Gammalite

Well America was always gunna pull out of Afghanistan by September .they said it at beginning of year. Australia were out earlier this year and think UK pulled out 2014 or something like that. Same thing happened when the American 's pulled out of Saigon at end of Vietnam War. all the communists were coming into town then , as the Taliban are right now in Afghanistan. fully prepared. why is everyone so surprised? Should be more peaceful now. for world peace I reckon at least. Was pointless staying there for any Western nation. better to leave that damned place to it's own demise. Yes i do feel sorry for the women and girls , who lose any chance of study and go back to strict Sharia Law. the poor things, but what can you do ? bloody backward places in the world are mostly middle east.

Best of luck to you and all the NZ horsepeople. ! hopefully ok to go get the feed and race your horses still. If the state of the racing industry in Australia is anything to go by, as has continued racing through the tough times and many lockdowns. still going now , even with total lockdown NSW with Kensington on today. An essential service indeed, as gives thousands something to entertain/ and spend their money on at home still . Better than Olympics !!

Com'on Forbs, you're missing the point of the article. No lies about people ? as you are saying There's nothing in article about being the 'Best in The World' ? that you are crapping on about. It was about being the best (most wins) in VICTORIA Metro races for the season. facts are all there for you Forbs !!! JAMIE KAH and KATE GATH are the Winners and grinners of the just finished seasons Victoria Metro premierships so like it or not. ......who cares who's winning in America.

Kate doing a 'Kah' and winning the Vic Metro premiership !! now that is impressive!!. however a Bit lucky that Nat is cleaning up Queensland and NZ though lol..... If she was in Victoria driving, Kate wouldn't know what way she went ? hehehe That old trotter and Kate Gath had just won the Trotting Interdominion in that photo end of 2018!!. No wonder Kate is beaming with delight !! great result. Tornado Valley (from NZ where won 7 of 57 starts in his first 3 seasons racing, so solid 'ground-work laid in NZ) for him to come to Aussie and win 31 of 50 starts at GATH stable past 3 seasons as an aged horse. Including the last 2 Great Southern Stars !! What a fantastic old boy he is !!

What a great little horse VINCENT was karrots !! 8 starts in Aus for 7 wins and then a mug Oz driver smashed the tyre off the rim of Mark's sulky in the Victoria Derby $200k race (which he would of won) so cost him dearly. Mark Purdon would still be spitting chips about that 10 years on I reckon.!!! I am fond of Vincent because my last trip to Melbourne I went down with good friends Leigh and Pam Smart for the Vic Oaks as he had two great fillies in the one year from Qld !! 'DONT FALL FOR ME' (who had won NSW Oaks) and 'TOO SMART FOR YOU', they were both beaten by VINCENTs mum !! a mare named KEPT FOR PLEASURE who won that Vic Oaks well indeed , and the Australian Oaks a month later. she was a real Beauty !! 19 wins from 37 starts and 1/2 $mil !!! Leigh is a terrific bloke (now retired) and now gives the foals of 'TOO SMART FOR YOU' to Vicki Rasmussen these days and one of them 'SMART AS CAMM BE' won 17 out of 23 starts last year, and $200k, before tendon issues set in unfortunately.

Personally , I would congratulate Brodster as he is clever enough to be in the 'Winning few" JJ . You and I return a profit as well, as can probably study the form better than most. Those restrictions suck , as even the 'winners' must lose on occasion , as you can't cover every race variable. I just stick to good winning horses drivers and jockeys that eliminates the 'Not classy enough' problem altogeather. My son won a LADBROKES (huge international bookie) picking competition one week ($1000) and has been excluded from entering any Ladbrokes comp ever since ?? He refuses to bet with them now Lol.... cheapskates. make 100's of thousands a week but don't want someone winning twice !!!!!!!!!!! lol............

In the trotting ranks MAJESTIC SON is a no-brainer at $5000 if you want a trotting foal. !!!! being the sire of currnet Group 1 winners Sundee's Son and Majestic Man leading the way. Pacers ? well Lazarus failed to get the Aussie mares in foal ??? so has been sent back to Alabar as well , to see how Majestic Son does it maybe ? lol........ the Aussie girls too tough for Lazarus? lol.... Too hot in NSW apparently ? lol. give him a go there ? as best stallion to of raced in NZ and Aus so try for one half as good ???

The biggest disappointments for harness trainers and drivers are when the horse goes amiss. Is quite a normal event though , as they do have plenty of issues, just like human athletes at any level do as well . Sprains and strains send careers down the drains !!! In these tough times (and even over the years) harness racing trainers and drivers can just walk off and do something else, like farrier , stud-master, horse breaker , etc,etc as I have seen many do. one trainer even took the QLD handicapper job I applied for. those folk all make more money than the trainer / driver generally. Bris drivers not too bad, with not much travel involved and about 20 drives each per week for the band of 20 regular race drivers. Would be hard to get a dollar race driving in NZ for sure and certain!! . Just not enough drives to go round to make a living?? (esp meaning the young generation)

gee Karrots , that's a sad story with the cyclist you mentioned. think the young lady must of been depressed from not making the Olympic team this year. sport at the top level contains massive disappointments at times. Such a tough thing , with the hours of training , and you can't obtain the level you once had , or want to achieve. You can only hope the athletes enjoy what they do , as well as make money from it , at times. my daughter is 24 so felt particularly sad for this family of Olivia's too. Harness racing is generally fun for the participants , afterall the horses do the bulk of the running, Cycling is a very hard and gruelling training/ draining lifestyle to compete at International level. Here's the paste news on The young cyclist ......................... Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore has died aged 24. The New Zealand cycling community has been shocked by her sudden death on Monday, confirmed by her family in social media posts. Mitchell Podmore, brother of Olivia, posted on Facebook: “Rest in peace to my gorgeous sister and loved daughter of Phil Podmore. You will be in our hearts forever.” Podmore, from Canterbury, represented New Zealand at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the women’s team sprint event and rode at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships that year. Podmore won silver in the team sprint and bronze in the time trial at the Junior World Champs in Astana in 2015. Natasha Hansen, left, and Olivia Podmore of New Zealand celebrate with their gold medals following the Womens Team Sprint at 2019 world championships.Source:Getty Images She was also the 2017 national keirin champion. In an Instagram post earlier on Monday — since removed — Podmore outlined the pressures of competing at the highest level. “Sport is an amazing outlet for so many people, it’s a struggle, it’s a fight but it’s so joyous,” she wrote. “The feeling when you win is unlike any other, but the feeling when you lose, when you don’t get selected even when you qualify, when your injured, when you don’t meet society’s expectations such a owning a house, marriage, kids all because [you’re] trying to give everything to your sport is also unlike any other.”

Embryo Transplant ? no , don't know about that. or who it is. Fun Fact for enthusiasts from the 80's in NZ . The Albatross stallion VANCE HANOVER provided a Massive boost to the industry , with having crops of around 400 foals for a few seasons. (FOUR hundred ! wow ! what an incredible amount of foals. thanks to Artificial Insemination and a cheap $500 stud fee . Up to $2000 after first 2 crops. So they swamped the races for a few seasons ! setting all sorts of records. Had First 5 seasons in Auckland area at cheap rate. then a season or 2 Canterbury at $6000. dropped dead from all that work at 17 years old ! no wonder lol.... That is one way to get a big Boost with plenty of horses (foals on the ground to race). Maybe they should re-visit a saturation idea like that , if NZ running low now, on racing horse numbers?

*@%*&@# 82.6% of the Vote ????? Bloody hell ! what a rip off !!! Gammalite would of parked outside Lovely Natalie and her pet Blackie and ground them down like a unstoppable freight train.!lol.... Lazarus taking care of I'm the Mightyquinn with 60% of the vote in their match-race. The Grand Final a true Interdominion with BLACKS A FAKE (Qld) v LAZARUS (NZ) as the kiwi rep. (Nat lucky enough to driven both of them in races!), what an honour to of sat behind the 2 very best of the modern era. Semi Final 1- Iron horse battle for two multiple ID winners that never won a Miracle Mile Blacks A Fake- 105: 72-19-5 68%win S/R v Gammalite- 179: 94-33-19 53% win S/R Blackie 82.6% Gammalite 17.4% Semi Final 2- The Battle of Aotearoa for two ID winners in the West that both finished 3rd in a Miracle Mile Im TheMightyquinn- 111: 58-21-13 $4.567m v Lazarus- 51: 37-8-4 $4.125m Quinny 39.6% Laz 60.4%

Geez thats some pretty poor spelling on your stamp there Karrots ! lol. a great old bloke named George Smith in NZ ,raced a crazy horse CONFIDENTIAL back when I was a lad. It was a crazy animal..lol.. how it won 3 races is a mystery never to be solved lol....

Should they run a mares race each week NZ with preferential draw for their rating Chief?? I love this idea for mares that can win at the out of town tracks , so they are trying to breaking into the better prizemoney city races (say at Addington and Auckland) as Brisbane does at Albion each Saturday night. A mare 'Qualifying ' race is run and this week has range 48 rating (gets the 1 alley) through to a 70 rating (gets the 10 alley) Everyone gets a chance to win !! excellent. A race provided for mares !! excellent. Put a junior on and improve your barrier draw !! with a class concession !! gives a junior a go if desired ! excellent and excellent. obviously if you win too many of these you would be in against the boys (at equal rating) in the next class up. 80-90 rating.

Checked out the corresponding meeting last year . 9 races with average 9 runners for Addington. so about 15 more horses than this years mid August meeting this Friday. I think losing a race (8 this week compared to 9 last year) is a serious issue as chief says , instant 13% drop in punting revenue. Is so important to keep the RACE numbers up. As you will have the problem of horses starting Out of their depth against higher class runner. A problem Brodster and chief have spotted in last 2 posts. A very Bad thing. I wouldn't start My horse in a race where seemed no chance. out of depth. (Not counting group races with that comment) And the VERY concerning thing is 5 of the winners from that meeting 12 months ago have been SOLD OFF or now racing overseas in past year inc. Paramount princess, Arden Messi, Spellbound ,Alta sensation ,etc,etc and several placegetters too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! never to be seen again? the quality dips dramatically as you lose the best ones, so some punters lose interest betting on the remainder. very concerning if not replaced with more quality runners???

If it comes down to Interdominion Wins with Aus v NZ then the Final 8 line up like this Blacks A Fake 4 Grand final wins , and 2 Grand final placings Im the Mightyquinn and Our Sir Vancelot with 3 Grand final wins each Gammalite and Hondo Gratten with 2 Grand final wins each Lazarus 1 Grand final win Pure Steel and Popular Alm 2 Interdominion Grand final placings each. Looks like Nat ?? and Blackie then.

Voting being conducted on twitter has seen the TOP 8 ready to face off in the quarter finals. The great Gammalite has knocked off Village Kid , and should have NO Trouble with Hondo Gratten. A coming match against the horse in the back image photo here, the great Qlder Blacks A Fake and Nat, seems a bit more of a worry !!!!! lol..... Go Gamma ! Lazarus against Popular Alm !!! wow that would of been a beauty. ! give an arm to see that go. here's the results so far ................... Anyone picking the winner ? or do you just see Gammalite taking it out ? lol............

Lydia Ko did so well there yesterday !, getting bronze in the golf. (After play-off hole for silver). The Aus lass was 5th not far off. Time for Karrots to get out on the Cambridge Golf course and start swinging ?? whack out some divots to try and qualify for ladies golf in Paris for NZ 2024?? Com'on Karrots , you can do it. !

Copy That and Amazing Dream , Self Assured , any horse good enough for NZ Cup or Auckland Cup just have to be set for the Top class races in NZ and Aus. they can pay their way easily. The problem lies in the need for 'Everyday pacer and trotter' having races available to race in all year round , to pay their way. Only 15% of horses that actually get to the races return a profit. (There's a large number of Gallopers and standardbreds that don't even get to have one start either). People race them for the fun and love of the game, rather than to actually make money. The handicapping system needs to PROVIDE races that are winnable for all horses looking for a race start. Last Tuesday a friend of mine had a win with his horse , an 11 year old kiwi bred Lancelot Bromac having his 425th race start .!!! . He has been able to get a start week-in week-out for years in a class where can be competive, He's not fast enough for Saturday nights metro racing but , pays his way midweek racing. still. You need handicapping that allows horses like this to go round every week. or they will be sold off as happens now in NZ.

Fantastic Karrots.!! See you in Brisbane then in a few years where you can re-live some of the experiences !! I thoroughly enjoyed Melbourne 2006 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth games , going to as many events I could get tickets for with the kids. Won't be going to track cycling though. I've just spat out my sandwich as all the girls were crashing just now in Omnium, at 60-80 kph , and just can't bear watching that.!!! Is getting like MOTO GP with the high powered motorbikes , Just going that FAST they lose control , and people get badly hurt. so don't watch motobikes anymore either. The Olympic cycling had that many crashes it was becoming awful. The kiwi bloke in the team pursuit, the Aussie's had a crash too, and Denmark. It's just getting crazy stupid. so so dangerous.

Yes , thankfully some u-beaut kiwibreds from the Bris carnival last month have hung around . TOMMY LINCOLN wins ok tonight. and ALTA ORLANDO runs down our best of Colt Thirty One to win yet again for the Dunn's (owners) . alas SMOKIN BY (Kerr's horse from there) was driven quietly into 5th , stopped me getting the 100-1 treble with those 3 nice kiwi-bred horses.!! had a tenner on it too. At Menangle NSW, the Grimson and ex-pat kiwi Jack Trainor 'Superbarn' was in fine action again !!!, being in 6 of the 8 races and winning 4 of them yet again. They'll be ahead of McCarthy's soon ?!!! lol......... keep swabbing boys lol.....

I would of gone women's soccer penalty shoot-out as a Brilliant Psychological 'Win' Ludwig. was quite amusing. Overnight, the womens Gold medal match and Sweden (who unfortunately knocked Matildas out ) v Canada and went to Penalty shoot-out, at the end , after scores tied during regular time. The Canadian goalie Labbe', absolutely 'Psyched out ' her Swedish opponents as they stepped up for their attempts at a penalty goal. she was Right in their face. jumping around on the line. staring em' down. she did the lot . and they missed 3-4 shots accordingly !!! quite extraordinary.

Well that article does show a dire situation. Not enough horses left for racing = No racing in the future , at that rate of decline. Today 60% of Australia's population (Mel,Syd,Bris,Newcastle) is in lockdown as covid cases excellerate , getting out of control. Amazingly the harness racing and horse racing continues in those areas unabated ? (Not sure how it is an essential service) so many folk told to 'Stay at home' and their businesses struggle to stop the spread. Where as the harness folk , are travelling all over the place? some things don't make sense. Like hotel quarantine being conducted in Major cities .... lol. with 3 planes from India every week still coming in lol... Did they think it could be contained ? lol. I could of told them straight up THATs NOT POSSIBLE. And now, An estimated 10,000 people a day lose their jobs in Australia this week from it. protestors arrested in Melbourne. all getting a bit stressing/depressing. They will be trouble next week, once the 'Olympics Distraction ' feel-good moments dry up , that's for sure. Anyway , we were lucky enough to have that July window between lockdowns , and see the great kiwi representation at Brisbane last month racing at Albion Park, and the great efforts by Ray Green's horses in the article above. Great stuff by Ray there!!!. AND At least Super Horses Copy That and Krug went back home again !! thank goodness , so you can still get to see them race in NZ later in year.

You've got that bug in your bonnet alongside the mile racing mate. Telfer, Herlihy, Purdon, Hughes, Hackett all winning at Auckland last night. And all Very accomplished horsepeople. What is the problem FFS? Haven't seen any punters myself ,saying "oooh thats a mile race , I'm not betting on that , I want 2500m to ease my mind " lol....... The shorter races are commonplace USA and Australia as Horses recovery is better , makes it easier for the Trainers mate ! and the drivers ! sorry if you think punters can't get a bet on. not correct IMO. They Can't all drive and win every near 2 mile race going like Mark and Allstars horses did. ?? Imagine how flat your horse would be after a couple of goes at that.? Tiger Tara at his peak, even found that out.

Yes that Marburg is for the 'show' horses or poor locals needing a win in that area. (you wouldn't see Dixon or Rasmussen there) More punters could be attracted with 'regular ' racing. Instead of Southland area, or Waikato area racing every second week for $10,000 races. For the same 'Available prizemoney,' They should race Every Week of Year for $5000 races. (more $dollars for feature races of course) THEN you end up with more winning horses, therefore more winning owners (likely to stay interested) and Punters likely to get some 'form' to follow . and then have a bet as a result ? It all becomes regular , just like going to work for normal workers day-in , day-out to pay your way . This is the case around Brisbane 5-6 days a week. weekly races are practically the horses 'fast-work' each week. There is one MASSIVE problem. You can't 'SET' horses for particular races . you're just playing for luck week to week, waiting your turn to draw well , and get the win. and just go round and round. Therefore when Feature Group Races come round to be run , BIG stables that can SET horses will clean up , as what happens with McCarthy and Allstar runners Every Year. they just win.

2 year old racing can now be spread out through the whole year !! instead of just a few months in first half of each year. a terrific advantage. The biggest race carnival of the year (NZ CUP week) can now have the 2 year olds racing ! will be fantastic.