 'claim' for horse damage, would be made with using name of licenced friend, neighbour, relative as the person in charge of horse. And as for a unlicenced personal injury claim by a person , they could say the injury occurred at local footy match or training hobby , even though there's a great horse hoof imprint all over his face !! lol.........

IMO , he shouldn't be allowed to break horses unlicenced. Nobody should? , as surely an Insurance Company collecting money from the owners , would consider a Claim from an owner who placed their insured horse with an unlicenced person an un-acceptable risk? If i was insurance company, I wouldn't pay a claim for damage to horse from a 'cowboy' unlicenced person causing damage to horse. And what about the horse causing damage to person as well? how would he get 'cover' for injury ? it's quite a dangerous activity at times.....

There would be many more than 5, I would think?. you have McGrath and Alford for starters that everyone knows about. Kerr as well. The Australian harness site currently has a detailed list of '58' persons under the National banner , with the charge and sentence and dates all listed. But I can think of heaps of others that are DQed that are Not on That list on the web-site. Must have some special reason they got off the posted list but they are Disqualified, thats for sure. Am sure NZ has more than Five DQed persons. If that's the case , what a fine honest lot they are in NZ lol......

I remember thinking once or twice in the stewards room "These guys are tough as Teak" lol......so didn't bother giving much of my side of the story anyway half the time, apart from ALWAYS blame the horse, and not yourself or fellow drivers. Wooden stewards have mind made up most of the time already anyway lol.... (racing incidents) Once as a young fella in NZ , I said to the commentator in the stand at Alexandra park at a trials meeting he was calling the wrong horse in a trial. A different horse was running as the one named in the trial. Lo and Behold the next day at the stable I was working (up the road from the offending one which I often visited) a car load of stewards piled out of a car looking for me , and giving me a grilling . Being very young I just said " Mate i'm only a kid and don't know one horse from another properly yet. " The 'Sub' unnamed horse I did know in the trial , but nothing to do with me , I had dealt with him previously but was elsewhere now , and he came out and won ok at his next race start. Stewards obviously had to let it go as far as I was concerned and the case itself actually , but to this day I am impressed they took some action to investigate anything not in the honest realm , and keep everyone on the straight and narrow. GOOD ON EM '!!!!!!! There's lots of criticism on these threads of RIU and stewards 'NOT doing there job, but what I have seen in NZ and Aus there's been 'Plenty' caught and fined , sus or DQ for improper practices .They can only go on What people tell them , and from evidence gathered. The saying is 'Cheaters Never Prosper" . they'll stumble eventually......

After working with many types of horses in many stables for many years in many locations , I can safely say it is usually the horse that does the kicking lol......... There is NO widespread practice of the item you describe. People today get confused with UFC cage fighting I think , a very popular world wide sport where humans abuse other humans. Some pathetic scenes that just encourage violence in the young and susceptible.

A sad day today when reading this whole thread , with the horrid moment of time with Sir Mark Todd coming under fire for some moments of horse handling , best left undiscussed, amongst a huge CV,full of some of the best moments ever achieved in equine handling in NZ of all time. I truly hope JoeB and Nomates return as the forums benefit from their exempelary in-put and knowledge ,and opinion that help us all appreciate the great equine sports and persons. No individual 'incident' was attributed to either of you , so don't take offence to any comment . Just a general comment about anyone handling horses has moments in time that are not filmable. I twitched horses every Sunday to tube drench them after a Saturday night run for example?. Horse is ok and generally behaves to get it's saline ,etc, but you wouldn't want it filmed as such , and usually do /did it not in front of owners even, for their comfort. Sometimes shoeing young ones you have a bit of a tussle , learning to swim in the dams, breaking in etc etc lots of moments with some horses you wouldn't want filmed. But they are there as horses fight back hard sometimes. Who's in charge is critical. (for H and S)

Having a look how Magic Four managed to beat the Allstars Juggernaut last night , i have to say Classy Operator was the important factor. Classy Operator has had a hard career. Dylan driving him very hard once again out of the gate last night, and then pulling out into the death seat to cart the winner up driven by his father at the bell. Classy Operator had zero chance after that early burn , and then pulling out without cover a lap out. (ran 100 lengths last) Seven starts back Dylan Ferguson got 3 weeks suspension on this horse aiding and abetting a stablemate MeetmeinSorrento to win. Last night he said the Horse is going for a spell again as the excuse ???. Just 2 runs in this time up? . Questioned when beaten favourite first up last start at Auckland. No problem was found. (Attacked the leader flat out under the whip 600m out ?? faded badly in the straight.... I can tell them the problem. The horse has 'shattered confidence' from being driven like a BenHur chariot horse all the time. very sad.

Yes , in your video just above here , I'm Off and Gone absolutely walked out of the mobile , slowest first 200m you would ever see in a Group 1 after drawing 3 i imagine. she was crazy slow out. Tonight only a 6 horse field and was driven aggressively for 400m before finally taking over in 28 second 1/4. Home in 27.5 to waltz away from them at the end though. Old mate 'KRUG' about to go for Dalgety's. drawn 1 at Menangle so hard to beat.

I'm Off and Gone went a great race last week Chief , via 'the cape of Good Hope" in Spellbounds race last week . Wasn't missed by the punters either . Tonight, Had to work for 400m to get the lead but waltzed away by 4 lengths at the end at just $1.20 . at Melton in Victoria Getting up at Menangle for big wins kiwi owned mares STYLISH MEMPHIS and THE HONEY QUEEN. Stylish Memphis was great odds paying $4 too . was a bit better than tonights field. A big $200k mares race LADYSHIP mile coming up soon at Menangle. (Stylish Memphis is defending champion) Gunna be a great clash of all the NZ mares ??? Hope Spellbound and I'm Off and Gone have a crack. can't wait. !!!

Can you put improvement down to the weather ? A Lucky break for the horses connections.

Am I seeing things at Auckland. ? A $200k Age group final and Allstars haven't won it .... what is going on? It's been a crook day , but seeing ALLStars team 2nd , 3rd and 4th is a bit too much to believe. 😧 Winner MAGIC FOUR only $60 on Sportsbet . Nobody took it I imagine , unless by mistake lol.....

I didn't know that it was only $7k for second. He is just $333 short. Well Scotty was 2nd with Silver medal in the halfpipe, just as Sundees Son was only 2nd tonight as well to Bolt for Brilliance. Am sure we will see Sundee back in the winner's circle soon. ..... Another Aucklander just won at Menangle NSW a minute ago. John and Trish Greens nice mare,THE HONEY QUEEN. first up for McCarthy has won easily at just $1.75 odds. (BE MY ROSE of Katrina and Barry Purdons ran 4th) Soon won't be enough horses left there for a race field at Auckland ? seem like small ones tonight at Alex Park.

Mark Purdon had won the Group 1 NZ Trotting FFA, with OSCAR B, and he didn't bother taking on Sundees Son in the Dominion at his next start shortly after. The 'only' time I remember a Group 1 winner , not bothering to take on a rival because it would be too good for him. (Oscar B started off 30m in an intermediate trot instead the same day , and won easily) The Rowe Cup will be a joke this year. Sundees Son drew '1' last year ,(after winning year before as well) so race was all over as soon as he stepped. Should of been off 20m or something ?? IMO. give rivals 'some' hope. 'No Response' and others won off 10m. 'Sundee' could potentially WIN the next 3 Dominions at Addington and Rowe Cups at Auckland (make it 5 on the trot) being off the front mark.. being the best 2 mile trotter in the world.

All your points/ observations full of merit Walt. I thought it was a very proactive race. Ironically the Allstars machine didn't win it last year either with Amazing Dream getting beaten as hot favourite, by a Southerner. A few rivals are getting close now , with COPY THAT stopping the big run of Allstars NZ Cups wins , and South Coast Arden proving to be a handful lately too. (taking the NZ FFA) and probably a big chance in THE RACE (900k ) at Cambridge as he won the Jewels there in blistering time last Winter. Perhaps the run of 6 Auckland Cups by Allstars might end as well this year.? They are a fine training team...... As also are the Dunn team smacking out Rowe Cups and Dominions with 'Sundees Son'. What do you think of those races Not Being Handicaps anymore ? seems a gift to him off the front these days?

He'll do it Chief . He's the best ever trotter nearly. Australia is on edge at the moment (and its not covid) Scotty James is taking on the Olympic Snowboard halfpipe final at this very moment and is leading against world champion Shaun White. Every school, shop, workplace around the country is watching .... Scotty could be the Sundees Son of Snowboard very shortly ................

A NEW WORLD RECORD. (or close to it) I loaded my 6 race pick the card multi into Sportsbet (SundeeSon,Highgrove,TrueFantasy,Merlin,FrancoIndie,SelfAssured) and it said 5-1 . pick 6 winners , get $4 profit. That must be the smallest ever ?? I deleted it (5-1 offer) and just gunna watch races like yourself. 4 of the very best horses in the country listed above going around too .( And Self Assured as you said as well ) It's quite hard to believe you can't get a bet on any race ?. Trifecta's not even worth it....... Don't think I've ever abandoned a whole card before? . sign of the times. beautiful horses though. Might just have 100 on 'Caulfield' tonight at Waikato instead and be done with lol.

What a horse . I would be here all day telling great stories about him . How about this photo !!! what a ripper, Jeff King at the head holding on to the 'plain jane' old marvel about to go out on the town at a spritely 23 years of age !!!! at the late Roy Purdons property at Clevedon , and Roy's 3 sons have all Rushed Up to do a bit of grooming on the old Boy ! talk about Respect !!!!! they didn't even train him , before he returned from America. (that was of course Mr Peter Wolfenden) Barry on the back brush there, looks like cheeky Owen grinning between back legs , Mark at the front hoof. No horse would be getting this treatment from these boys like this unless you are CARDIGAN BAY.

Well that is possibly true , Sundees Son trotting unbelievable times and Spankem 1.48 is miles faster than the greats of last century. But that's not worth that much in rating best horses. Verry Elleegant would smash Winx for example, at most distances IMO ,doesn't mean both aren't great horses. CARDIGAN BAY from the 60's still won by vote Chief in the list of all time greats. and I wasn't even born when he started racing. . just pulled out a jigsaw for fun to honour the great horse lol..... Why he is the top is so many reasons they wrote books on him, And Joes story was great there . Imagine a farwell tour !!! stuff of legends. Nostalgia is great ! and as Ludwig was saying with some posts in this thread , theres a lot of stuff (horses/racing, etc) we all miss. But we still support todays runners as well for sure !! (the few that are left) How good is that !!!! . Hope you got some photos or something as well . fantastic

All I can really remember was the 3 seconds for Vandy .... , to Naturalism in the AJC Derby, the photo above in the Caulfield Cup when he went via the car-park home turn and Mannerism beat him 1/2 head , and the amazing small popular $17 trifecta when Subby beat Vandy decisively in the wet 1992 Melbourne Cup with the Nzer Castletown 3rd well clear of the rest. Veandercross must of had some big wins as well though ? , but more famous for the 2nds it seems ... good old Shane !!

I'm living in a time warp too Chief !! Joe Rules !!! I want to add Popular Alm, and Paleface to his Aus list and Locarno, Lord Module , Delightful Lady and Armalight to his Nz list. Still , Chief has 'some' credits for the 'Modern-day warrior' with Sundees Son just unbelievable last Nov. and Amazing Dream keeps turning up and getting the job done, like Verry Elleegant would at the gallops these days. The Hunter Cup was on national TV the other night (Amazing Dream 3rd) but was pretty 'tame' compared to all the horses Joe and I mentioned from those big crowds excitement at Harold Park and Alexandra Park . They are still fast and classy racing today . . King of Swing going for 3rd Miracle Mile straight very soon. they are 'Just not exciting to see in the feature races' like those ones you and I mentioned IMO. Those horses were household names at some stages. Joe knows the good ones Chief !! tis is my verdict lol.......