TAB For Ever

The House is on Fire ! Horses run well for Wilson..... Meanwhile Dad moans and groans but he works the system and gets a lot of his horses into winnable races !

Well folks.....I'm all set for the big night...should be a cracker. Good fields , some good value there with wide draws etc and I do think Orchestral not in best form ...time will tell. Craig Williams ,Blake Shinn and a few Aussie Horses should add to the puzzle. The Admission fee seems steep but ....worth it ...yes ! Its a Grand Tour Event so there will be a band and music etc and decent afterparty.I heard it will be The Eagles ! In the shortened time frame the food options will be adequate.....contrary to some gossip the Hot Chips @ $7 are good value ! Tomato sauce free. As is the Shoeshine ! And any rowdy youngsters are locked away in their own party room , while BGP with 850 attending are upstairs in public stand. BGP pool is building and 500 participants will get Bonus bet from TAB. By far and away the best days racing in NZ , should be great ! See you there !

Yes , I thought all Cowans were Aka !! I have no race records at all , but I remember Show Gates brother well....Show Keeper a gelding. There were a couple others who showed promise as Colts but went amiss. Going Some and Troilus ! Show Keeper won once at 3 and with bad form started fresh at 4 over 2000m at Gore , possibly ridden by Steven Crutchley and it won paying $45 ! The next season he looked really good and was working the house down ...Gordon used the stop watch on all fast work and declared tho he was resuming in the 2200m Ashburton Cup he really should be in the Open 1200m such was his times ! He duly led all the way and won by 5 lengths fresh up at 2200m ! Gordon always looked out for good young jockeys and he nailed Brent Thompson for the 1975 NZ Cup but he got stuck on the rails for an unlucky 5th , the Cup being won by Heidseck. Maybe you remember Show Keeper.

Looked similar to 2005 Kelt Capital when Xcellent swept up wide and got knocked inside from a horse right on the point of the turn . Check it out on youtube !

Aaaaahhhhhh the memories Doomed... Having lived next door to Show Gate for several years I have kept a few of the 'articles' to remind me of her uniqueness ! And pottering around with Gatekeeper too quite 'fun' for a very young chap.Fortunately he was a quiet stallion with good nature [and a dip in his back] Unsure if he even raced ,may had had a couple but I know the Champ sire down the road at Andertons ,Mellay was unraced ! Mellay [mum of The Pixie] was NZ leading sire in 1976-77,2nd the previous year and two years following including 1978-79 when Gatekeeper was Champion NZ sire. Show Gate won the Timaru Cup in 1976 ridden by Nick Harnett the day after winning Dunedin Gold Cup [2400m] ridden by Chris Ramage who could not make the Timaru weight. Nick Harnett worked at Andertons but often went to Gordon Thomsons later in morning to ride work ! Andertons often used Gordon's 1600m track [the old Wingatui/Mosgiel racetack] to exercise horses in the afternoon. This was kinda a contra deal ! 1977 Timaru Cup won by Greek Magic [Ray Harris]..Grey Way 3rd as 7 yr old. 1978 Timaru Cup won by Catastrophe part-owned by Dunedin mayor and fish-baron Cliff Skeggs ,from Polly Porter a very good Gatekeeper mare trained by Prue Wright[Winton] 1979 Timaru Cup won by Grey Way[Aka Cowan] a 9 yr old. From Tuis Lass , a Gatekeeper mare who won the NZ St Leger [2800m] at Trentham ,trained by Jim McKay who was the local Horse Transporter !.Third was Napiat..... sire Taipan spelt backwards. Gatekeeper did a great job as a sire , Gordon must have served 10-15 of his own mares annually then took limited outside mares. Dandyman was another good Wingatui horse.[ Cec Wallis/ JD Pankhurst ]. Many of his best were mares...Artifice ,Annenic etc Gatekeeper was related to Rain Lover [ Melbourne Cup in 1968 and 1969 ] Gatekeeper was by Alcide from Hortentia [by Precipitation] Rain Lover was by a sire Latin Lover who was by Ribot from Hortentia. Gordon Thomson studied the Stud Books. For a time he was the only chicken-sexer in the South Island . Great memories !

Dunno why you resent One Change winning a race....his first for close on two years ! He's been carted all around the South Island boosting up the starters to ensure races go ahead and often starting off prohibitive marks. 30 metres and more !

Was it Mark Twain who coined the phrase Lies , Damned Lies and Statistics ? What's the conclusion from your Data Analysis.....two small clubs who race once a year in the holiday season against two city tracks who hold many of NZ's Group and high stake races. Ellerslie races 20 plus times a year Trentham about 10. Should many of these City meetings be moved to the West Coast. ??......should Reefton be moved to Kumara, the town with 285 residents usually does twice the Turnover of Reefton and Greymouth. ? Kumara oncourse does 3 x oncourse what the other 2 do.....so close in dates,does this mean the other 2 x Coast towns do a lousy job ?? Did your calculations allow for the 'extra' money that goes to Clubs in order for them to run their meetings ? Jockey Tina Comignaghi won 5 x races at Reefton ...probably earned around $2,500 from winning stakes .Had she won 5 x races at Trentham including the 2 x group ones she could have earned up to $36,000. Sometimes life is just not fair . Maybe if there was no Group races ,with decent stakes there would be no horses to race on the Coast cos many of those horses start off in pursuit of Group racing in the North...at Kurow it was 8 of 10 winners and many also rans and I'm confident the Coast was similar. Would racing in NZ today survive if every race had the same stake or would Owners head to Australia ?? Maybe it is as described ....A big Ponzi Scheme .

The Dennis Brothers ...a fantastic Farming family who bred and trained some fantastic horses. I was pottering around stables as a kid when they raced the elderly very white horse The Wanderer around southern tracks often ridden by Brian Anderton . The Twinkle and The Fantasy were both Gatekeeper - The Pixie and often raced each other quinellaing several races at Wingatui and also battling against Mellseur a very good horse of young Hec [ HT ] Anderton. He split them in the Timaru Cup , Another Timaru Cup [ Doomed's fav race ] The Dimple beat The Twinkle ...I think....with my neighbours Sporting Show [ Honey Crepe -Showgate ] third. The Dimple was Noble Bijou - The Pixie . Gatekeeper was stood by Gordon Thomson [ Showgate] and he bred some very good horses including Showgate , Artifice , Tuis Lass , Sporting Show etc.The Twinkle was among the best and raced well at Ellerslie. The Dennis Bros horses often ridden by AK [ Ali ] Robinson who I saw and spoke to at Cup week in November. He started as an apprentice with DG Oneil at same time as AJ Tweedie.

And Choise Achiever beat Auckland Reactor [Mark Purdon] into second in Hunter Cup !

And for a bonus point I'll nominate another little known victor who scored two wins at the recent Blenheim meeting [ on all-weather.], back in the day ! He had his first start in colours of his small breeder/trainer , before Tim Butt took him to Blenheim to win his second start ... And a year later he won the Group 4 yr old pace @ Blenheim ...his 10th win from first 13 starts. Overall he didn't win many more......overall 13 x wins Name...... Choise Achiever .

I'll score an early point with possibly one of the lesser known Tim Butt winners ...Mah Sish . Began his career with a good run of wins out of the Dean Taylor barn. Obviously liked Australia and the longer races , winning nearly $800 k of his career earnings of $950 k in Australia.

I'll go for B , with some bonus points. Runner up was Giovanetto , then Christopher Vance , then The Bru Czar.

BOUNCE...... Wellington Cup Day my favourite EVER race day , usually visited from the South Island and a race targeted by many of my Otago/Southland neighbours. So I revive my 'pretty good' thread from 2024 ,over 2000 views !!! But can't help wondering why a few South Islanders don't give the race a crack....especially after the recentb placings of Blueys Chance and Sulu Sea plus the lack of class opposition. I note a South Island trained and ridden winner today...track specialist too ! Doomed will be ecstatic !!

The Aussies sure knew how to swing the persuader back in the day.....Vin Knight I remember wave to crowd the entire straight ! The close finishes were punishing !

Middle on left ......lock in Preux Chevalier ...black with white hoop on sleeves. NZ bred by Lumber Dream ,the same as Robalan . Middle on right with white bridle ......a guess @ Pure Steel The top right , a wild punt on Westburn Grant . Bottom two are quite small photos ,hard to nail any clues !

A lot of Number 1 horses.... Top left , God with maltese cross is Vin Knight so Popular Alm or Our Maestro . Guessing Gammalite and Pure Steel in there too !

The compact little stallion Master Mood was the result of a chance meeting between Trainer/Driver Kevin Williams ,his Dad and a Dunedin Fruit shop owner ,Mr Wong and his son.They met while buying some carrots and got MM from a mating of Noodlum and a low cost mare Moods [ Lordship] So quite a tie in with previous Cups...Lordship etc and I think Kevins wife Bonnie was daughter of Cups king Cecil Devine .

Runnerup definitely Iraklis...trained by RM Cameron and driven by Ricky May. An interesting twist was that Danny Campbell [ RIP ] had worked for Cameron and for a time was regular driver of Iraklis before Ricky May took over. Then as Cullen emerged May found himself having to make a choice so he chose NZ Cup winner Iraklis over the rising star CC , so Campbell then became the regular of CC. AT Cup time and around that time CC was unstoppable !

No takers Gamma in over 12 hours !!!! Gotta be Christian Cullen , the white breast plate and young driver Danny Campbell tell me that. Then the DB Draught signs, the sun's shadows and huge crowd suggest its Cup Day ...about 1998. If that is number 15 second it gotta be a Group 1 horse starting off maybe 10 or 'unruly' so maybe Iraklis or Holmes DG from that era .

95% of punters lose their dough ...so all this within the margin of error ! Hindsight is easy ...also of interest there were two selectors in the racebook with 3 x selections per race. One picked the big O second ,the other 3rd ! Supports widely held view that punting is a mugs game......I also heard several predictions before the race that Shamus would make it a sedate work out with a sprint home ...so far no surprises ! Everyone was shouting Tale of the Gypsy from the rooftops in race 2 ...it managed 4th of 7. If punting was easy , everyone would do it !

For what it's worth , prior to the race , next to mounting yard I spoke to 6x folk who follow racing closely including a form analyst ,jockeys agent and a studmaster and not one thought or expected Orchestral to win and Acquarello was the favoured selected .A few added O as the lay of day ,or year to date ! If its about the money ,the 5th to 10th wasn't paid out and the club contributed $15 k .

Well you have a weird way of showing your enjoyment !

This day qualifies as bigger and better than any previous raceday in NZ ....no need to try and devalue it ! I believe it is the first NZ Thoroughbred Slot race.......I attended the others in Harness. The stake money is unprecedented in NZ....a record ! The day includes 4 x Group 1 races ......a first ! The Derby and Auckland Cup on same day.......a first ! As for talking the wagering on ONE day or one race, this is a new tactic employed by negaholics trying to score points for ....god knows why ! Racing fans are being offered many new experiences at the moment , increased stakes at all levels and unprecedented opportunities for their horses no matter what their ability. Get on the train if you choose !

Well , to me in the 'glass half full society' this is New Zealand and not bloody Australia....this is bigger and better than any raceday in NZ.And likely to trigger plenty of Australian interest as well ! Sorry Doomed ,you shouldn't be counting Australian racing .....and certainly not HARNESS slot races. Get serious champ !