Gammalite

One of them Won it too. Josh Gallagher at just 22 years old . The winning trainer only 28 . quite amazing. Two young kiwi lads only in their 20's won training the 2 x Interdominion 'Consolations' last night at Menangle. A pace + a trot. Jack Trainor now NSW based won the pace and Trent Lethaby , now Queensland based won the trot. Does show the 'LEARNING Groundwork' that they get in Nz is great TOP Notch conditioning. and they are winning Group Races , beating the best Trainers around in Oz. Trent and Jack (just like Nathan Purdon) are only in their first 2 years training too !!! . Is quite amazing. Hope some of the young guys stay home in NZ , like Carter Dalgety , to reach those sort of heights in Nz as well.

Well Luke you 'should' of drove the horse that drew One which would of been the smart thing. and put Moran on the 2nd row drawn horse. Also training them in YOUR own name would help and probably be good 'Karma' as well. And yes does Show how hard they (Interdominion's) are to WIn . McCarthy's had a ' 4 Horse Play' , then they Gets one to the post first even, and then........... STILL DON'T get the Win. lol. It's tough at the top. And finally Congrat's to the DUNN's with their fine 3rd Placing with the old Marvel I adore ALTA ORLANDO (a true trier of the highest order like Gammalite was)

Yeah Baby ! .......Gammalite knows his Interdominions having won 2 of them. join the list Maori Law. And now the Great kiwi horseman Richard Brosnan has 2 of them as well to become an Interdominion legend . Smashing run MAORI LAW !!! great drive Greg Sugars !! and great Training Richard and Emmett !!

Of course!!!! . But all horses are treated and it's the business of the Trainer. even VE gets something. How anyone can possibly Train out of one Barn with other Trainers? (as Fitzgerald claims at start of this thread) is an absolute DISASTER. ?? How is it possible (security wise)?? You would live in total fear of someone nobbling your horse. or this being dobbed in type of shit as well. I worked at 5 different stable locations (Nz, Vic, Qld) and PRIVACY is Essential , I would of thought. How can you do stuff with your horse in such close proximity to Rivals? Doesn't make a skerritt of sense to me. I never once gave information to Trainers about previous trainers establishments treatment methods. Totally Out of respect and it's Not their business . sometimes might have shared Trackwork experience's but definitely Never treatment and feed options used. You need Respect and Honesty in Life. 2 main things.

Well it seems the 'Stables' are all in close proximity going by the A Fitzgerald response. Alford could still be contact with some folk , even if banned 7 years from the premises. He got outed via injections given , as in the official report of his conviction it states that Johny Nevits failed to co-operate with his nasal tubing on the day , earlier in year . They can't even do that right lol. Using decades old methods (like McGrath as well sadly), so ...... Why would the Stewards Not be keeping a Serious Eye on that barn ???? snitch not needed.

Hopefully the stewards would order Pre-race blood samples be taken , before scratching horses with rule 213. That way they could gather physical evidence from the lab over future days..... to justify actions. And like-wise the Trainers name can be cleared if Nothing is found , instead of being in Limbo with accusations.

That's a co-incidence you mentioned this horse, that Kevin Holmes used to drive TESTING TIMES , as here he is in this photo running a national record , while doing that 'SCOTCH TAR' trick of veering off the track to the outside fence at Alexandra Park . What an excellent moment in time captured in this shot !!! Testing Times nearly cleaned up for his whole 2 year old season, with 14-15 odd wins before finishing 5th to the great LORD MODULE at seasons end, in the Nz Juvenile Championship at Auckland in June 1977.

Excellent article Brodster !! so very true . Can only help keep the Harness racing game going. With the young O'Reilly's and Thornton's , Ben Hope , young House started, and Crystal i(Bernie Hacketts daughter) n the North Island has 8 wins from 48 drives already giving a 'Glimmer' of hope for them up there. ( Some Young ones are arriving on the scene.) Never thought I'd see the day , but three Junior drivers are in the Interdominion Pacing Grand Final tomorrow night. They drive excellent races too, and have had stellar seasons , and doing just as well as Andy, Todd and Luke McCarthy did at that age. Todd went on to win the Interdominion with ex-kiwi 'Tiger Tara' before departing to the States like Dexter did.

The world driving Champion Kevin Holmes . was quite a story in the day. Tried a suicide after the 'Incident' as guess it didn't go as well as intended. Woke up in hospital days later after the shoot attempt and jumped out the hospital window to his death instead. only 38 yold. Probably one of the most tragic Nz harness events to happen. Like-wise in Oz, one of the greatest ever Vinnie Knight at just 37 years old , shooting himself dead due to a relationship issue, while ruling the harness world of Victoria with an extraordinary record up to his death in 1991. Had young daughters left behind as well. unbelievable tragedy. Two countries sharing a similar tragic outcome , still grieving decades later. RIP Kevin and Vinnie.

The huge problem NZ has is the inability to have the right races to 'Prepare ' your horse with solid racing before feature races come along. Some are sent to Australia to prepare and race long in advance these days. I believe three NZ owned (and bred) horses sent over that have made the Grand Final. are TRIPLE EIGHT (2nd in Vic Cup recently) , ALTA ORLANDO (been in Oz a fair while now , but is raced by Nz leading trainers Robert and John Dunn) , and SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS. Do we count them as a New-Zealand win then if they take the title ???? I think we should ....

He started off 100m behind handicap at Hutt Park, against loose class trotters and set a 2400m record at the time of 3.09 or so. winning by 10 lengths. Quite a horse old Scotch Tar. probably the most 'erratic' I ever saw. headed for the outside fence at Alexandra park with Wolfie driving one night in the home straight , veering right off , but still won. Owner trainer 'Slim' Dykeman engaged Wolfie and Bob Cameron for a lot of the win's and that paid off well (getting the best going round involved on many occasions) driving that very difficult horse.

Quite an Impressive strike rate. Was struggling to come up with a better one. Lazarus pretty close. Lazarus had 29 starts lifetime in NZ for 26 wins, inc the 2 huge NZ Cup wins . (and 2 placings behind Nat on 'Chase the Dream' in a couple of feature 2 year old races) Think nearly all of Noodlum's wins were 2 year old and 3 year old races ?

Just for this year I would suggest. The BIG Guns of NZ harness are Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen (who is gone from training ranks for the moment ) but hopefully be back. Took advantage of the situation winning the Jewels and the NZ FFA with SouthCoastArden in the meanwhile. Mark and Nat have won 3 of the past 4 Interdominion Pacing Grand Finals (3rd and 4th in the other one to Tiger Tara ) with Laz, Smolda and UltimateSniper over past 5 years so are Far from Long gone. Team McCarthy having his Interdominion year to 'shine' 2021, but don't give up, Allstars will be back soon doing NZ proud

And an hour after that trot, the 2021 Interdominion Pacing Final is on next Saturday night. Here's the field with Luke McCarthy (and wife Belinda) having a strong hand with 4 runners. Including the John and Robert Dunn owned ALTA ORLANDO. Best of luck them in the final. The Queenslanders went well 2006 . Blacks A Fake taking the win (his first of 4 GF wins for Natalie Rassmussen) . 3rd Placing in the final, was a young Luke McCarthy with his sister's horse SLIPNSLIDE. In the very first batch of horses in his first years of training. Now 15 years later , he does look set to Finally take the Interdominion Crown. Just shows how hard they are to win? But he still has to get to the post first. EXPENSIVE EGO and KING OF SWING went through the heats undefeated so sure seems like One of those 2 horses should Win. here's the barrier draw. 1 51111 EXPENSIVE EGO Belinda McCarthy David Moran NR120 FR1 2 52573 MACH DAN (Em 1) Kevin Pizzuto Menangl 11/12/2021 Greg Sugars NR119 FR- 3 48137 MALCOLMS RHYTHM David Aiken Josh Aiken NR118 FR2 4 20423 TRIPLE EIGHT NZ Jess Tubbs Greg Sugars NR120 FR3 5 24213 SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS NZ Belinda McCarthy John McCarthy NR114 FR4 6 63245 MAJESTIC CRUISER Jason Grimson Cameron Hart (C) NR120 FR5 7 33329 BONCEL BENJAMIN Jason Grimson Joshua Gallagher (C) NR114 FR6 8 51934 THE BLACK PRINCE NZ (Em 2) Roy Roots Jnr Menangl 11/12/2021 NR119 FR- ------------------------------ Second Row ------------------------------ 9 22225 ALTA ORLANDO NZ Belinda McCarthy Jack Callaghan (C) NR120 SR1 10 17432 MAX DELIGHT David Aiken Chris Alford NR120 SR2 11 13111 KING OF SWING NZ Belinda McCarthy Luke McCarthy NR120 SR3 12 s3352 BALRAJ NZ Jack Trainor Jack Trainor NR114 SR4 13 53852 OUR UNCLE SAM Chris Frisby Anthony Frisby NR119 SR5 14 74651 BUNDORAN NZ Amanda Turnbull Amanda Turnbull NR115 SR6

Yes the Interdominion is still on and the draws are out.!!!! fantastic. Here's the Trot Final , and I'm keen for the Oz trotter , with a kiwi name and great kiwi Trainer of years gone by, to take the prize with MAORI LAW Hard to believe that over 40 years have gone by since Richard Brosnan stormed to victory at Addington with his great trotter NO RESPONSE. Best of luck to Richard (and son Emmett co-trainer) in the Big One ! 1 38723 JUST BELIEVE Michael Hughes Chris Alford NR90 FR1 2 30164 MAJESTIC MAN NZ Phil Williamson Anthony Butt NR118 FR2 3 67045 ALDEBARAN CRESCENT (Em 1) David Aiken Menangl 11/12/2021 Josh Aiken NR99 FR- 4 21638 TOUGH MONARCH Rickie Alchin NR117 FR3 5 1s483 CALIGULA NZ Blake Fitzpatrick Blake Fitzpatrick NR107 FR4 6 61521 MAORI LAW E Brosnan, R J Brosnan Greg Sugars NR120 FR5 7 15332 PINK GALAHS Matthew Craven Matthew Craven NR120 FR6 8 2s847 HUMBLE LADD NZ Belinda McCarthy Luke McCarthy ODM NR97 FR7 ------------------------------ Second Row ------------------------------ 9 s3304 ILLAWONG STARDUST Tony Peacock Luke McCarthy NR84 SR1 10 76415 LOTAMUSCLE NZ Matthew Craven Sofia Arvidsson (C) NR68 SR2 11 24202 KYVALLEY CHIEF NZ Brent Lilley Chris Alford NR96 SR3 12 73251 THE PENNY DROPS Ray Harvey Grant Campbell NR108 SR4 13 22660 ONE MAJIC KENNY NZ (Em 2) Blake Fitzpatrick Menangl 11/12/2021 Blake Fitzpatrick NR77 SR- 14 38116 TIMOTHY RED J A Rando, M J Rando Cameron Hart (C) NR68 SR5

Mango leaving his run a bit late , but you know what they say Ranga ?. A nose is as good as 20 lengths , as long as it's your nose in front at the post. Roy Purdon picking up a lovely quinella here beating Franco Ice at Auckland. A sign of things to come from the young driver Mark ? Gammalite no such problem 'breezing' past the pretender Popular Alm at the previous Auckland Interdominion lol............

It's a pretty poor lot without Allstars there really. Team 'McCarthy' is cleaning up the heats. Yeah so not much to report from Interdominion lol. Just been chatting about past winners instead , as there was Great horses racing in the Interdominion in the past. Last one I saw live was Blacks A Fake for QLD winning his first of four Interdominion Finals (inTas). so that was a treat. and did see YULESTAR win for Nz in Brisbane. very good win for the Auckland horse.

Thomass Not posting is a sign of being in the un-vaccinated Minority , and therefore severely restricted. maybe he's Brodster's brother ? Hopefully Thomass got rich like you and I Chief (un-restricted) and is still on holiday with the Verry Elleegant winnings?

Don't worry too much. just a temporary Lull in proceedings. Sires stakes heats tonight went to Dunn's and Dalgety's who train 'SundeesSon' and 'Krug' each , so they REALLY know what they are doing as well. Running 2nd to those trainers generates VLC !!! (very little concern) Mark Purdon still won 2 x GROUP 1's on Cup day earlier this month (Oscar B and also the Sires Stakes Final for the 7th year running) How amazing is that?? super good. and a 2nd in the NZ Cup to 'Copy That' wasn't completely unexpected, nor 2nd to SouthCArden in the Nz FFA either. were excellent results!!! . so All is going swimmingly. Nathan Purdon out-gunned by Emma Stewart in the lead article of this thread in Victoria , but Not far off at all for a young bloke. Some fantastic results for NZ with his Breeders Crown placings this month. AND not long to go till AKUTA , ( the best horse yet) is back on the track and taking the BIG money. !!!!!!! watch him go. super-good. Brodster can hang a picture of him next to 'LAZ' up on his wall soon. will be great .

Fair enough , You do need reasonable administration to run things. The trouble is in Nz (and Oz ) even at the very top level ,Which is in fact the Government of the Nation(s), seems to attract massive amounts of criticism for one reason or another. You still have to be optimistic that a lot of Racing Clubs really want to supply a product that we can all enjoy. can't be all bad.? Very sorry if the tracks AWT are a welfare issue. I hope the 'Attrition' you mention is just people not wanting to train /race on that surface , and not actually anything going wrong with the horse. Guess it will just shut down if Not supported just like anything else. I was meaning earlier, there is still a huge amount of horse loving people around the place. The improved attitudes towards animal welfare and their care and comfort ( like being shown in this thread) will help keep the horse fans attracted. Maybe still participate as an owner or even just a supporter enjoying a nice day at the races, knowing the horses are in Great Trainers hands.

Think you're over-reacting Chief. I have been very impressed by the attitude of all the posters here on this thread, and the care and compassion they all obviously have for the main instrument of the industry. The horse itself. Many are describing things they've seen, and what's wrong with that ? you can't help what has happened in the past. But why bury head in sand ? Is good to chat about improvements made to horse care, and training attitudes. We all use to train or race harder with whips ,etc as well but that was the way it was done (last century) is great to see todays horse-people are condemning some of yesteryears actions , like the Showgate general care stuff , whip stuff, and more. I think this will help the Industry prosper again , rather than free-fall as you might be thinking.

6 months suspension for a drive that caused no inteference to others.? ? Because a young driver (Gemma Thornley) with Only '200' drives to her name? , driving a horse who is the winner of just 'One' race ?, on a day of weak grass track racing, was beaten to the punch by NZ leading driver Blair Orange? . AND you want 6 Months out for her ?? Plenty of drivers get held up for a run in lots of races ?????????. guess you could try and force a passage like these examples. TomBerry near killed fellow jockey B.Avdulla this year and only got 8 weeks suspension, HughBowman near killed A.Adkins last year and only got 6 weeks suspension. Both the horses ridden by Avdulla and Adkins 'were killed' in those incidents in Sydney. Lauren Penalla (Triton) now gone to America . BUT, In the 2014 Interdominion Grand Final at Menangle, she near Chopped the leg off the race favourite IM VICTORIOUS in the home straight. That Nz-bred horse repping for WA and Michael Brennan. He won 22 of 34 starts and $750k and was on the road to being a Superstar. NEVER raced again. leg hanging off. Imagine the scenes with the connections of all those horses??.......Lauren got 8 weeks suspension only. That's the reason I'm saying your 'penalty' call for Gemma Thornley is TOTALLY mean and un-necessary. worse things happen.

I think WOLF is seeing the New Brighton Cup , won by Samantha Ottley driving DI CAPRIO to beat the fav Classie Brigade (JD) There was some great driving as we often see from Sam. She was pretty 'Strong ' in the home straight might be what WOLF is suggesting. Does a great job on Way less horse-power than what Nat get's to drive. Anyone wants to see a GREAT YouTube article all about Sam Ottley and her history in the harness racing game , there is a SUPER 2018 interview by Greg on YouTube called OFF THE TRACK - Sam Ottley. fantastic stuff and well worth seeing/ re-seeing.

She (Gemma) was doing the best she could , after giving the horse a great trip in the running. Held up for a run because of the 'usual' great Blair Orange driving. LOTS Of Drivers get held up now and then you know. (or don't) Give em all 6 months then?? what a lot of ROT. you need to be charged with something first ? what's the charge ??? Incompetent driving? running and handling? out-driven by Blair Orange ? (there's a lot guilty of charge 3 right there) .......... or NOWORNEVER could look at the Kilmore Cup at the gallops yesterday if wants something more recent. The New Zealand horse JUSTACANTA ridden by Billy Egan, hopelessly held up from a very poor ride in a small field. running un-placed when should of won. That's on a galloper too, that doesn't even need the 'room' that Gemma required with her drive. (to get sulky through gap). NOW that deserved 6 months lol..... for incompetence. But he won't get anything. In Gemma;s case NEVER 6 months.

What a Crap heading to this thread. Thought the young lady must of done something bad. Appears to have given the horse a beautiful run 1-1 right from the start . and Blair O (a vastly more experienced and winning driver) whipped out so quick that she (Gemma) got stuck in behind the death-seat horse. Blair showing his skill once again. Such a shame for Gemma , as she may of won the race. (As Brodster said , could of pulled out 3 wide on the bend instead (before the rush of 3 -wide runners I spose) but to Give a young driver 3 Months for that ?????????? good grief........ poor headline......