curious

I presume they'll also report any beach work and whether they did any work with high altitude training masks.

I'm sure we'll get penetrometer readings across every metre of AMI stadium on Saturday before we have a bet. And given both teams are last start winners that should make it pretty straight forward. I'm hoping there will also be a declaration shortly of what headgear each of the players will be wearing, and what drugs they had during training in the last week.

You've seen ONE horse sweating after Lasix administration and generalised that to the whole population? And, you don't even know the sweating was caused by the Lasix. Next you'll be saying you've seen one horse win with blinkers first time and draw some remarkable conclusion that you can also apply that to the whole population.

Sad day at the office really but why don't they consider racing at a more suitable time of year for a track with no irrigation?

Given that thee is no legislation in effect on product fees, does that mean that the NZRB have finally taken up BFs long ago offer to pay them and struck a deal anyway?

too right! and we need someone like him to head up the NZRB and NZTR as well.

What comparative times? Training gallops? You surely don't use training gallop times as part of your assessment do you? If they gallop faster because they are 15kgs lighter as a result of Lasix administration, that surely can't make any difference on raceday.

Quite correct Kopia. They are an advanced form of turf track, altogether different from synthetics. That said, they rely on superior drainage for the type of performance you see at the likes of Mooney Valley. I'm not sure that will be feasible at some existing major NZ venues like Awapuni or Ellerslie which are built in swampy holes. Good for moisture retention and summer racing when established in pre-irrigation days, but now pretty much hopeless a lot of the year. Ideally, they'd seek out new venues for Strathayr's if they are economically feasible but I'm not aware of any feasibility studies having been done in NZ for them or any other type of AWT. As I said, I have no idea where this idea of synthetics has suddenly emerged from. Hopefully, we will all be enlightened shortly. If it had been up to me we would have been building a Strathayr every year or two for the last 15 years but NZTR in their wisdom chose to waste all their money on stakes and spend nothing on track infrastructure.

I appreciate your confidence Hesi but I am no expert on synthetic tracks. I know a bit about Strathayr's, not much about the other synthetics except that most of those laid in the US have been torn up. Some pretty quickly. Go ahead organisations like Keeneland are willing to try things that seem innovative and sound but also willing to revert if they don't work, so are a good example. They did the same thing with takeouts last year, proved themselves wrong, and corrected promptly. http://www.drf.com/news/keeneland-rolls-back-some-takeout-increases-spring-meet I don't understand why we are suddenly talking about synthetics here. I think they are a disaster waiting to happen but hopefully we'll get more info soon on what the plan is and the rationale.

How do you know what they ride like Huey? Tell us more.

Step one at the NZRB/ TAB level is as below. A little goes a long way. Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., will restore lower takeout rates for many of its wagers during the track’s upcoming spring meet, three months after drawing the ire of the horseplaying community for raising the takeout rates on nearly all of its bets for last October’s fall meet, the track announced on Wednesday. The decision to roll back the takeout increases on win, place, show, and exacta wagers is a striking reversal for Keeneland, which had defended the higher takeout rates last year as a means to bolster its purses, even as horseplayers took to social media to castigate the track and urge players to boycott the fall meet. Total wagering at Keeneland’s fall meet fell 8.7 percent compared with fall wagering in 2016. “Keeneland’s goals are mission-oriented, and we continually review, measure, and listen to our customers across all business lines to ensure our operations promote the health and vibrancy of the horse industry,” Bob Elliston, Keeneland’s vice president of racing and sales, said in a release. Takeout rates on win, place, and show wagers will be reduced from 17.5 percent to 16 percent, the rate that preceded the increase. Takeout on exactas will be reduced from 22 percent to 19.5 percent, half a percentage point higher than the rate prior to the increase. All other takeouts on exotic wagers, such as the trifecta, superfecta, pick three, and pick four, will remain 22 percent, while the takeout on the pick five will remain at 15 percent. The takeout on the pick five was lowered last year with the takeout increases. As when Keeneland raised its takeout rates, bettors took to social media immediately after the announcement Wednesday. They voiced their approval of the lower rates, with some claiming victory due to last year’s boycott. Keeneland’s reputation as a fan-friendly venue was significantly tarnished by the decision, with players complaining that the racetrack had betrayed one of its core constituencies. In an interview, Elliston said that Keeneland talked with horseplayers following last year’s fall meet and decided that it would designate the win, place, show and exacta pools for rollbacks because the takeout rates for those pools were higher than competitors’ rates in the same pools. Elliston also said that those bets generally produce the highest rates of churn, or won money that is bet back into the pools. “If you look specifically at win-place-show pools and the exacta pool, that is a total of 57 percent of our wagering,” Elliston said. “We were out of step there, and we needed to do something about that.” Keeneland officials had defended the takeout hike as a means to increase revenue so that it could continue to raise purses at its two annual meets, as it has every year since 2012. Despite the drop in handle last fall, purses were up 3.3 percent. Revenue from Keeneland’s auction business went into a free fall in 2008 after the collapse of the stock market and the subsequent tightening of credit markets, dropping from a high of $815.3 million in 2007 to a low of $381.6 million in 2010. Total sales in 2017 were $538.7 million, up 2.8 percent compared with total sales in 2016. Elliston said that Keeneland will notify simulcast outlets about the new takeout rates in the coming weeks, and that the host fee rates paid by the outlets will decline at the same rate as the takeout reductions. When Keeneland raised its takeout rates, it split the extra revenue from the increases with host sites. Most host sites that award rebates to their biggest customers then increased the size of the awards so that rebated players did not play against the full increase in the takeout rates. TAB level is takeouts. A little goes a long way based on the evidence.

Yep, something like that would make sense.

They have an almost unlimited potential marketing budget actually. Just they've chosen to waste it all on stakes expenditure instead of marketing, infrastructure or anything else constructive. Sad and hopeless really.

I'd suggest you not put it in anywhere just in case that results in some kind of DNA replication.

Definitely Hamish

Deadset looks like she was trained by CWJ

Has a similar grasp of the English language.

OK Thommo. It's got nothing to do with punting but the thread is about 10/1 winning chances. What are you on? I only care about the relevant info available to punters. That doesn't include the opinion of Pikey or anyone else as much as I might respect them as trainers. The only good they can do is distort the markets. I give up. You are a lost cause.

I'm doing some reading of your brother to see if I can learn how to make my posts more poisonous. That should add to the fun. After all, Thommo is already the best joke on any racing site I've seen.

Why would we ring them? If they could make a living punting, surely they wouldn't be out there at 3 a.m. till after dark risking their lives on or about 500kg animals and picking up shit. If I want training advice I'll ring them. If I want punting advice, I'll ring mardigras or barryb. You've got this dead wrong too. No wonder your punting is crap and you can't post a winner till after the race.

I could argue that's correct but I wouldn't agree that necessarily has anything to do with the "class" of the race, e.g. black type cf. R65. It has to do with the relative performance of horses in one race cf. the next. It's the same type of error to suggest that because it is a black type race, it is a better "class" race than a non-black type one. You need to judge that by the performance of the horse in any given race, not by the title of the race or its status.

Leave the DSM V diagnoses to me thanks. I'm struggling with yours though. Now over 30 items on the differential list including NPD and it just seems to keep growing. Hard to rule anything out.

Yeahh....heard that too. I'm hoping the Messara report will at least raise the integrity issues that are killing wagering investment on NZ racing and that something will be done about it. It's a complete joke but it's not funny.

I just ran a check on my data and number 7 in Race 3 with Blinkers off and tongue tie on with a slow track has a nearly 50% strike rate at Timaru over the last 13 years. So, if you can get anything much over $2, I'd get on and add another 20% for the tongue tie.

Don't you just love hindsight?