Ludwig

Great achievement in gaining 1000 career driving wins . Not bad for a lad based in the south.

I agree. And as he said, it's his first go on the grass track at Riccarton, which many commentators say has many difficulties for a caller. I presume he was doing a fiil in job, so good on him.

Have a cup of Milo, get a good night's sleep, and tomorrow do something useful, like volunteer at the soup kitchen.

I did also wonder about the ageing starting crew. Would some younger more energetic attendants help?

These are becoming even more shambolic. Why let the field go when one horse has its leg entangled with the tape? Why let the field go when horses are pointing the wrong way. Some of the efforts today at Hawera were dreadful. How can this be presented as a professional business when standing starts are worse than amateur. Not good enough.

I keep hearing about gimmicks to try and attract people back to Cambridge and Alex Park. Yet the one proven successful "gimmick" that drew in the public, owners, trainers and horse numbers was grass track racing. So here's a good idea_lets get rid of it. I still don't get it. Shall we focus on headline acts for the Race? Or focus on what has worked successfully in getting public numbers and horse numbers up?

What I find sad, is that the two feature races at Riccarton today were the Marlborough Cup and the Timaru stakes. Any predictions as to what other provincial features will soon become a Riccarton feature? The Timaru cup? The Kumara Nuggets? The Reefton cup? All very sad.

The only issue that matters is are they competent at their job. What they wear is irrelevant.

Wow. That's a remarkable trio of friends to have in your mob. Just add Prince Harry and paradise would be complete.

The Race continues to baffle me.. It keeps being touted as the next best thing in harness racing. But at the same time, the Cambridge club is calling emergency meetings to discuss the growing crisis in harness, particularly in the north. So how many new owners, trainers, supporters did the Race attract?

So who was pulling the strings to ensure the meeting was called off?

What has the word, Miss, got to with anything?

I miss Sergeant Dan, the Cremota Man

The only topic of conversation on that site appears to be, Bag Mr Brodie. Very sad. I think they're just jealous that their site is full of has beens who couldn't handle energetic, mischievous debate.

Just wondering about the excessive number of trotters breaking in the south. At recent meetings, there have been more gallopers than trotters . Today's meeting at Omakau had one trotting race, in particular, that was shambolic. It is often the same horses, but what action do the stewards take? The odd warning on the odd horse., and a slap on the wrist. It's really not good enough. Time standards were enforced and the public given a more acceptable product.

The thing that concerns me, is in a small community like Kaikoura, how many people saw and knew something, yet did nothing. ? Animal cruelty in any form must not be tolerated.

Very pleased to hear Craig Rail doing the commentary at Invercargill today. I find his calls very easy to listen to, is accurate and well informed. Needs to be used more.

I was watching Basil Fawlty last night. I assume he's a close relative to some of those managing NZ racing.

A few years ago, this was a big pre Christmas weekend meeting. Lots of firms held their staff dos there. Now it's buried on a Wednesday afternoon. I don't understand this need to wreck previously popular and successful provincial events. Was it moved to make room for the big events at Addington?

Certainly they are serious charges. But let's not forget, presumed innocent until found guilty.

Has anyone been fired/ walked the plank/ resigned for the Cup day debacle?

Just 45 at Auckland. Woeful. Yet last week at Orari nearly four times that number, yet it's the course they want to close. Madness.

Theres a Beethoven concert on tomorrow. Full house, sold out!!

Agreed.

It's fascinating that the tracks where the problems are occurring are the higher profile tracks such as Awapuni and Riccarton. Yet smaller centres such as Reefton seem to cope just fine. Perhaps it should be the smaller successful clubs who offer advice to the city ones, rather than the other way round.?