curious

First set of 4 jumpouts there tomorrow to test the new gates and the system. A lot of people have supported this, notably Darin Balcombe and NZTR. Very well done to all who have contributed.

Minority? I thought something like 70% of the public opposed the use of whips in horse racing. I have half a dozen people that would race a horse with me if the rules either banned whips or made them illegal to use for encouragement.

'No Effect' Thresholds To Purse Accounts Round Out Final Day Of National HBPA Conference Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 2:22 pm | Back to: Top News Updated: July 27, 2024 at 2:46 pm Ron Moquett | Denis Blake/NHBPA On Friday–the final day of the National HBPA Conference at Prairie Meadows–a panel entitled “Establishing No-Effect Thresholds and the Importance for the Industry” was led by practicing equine veterinarian and researcher Dr. Clara Fenger. She cited the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority's enabling legislation that HISA-covered horses “should compete only when they are free from the influence of medications …” (her emphasis added). Fenger's point: Testing many substances to limit of detection–if the lab can find it, it's a violation, no matter how tiny the amount and whether it impacts the horse's performance or not –actually goes against the federal law that set up the HISA corporation. She said HISA has justified not having more threshold levels by saying that certain substances have no business being in a racehorse at any level. Also on the panel were Dr. Thomas Tobin, a pioneer in equine testing, and Dr. Rob Holland, another equine practitioner who globally consults on infectious diseases. The discussion also featured horse trainer Ron Moquett, who shared his own story on environmental transfer. All four made the case that horse racing must adopt “no-effect” thresholds in racehorse testing for substances that are readily present in the environment. Such policy requires science-based testing levels, below which any trace level findings are disregarded because they have no pharmacological effect on a horse. Tobin for years has been using the term “irrelevant” findings. The National HBPA and its CEO Eric Hamelback have been the leading advocates for no-effect thresholds, saying it is unfair to sanction trainers and penalize their owners when horses are disqualified from purse money for the presence of a tiny amount of a substance they couldn't have prevented. The National HBPA currently has a petition before the Federal Trade Commission asking the federal agency, which is tasked with overseeing HISA, to enact such policies. Tobin has been working on no-effect thresholds since 1994. That work includes this year publishing documentation and recommendation of a methamphetamine threshold of 1 nanogram per milliliter of plasma. He referenced research published in 2019 that showed blood levels testing as high as 88.4 ng/mL with no signs of neuron-stimulation or cardio effect. A coalition of researchers that includes Tobin and Fenger has published research recommending testing thresholds for a dozen substances that have been showing up in horses seemingly through environmental or human transfer. As an example: One recommendation awaiting publication is for the heavily prescribed painkiller Tramadol, with Tobin observing a Kentucky trainer served a suspension for a finding of less than 3 ng/mL of urine. “There was absolutely no possibility of pharmacological effect,” Tobin said. “I have proposed that anything below 50 nanograms per mL of Tramadol as a metabolite in urine should not be considered of any significance.” Holland said every horse that races could potentially pick up trace levels of a prohibited substance from 20 to 30 different–and routine–contact points. Those might include not just the trainer or groom but a van driver, a horse drinking out of another horse's water bucket in the test barn, the prior horse in that stall in the receiving barn, pony riders and outriders, the test-barn employee known as the “pee-catcher”, veterinarians and many others. Even dogs and cats around a barn. Holland also said as part of an investigation into the risks of environmental contamination, they swabbed 12 stalls at a track that has a large yearling sale and all 12 tested for Dexamethasone and Acepromazine, which are not allowed to be in a horse's system for a race. He said one of the swabs was high enough that it would have triggered an adverse finding in a racehorse. Even with thorough cleaning, he said the honeycomb design of the stall floor mats made it impossible to eliminate all the dirt. “That stall should be subject to a $25,000 fine and two years where you can't compete,” Moquett joked, “if they treated the racetracks like they treat the trainers.” Dr. Rob Holland | Denis Blake/NHBPA Added Holland: “That's why we have to explain these things to people: There are things that are out of your control as a trainer. Like the stall they assign to you. You clean it the best you can, but sometimes you're still going to have a problem. And this is what the data is showing.” He said the diabetes medication Metformin, for which HIWU has called a number of adverse findings, lends itself to environmental transfer. Metformin is given daily to humans in large doses and is excreted in its original form. That's a problem given a backstretch habit of humans urinating in a stall when a bathroom isn't handy, he said. “The fact that 20 to 30 individual contacts could occur, and that's the No. 3 drug in the world to treat humans, your odds of getting urine environmental transfer are getting higher and higher with Metformin,” Holland said. “I give a lot of tracks credit. They saw there weren't enough bathrooms so they put Port-A-Potties everywhere. The problem with Port-A-Potties is how do you wash your hands?” Holland also is involved in a project testing the water at racetracks. “Metformin, caffeine, codeine, Tramadol–many of these medications at low levels are coming out of your water sources, because they can't get it out of the treatment plant areas,” he said. “We're building a database for this. It could have added meaning. If (your horse) came in contact with Metformin from an individual but you're also drinking low-levels in your water, that could be enough to get you over the threshold level for a test in a racing situation.” Moquett, who is on HISA's Horsemen's Advisory Group, learned the hard way how easy it can be for a horse to pick up a substance banned for racing. He was cited in November by the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) for his horse Speed Bias having a post-test finding for a local anesthetic. Through spending a lot of money and effort, Moquett was ultimately held blameless, though the horse remained disqualified from purse money. What happened is that Moquett had a different horse castrated in a stall nine days earlier, with the veterinarian using the same anesthetic to inject the testicles–all duly reported to HISA–before Speed Bias shipped in to run out of the same stall. Fortunately for Moquett, the track's barn video documented the effort the trainer's crew underwent to strip, clean and sanitize the stall–on three separate occasions, he said. Moquett said his big concern is the erosion of confidence in the sport by treating irrelevant levels of substances common in the environment as major rule violations. “We're trying to explain to the people in charge to set levels, to where you're not catching and accusing for things that have no effect on racing,” he said. Moquett stressed that trainers also must make it clear to employees that “it's not OK to urinate in the stalls. It's not OK to take your Red Bull in (the stall) with you. It's not OK to put your coffee cup in a feed tub…. I hate to say this, but if there's someone on Metformin for blood pressure (working for him or asking about a job), I'm going to have to try to find someone who may not be.” Fenger praised the National HBPA and its affiliates for providing funding for the threshold studies. Moquett encouraged HBPA affiliates to keep the money coming, saying, “Probably more than anything going on today, the work they're doing has the biggest effect on the outcome of our sport.” Regarding Purse Accounts: Trust But Verify The presentation called “Show Me The Money” featured Gunner LaCour, president of CHRIMS Inc., which specializes in pari-mutuel distributions, settlements, editing and reporting and the only independent provider of settlements in the United States. LaCour, who started the company in California with the Thoroughbred Owners of California as a stakeholder, said that whether horsemen's groups opt to use his non-profit or another company, they should enlist a company that can provide daily audits to ensure horsemen are getting all the purse money to which they are entitled in an increasing complicated environment. LaCour said it's important for horsemen to know all their revenue streams and every aspect of those streams–or they risk literally leaving money on the table. He said roadblocks to achieving that knowledge can be lack of data, relying on a racing commission, alternative gaming revenue can be tougher to determine, lack of time and resources and simply long-standing relationships with tracks might make such accounting seem unnecessary. “All of these can lead to potential of distribution discrepancies, even if there is no intent,” he said. “Trust but verify. You can have these great relationships with these tracks… or maybe just get rid of the first two words, just verify. Make sure your horsemen are getting everything they're entitled to… Be proactive, instead of reactive. Know the data. If you understand your data, that's power. Make sure you're staying on top of it.” Allen Poindexter | Denis Blake/NHBPA 'Living Legend' Poindexter Interviewed Also on Friday during the National HBPA awards luncheon, Iowa HBPA executive director Jon Moss interviewed owner-breeder Allen Poindexter for the National HBPA's Living Legend series. Poindexter's runners include multiple stakes-winning horses at Prairie Meadows and other tracks across the country, with his stable earnings exceeding $18 million. In 1991, Poindexter started a plumbing, heating and air-conditioning business called Allen's Mechanical. “It was very successful from the start,” he said. “So, I was able to buy a horse out of the field, and his name was No Tomorrow. I took him to Oaklawn and got Scooter Dickey to be my trainer. We ran him the first time for $8,000 claiming. He went wire to wire with Pat Day aboard. So I was hooked. We ran him back for $16,000 claiming. He goes wire to wire once again. So, now I'm really hooked.”

and be doing a piaffe

And completely out of business for this girl yet we allow worse every day in racing with nothing evidently being done about it here.

Yep. It seemed to come right about 7am.

They've already done that haven't they?

This has logged me out this morning and won't let me log in. Also, it brings up no fields or pricing for today. Anyone else having trouble?

Following the running of this race riders expressed concern regarding the track. Stewards along with Club Officials and riders inspected the track in particular the area near the 500 metres where DANZINO had blundered and fallen with the decision being made to abandon the meeting due to the track being unsafe.

Rotorua again. How can a horse slip on a heavy 10?

And trainers could refuse to supply horses for that.

This is a spot where industrial action could work. Senior riders could refuse to ride race morning track gallops for clubs until the industry has an assurance that their opinion on the track condition will be given full weight in the assessment of the track condition.

Another curious thing about the AWT strategy here is that they shut them down for half the year when they could provide a forgiving summer surface for the pool of horses that are suited to them. I note in the UK, they are about to start their mid-summer racing league series with half those events to be staged on synthetic tracks under lights.

It does seem rather pie in the sky stuff, especially when they don't even have a functional venue for that carnival yet. I agree that I think I've long since seen the greatest summers in NZ racing history.

Oh bugger. Duplicated your post I see. Feel free to delete.

What say did they have in the matter? I see we have another NZTR roadshow with Balcombe and Sharrock coming up. It will be interesting to see what concerns are raised there by the peasants.

I never heard of that before as a reason to abandon a meeting. It was clearly not unsafe or slippery like meetings they commenced and then abandoned or in at least one case continued recently including Ellerslie. Whether they got more rain on the day or not (which they didn't), it was never going to become unsafe. At this stage, there seems to be no good reason in relation to the track condition to abandon the meeting at considerable cost to participants.

Taranaki Racing Club upset at abandonment of major meeting Glenn McLean July 23, 2024, • 05:00am Former Opunake Cup winner Justaskme was denied a chance of racing on his home track on Saturday. (File photo) LISA BURD / Stuff Taranaki Racing officials are bemoaning a lack of communication that led to what they believe was the premature abandonment of its most popular winter meeting of the year. The meeting, which was to feature the $100,000 listed Opunake Cup, was abandoned after stewards inspected the New Plymouth Raceway track early on Saturday morning and believed it was too water logged for the meeting to go ahead. The stewards’ decision was at odds with Taranaki Racing chief executive Anna Duncan and the club’s board who felt the call was made too early given the significance of the meeting. “If you look at last year, this was the biggest winter race meeting in the country, so there will be significant losses,” she said. “It’s extremely disappointing and frustrating and we will be following through with this because communication is key and we don’t feel there was enough of it.” ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff Senior jockey Lisa Allpress rode the track on Saturday morning and thought it was suitable. (File photo) Andy Jackson/Stuff Duncan said senior jockey Lisa Allpress had galloped a horse on the track before the stewards’ inspection and found there were no issues. “She felt it was a good winter track. The stewards then walked the track and made their decision with limited consultation.” New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing’s chief operating officer Darin Balcombe told Love Racing the decision to abandon the meeting was also made over concerns that the track was too deep to race on. “The prudent call was to call the meeting off at that stage for horse and rider welfare, and the high possibility of visibility issues through the day,” he said. “There is no greater drain on the industry than sending horses to the races and then everyone having to pack up and go home without a race. It costs a lot of money for the connections and for the industry, as we pay compensation to all of those connections. “The good thing was that the decisions were made very early prior to anyone leaving home that hadn’t gone the night before, which was the best situation for us.” Balcombe’s view was not shared by Duncan who also pointed to the fact the weather improved dramatically from late morning. ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff Taranaki Racing chief executive Anna Duncan believed the meeting should have gone ahead. (File photo) VANESSA LAURIE / Stuff “In my opinion, I think we should have raced and I have the support of the [Taranaki Racing] board with that,” Duncan said. “There is a cost involved if we have to call the meeting off after one or two races but we just felt it’s winter racing and you don’t get any slipping because the ground is heavy.” She said the club was yet to add up just how much the abandonment had cost it and the situation was made worse because it could not hold the rescheduled meeting, at Hāwera on Tuesday, because of a prior booking at its venue. Duncan also felt for a number of race day sponsors, corporate table holders and supporters who could not make it to Hāwera because it was a weekday. The abandonment also put paid to the club’s annual punters’ competition which had drawn record numbers. “It would have been a huge day for our locals and the coastal Taranaki community,” Duncan said. - Taranaki Daily News

Can't you read? It was your remark "Foxton...trials centre also , apparently refused to upgrade facilities so self inflicted status." that I said was BS. I tried a google but I only see reports of flooding at Foxton Beach and in the area of the Moutoa flood gate catchment. Nothing near the racecourse, except in relation to blocked storm drains. I agree that drainage of the course itself is affected by the water table at times.

It's all a bit of a mystery. Ltd. would seem to imply a limited liability company which you'd expect would be registered with the companies' office. A mysterious entity.

Wouldn't they have to be a registered co to get that?

You mean that it is a subsidiary of NZTR?

It's the owners that should be speaking up and taking action. They don't have the risks of doing so that trainers might. However, the statutory collective for them is totally useless and probably has about 10% of current owners in their membership. Not that they seem to be doing anything about that, so they actually have a voice.

Are they a subsidiary of NZTR or what? They don't seem to be registered with the company's nor incorporated societies?

Yep invested more today with the bookies than on training fees this week.