Gammalite

AND for the Aussies some pretty good ones have trekked to NZ over the years. here are 3 of them....... Q4/ Amazingly this great horse Never Won in NZ in 3 starts there. (did win $130, 000 though) and with a stablename of Blackie and with his lovely trainer/ driver now training in NZ , this is an easy one !! lol.... Q5/ Vin Knight had the favourite for a Christchurch Interdominion Final , after impressive heat wins , but this horse went sore sadly , and had to scratch from the Grand Final. Who is he? Q6/ Another Christchurch Interdominion final saw this raider 'from the Wildwest' WA, zoom around Addington with great gusto and Win the Grand Final on Nz soil in true Gammalite tradition ?

Day 2 for names starting with B horses , see's some bloody beauties 'B' horses. (but certainly Not B grade) Q1/ A very handy SI trotter who 'Tussled' often with a few like Sir Castleton and Tussle , and often beat them too. Q2/ We were talking about Our Mana yesterday. This pocket rocket was one of the horses that beat Our Mana in a very big NZ race over 3200m in Nov. Q3/ PHOTO CLUE . who is this beauty ???

'Our Mana' won some sort of Bonus over there at Westport i think. 2 x seconds in the NZ Cup he got too. so close yet so far .................... Great mare 'Armalight' was a gem, and started favourite for Wolfie driving in the Auckland 83' Interdominion Final, but got caught parked out in the death alas. Battled on strongly for 4th. Everyone's favourite Aussie 'Gammalite' taking the victory after cosy passage trailing the leader all the way. Tough old war-horse lol....

Yes the boys have had decades of quite astounding success. Alas Barry doesn't seem to have a child to carry on the Purdon name at the famous Clevedon base . Mark has son Nathan doing a great job in Australia now training. His Top class filly 'AMORE VITA ' won extremely easily at Albion Park last night to make it 9 wins from 12 starts in Aus. Perhaps Mark's Nz-based son Michael could 'Do the Job ' now there ? He seems to have done a good job with the young trotter so far................. and with a bit of staff , and the owners, and a few more horses.... could continue the fine Purdon tradition.?

Yes after a long and distinguished career Barry deserves a good back-off now these days. done it all really. Nz and Oz too. Chokin and Holmes DG were banging out Miracle Mile wins one after another at one stage. Doubt any Aussie (probably even most kiwi's) would even recognise S Phelan from a photo . Has he even won a Group 1 there?? They had only one runner past 2 northern meetings. A stable of that history should be dominating you would think and have good numbers racing year round. Credit though for 'MERLIN' to them. training him for 4 out of 4 good 2 yearold wins in Summer for his QLD owner.

Blackie spot on with Kerryn being the first lady driver to win the NZ Cup in it's 112th running in 2015. 'Arden Rooney' was an ex-Allstars horse too, pushing Mark back into 2nd spot with Smolda in the 2015 Nz Cup. Just one week after Michelle Payne became the first (and only) female jockey to win the famous Melbourne Cup as well in its 155 years. Back tomorrow with some great 'B' harness horses. Can think of a good QLDer for that one Blackie lol.....

Q6/ Bonus question for horse in the A section then, that deserves a mention for creating history in NZ, for Australian trainer /driver Kerryn Manning ? Who is the horse and what was that piece of history ?

Great work by Furlong in naming the 3 NZ Cup winners in 'Arapaho' for Jack , and the great mares 'Adore Me' and 'Armalight' . and Barry on the board too, with 2 correct answers. 'Amazing Dream taking an Auckland Cup ( as did Arapaho and Armalight ) surprisingly I think Adore Me missed getting one of those ?. Mark' team have Won the last 6 Auckland Cups to make up for that oversight lol.... 'Alpine Fella' making the Grand Final at Addington 87' for Vin Knight but running unplaced.

Haahaha.. yep X or Z will Not be nominated lol. Can you Pin the topic for 24 days of Winter Chief? Thats the entire length of the Brissy one lol) and we'll see how the boys go ?

Just answer 1 question if thats all you want . That gives other harness fans a go through the Day as well. Q1/ Jack Smolenski didn't mind winning a Cup or 2 with this horse in either Island? Q2/ With a 2 mile win in about 3.55 and a mile win in Oz in about 1.47 not many could beat this mare? Q3/ Bob Negus didn't mind 'scurrying away ' with a Cup by 8 or 9 lengths with this one, according to Reon Murtha? Q4/ A recent Champion ,now gone to the USA, always giving her best and smashing out wins with her head down low trying hard? and THE AUSSIE? Q5/ a hard one , but the late great Vin Knight who failed to win an Interdominion , did qualify this horse for a Inter Grand Final on NZ soil, whose name begins with A.

To Remember some greats of the track and of course for a bit of Fun, and test your memory. In Alphabetical Order, Each Day I will post 5 CLUE's to see if anyone can figure out the Horses ................. FIRST DAY horse's name begins A, 2nd day B, and so on..... Will be about 4 NZ horses each day, and an Aussie horse (to acknowledge those) that I can think of that competed in NZ during it's career as well.

Now racing out of the leading Luke McCarthy barn , this old boy is a Superstar that missed out on a BIG winning career. 2018 saw JILLIBY KUNG FU run second in the Miracle Mile running about 1.48 odd himself !!! wow ! and leaving 2 Interdominion winners (and very well known NZ horses Lazarus and Tiger Tara ) struggling to keep up on that occasion . That's WHo the FU is lol..... now on the injury comeback trail. Tonight was winning at Albion Park for Luke McCarthy to make it 2 wins from 2 starts at that stable . Fu has had only 3 starts in past 4 years !!!!! Could of been anything . BTW Luke has toweled the locals up completely taking out the feature with ex-pat NZer SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS (has a heap of Aus and NZ owners still , so good on them) and also MAJOR JELLIS has bolted in again 2 from 2 in QLD for Luke in a solid 1.51 mile rate. Why couldn't Phelan and Barry win much with this horse at Auckland? Only 5th at Manawatu stand before leaving NZ in March . seriously? ?? the 'silver with blue spots' is going Very Ordinary these days since the great Roy Purdon passed away it seems.

2nd Day of the Royal Carnival at Ascot, has seen James McDonald win his second race overnight at the famous England racecourse. Coming from last (with an amazing tactical ride to follow Detori in the running) in a Straight Mile race on DARK SHIFT. winning easily in the end with a jock that is riding chock full of confidence at the moment. JMac doing a great job representing Australia and NZ in the worlds biggest race Week of the year. Don't forget to Get On HOME AFFAIRS in the Group 1 on Saturday night as he wins the Platinum Jubilee Stakes feature for Waller ,Oz and JMac. JMac is bullish about his chances now.

We had no broadcast in Aus this morning of NZ v Costa Rica from Qatar unfortunately so at the same time that was on England were playing Hungary and were thrashed 4-0 by the smaller soccer nation. was quite funny listening to the commentators in total disbelief at the upset and how it has England in complete disarray before the World Cup now. (they don't play again to Sept) World Cup is Nov. The Everest Champion is near champion of the world tonight. Watch out for Waller , JMac , and HOME AFFAIRS to do it all again on Saturday in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes Group 1 on Saturday. Another Big Win coming Up !!!!

Think I'll name a horse CHIEF STIPE if I race another one . Bound to get some favourable treatment in the stewards room with a name like that. NOODLUM name already taken by the great 2 yearold in the 1970's. But Naming your horse BRODIE ? mmmmmm , well could be more of a stable-name ok, but as a race-horse?? Would he even be fast enough to Qualify? Bit of a barrier Rogue in all likelihood as well lol......

1-0 down for the All-Whites overnight, so 'No World Cup' for NZ later in the year unfortunately. But chin Up Mikey !! Chris Waller and James MAc just did NZ Verry proud on the World Stage overnight !!! Winning the Kings Stand at 'Royal Ascot' (biggest race meet in the world being held each day this week) with NATURE STRIP blasting away from the field by 5 lengths !! (might just be better than Gammalite that horse lol....) And then Waller gave the Southern Hemisphere breeding and his and James Mac (the jock) NZ heritage a Big Plug during the World Broadcast post race Interview, and Thus, putting NZ on the Map !! excellent stuff.......

The English racing channel was brilliant all through the night. fantastic. they kept cutting to Simon Marshall back in Auss and our great Victorian commentator as well. What a Win by NATURE STRIP !!! blasting away from the field in the Kings Stand. (first run 1860) I think Waller with the Verry Elleegant Melbourne Cup and now Nature Strip conquering the world , he has surpassed Winx in performances. What a beauty. And more great news too, Chris Waller made sure he 'plugged himself' and James Mac as New-Zealanders during the interview to give their initial training/ learning country a Bit of Credit too. Bring on the Jubilee Saturday !!

Yeeeeeeessss ! The Aussie Socceroos are through to the 2022 World Cup vanquishing Peru just now.!! the Son and I were up at 4am kickoff to cheer them on, as is a HUGE thing for this sporting nation. wahoo. We will be back up at 4 tomorrow morning to Cheer full on for the NZ All Whites as well !!! Go kiwis to join the Aussies at the World Cup later in year. (It's bigger than the Olympics on a global scale ) May the footy gods see the All-whites through over Costa Rica Wednesday . com'on boys !! you can do it.

Here's a treat for you then Walt. A nice pic of Gina Marie parading for Jack after winning the NI Standardbred Breeders Stakes. She went on to make 'Open' Class as a four year old , but in that crop of 4 year olds were Lord Module, Locarno and Royden Scott so mares were not much chance against them in the feature races. (unless you are Delightful Lady lol...)

Gave the winning drive to my good friend gentleman Jim O'Sullivan as well for the Big Win at Moonie Valley. Was a thrill to see that race go. have heaps of clippings from those glory days. here's one now . nice one Jack and Jim !! Sir Castleton also winning an Interdominion in Australia (1984) for your great trotters . Getting revenge on Scotch Notch winning the trotters Inter GF at Auckland for the late Graeme Lang . the mighty legend Gammalite striking victory in the pacers section in both those years !!! 1983 and 1984

Fair enough. No money Trail through betting at corporates almost certainly means " why would it be a race-fix?" so why perservere chasing it as such . a No Win situation for sure....... You do need to investigate things that a complaint is lodged about to a degree. Many sexual assault cases are impossible to adjudicate as evidence is very sketchy , but the investigation still needs to happen , even though a No Win situation seems the imminent result on a lot of occasion. Personally I think the social media cry of 'planted' evidence by 'corrupt' officials in (INCA) etc is a bit much. How the hell would any of these social media experts know what was planted where ? etc.... seems rubbish to me. Agreed though , If NO evidence to proceed to trial . DROP IT , and 'Next Case please'.. bound to be more Alfords ? lol...

Agreed Chief, they do seem 'unwilling to prosecute ' in NZ . you almost need a confession lol..... In Aus they DID prosecute with the phone text and especially BETTING evidence which 'high-lighted' the fraud going on. Race-fixing in Aus is now called Match -fixing and is a criminal offence. You are arrested by police, It isn't an in-house penalty anymore controlled by stipes or anything . YES !! betting stings still happen. We had many in my day too. Usually just involved a good horse going to the front . No other drivers/ trainers were paid (as far as I know) ..... Race fixing involves 2 (or more) runners being driven in a manner to favour the 'Plunge' horse. as you know . these are the ones INCA and Aus authorities are interested in. To Galah , myself and others that have driven races we can spot those, compared to a plunge runner backed from 4's to even money because we know it is a good fast horse.

Possibly Chief. ANy evidence gathered is good for getting that what is needed to get rid of the cheats. Usually a betting sting or a race fixing sting would involve 'Phone communication' Convictions were made in QLD from the evidence texts of a disqualified person who 'currupted ' a trainer and driver(s) to get his 3k bet on . A very sad situation , but the folk did their time and are back in action. (apart from the MORON who texted them . And they are once again getting some good winners at Albion. Wish these DQ gambling F'Heads would piss off and leave the active participants alone IMO. ...

Incredible Win . Was there that day to marvel at that one. Just a magic moment in time when something like that happens. Rough Habit coming from 'back of Bourke' in the running to get the win . It reminded me of Jimmy on KIWI in the Melbourne Cup 10 years before that. 2 of the best from Pumper Jim.

Pretty ordinary standing start. 4 gallopers enough to cause plenty of pain to punters and trailing horses . as are not used to that caper. 'Ban the stand' I say lol ... The 2 Backmarkers off 20m were WAY Too Good . Mach Shard and Turn It Up easily running the Quinella. and old mate , a beaut ex-pat kiwi LL COOL J , a former Herlihy horse completing a handy $60 Trifecta. Absolute certainty beat by not getting clear run. Finished HARD HELD on back of winner , never getting a crack. very unlucky indeed. $1.50 place div here. (unfortunately I only had him for a win as couldn't resist the $4.40 on offer lol.) but anyway will win by Panels next week if draws front line.