curious

Te Aroha Update & Venue/Date Changes Following the transfer of the Sunday 7 July raceday, further testing of the Te Aroha track has identified the need for work to be completed at a deeper level into the profile, to ensure water is draining efficiently. The remedial work intends to assist the functionality of the surface to reach a level expected for winter racing. A result of this work means that the scheduled Sunday 28 July raceday will be transferred, with racing due to commence at Te Aroha on Sunday 1 September. The raceday on 28 July featuring two jumps races, will now be held at Waverley, with a revised program to be confirmed. The scheduled Waverley meeting to be held on Wednesday 31 July will now be a Racing Tauranga meeting with a revised program to be confirmed.

Don't think either are included. I see they've woken up there though.

Hopefully, they are not a Good 3 again on the figure 8.

I'm also missing the withdrawal day track conditions for Trentham which are supposed to be provided by the club before 8.30. Ruakaka was there at 8.15 but still nothing from Trentham. Have they all slept in?

I missed it too. It's in the July programme book that just came out as an Avondale meeting. I can't find any notice of the change?

180 is a pretty good number for a trial day isn't it?

And in 1961, my nemesis on another site, Nerula, won it and the Paliamentary and the Winter Oats. Now it's a 40k race with 5 noms. What the hell happened? Dunray won the Wellington Steeplechase that year.

Only 83 noms for Trentham by way of comparison.

The much despised Avondale, eh.

Same reasons stewards gave when requesting a 10 year total disqualification. Still might happen in effect. Assuming he serves a further 2 years disqualification starting now, he still will have to show he's a fit and proper person to hold a licence after that.

DTC still registered with about 60k in the bank.

As of the June 10 Rangiora Racecourse Track-Users Meeting: Gates have been fully commissioned and are now being readied for painting. That is primarily an initiative of North Canterbury trainers who will do most of the further work to make them happen. That's fine, but there are no trials scheduled south of Ashburton for the next 3 months and I note that the trials schedule for Cambridge tomorrow have been cancelled again due to lack of entries.

And that's for horses leading into the main spring grass racing period! It is nonsensical. But you should be thankful, The SI has one grass trial meeting, Ashburton on 13/08, through the end of August, and one in September, Ashburton again, 17/09.

The Magistrates' Court 2022 decision was a criminal charge for animal abuse. Different thing than these charges under the rules of racing, though the panel appears to have allowed for that fine to further mitigate the current penalty.

Option 2 can't apply imo. He was not disqualified or operating under disqualification conditions after his disqualification ended and he was pre-training.

A disqualified person can have nothing to do with horses. Weir has only pre-trained since he ended his 4 year disqualification and won't be able to do so when the new period starts, though it appears they have allowed him to remain living on the property. Nothing has changed with the rules.

The intention of the panel is clearly 3 with a 7 day delay to allow him to organise the business arrangements for his property. The previous periods have already been accounted for in the new penalties.

Definitely not. Certainly not allowed on racedays and a long time since I've seen one used on any horse.

I'm extremely alarmed that you consider what Weir did akin in any way to "normal" training methods. I don't think you would find too many trainers that would even consider condoning it.

He was disqualified 4 years for possession of the jiggers. These charges relate to new evidence of him using them, multiple times, on multiple horses. As I read the reports, the 4 years he had already done was accounted for in mitigation of some of the 10 year disqualification the stewards proposed. He has also got to serve the further 4 years concurrently as two. Have to wait for the full decision to clarify that possibly.

He was disqualified on previous charges, but this hearing is on new charges stemming from the video evidence that since surfaced, which means he will be disqualified 2 years for those. He should be disqualified for life in my view.

He hasn't served any disqualification time yet, which he well deserves in my opinion.

And he's made a few comebacks in his time, all successful in the end. So, I'm sure he's quite capable of making good decisions about if, when and how on this one.

https://loveracing.nz/News/33528/NZTR-calls-for-Acknowledged-Retrainer-applicants.aspx

He's 60 actually. Did you miss his birthday?