Brodie

Agree to a point Chief! The others as you say, need to get their crap together! There is more to it and many know that! Personal opinion only but do not believe that Purdon/Rasmussen will be training as a partnership in Rolly in 2 years, and that has to be a plus for harness racing!

The thing is NZ horses are better on average than Oz horses. Think we breed from better Stallions as many Ozzies breed from lower class stallions for some strange reason. A Kiwi Horse lines up in Oz first start and tends to bolt in. Your handicapping system and amount of races make it far easier to place a horse.

Who trained Mighty Conqueror in NZ? There are a lot of horses Gamma as you know that go to Oz and improve heaps! Think it is just the type of racing you have over there and overall the Ozzie horses are nowhere near as good as Kiwi horses! Perth is a good place to sell horses to as I believe they pay better prices for Kiwi horses and they tend to be so competitive even though they race on saucer tracks!

Gamma, unfortunately we have not got enough fast class horses to line up for good stakes at the moment! We have heaps of looser class horses around that will race vut middle class plus have mostly been sold lverseas! Also the clubs have bot got enough money to lay the higher stakes each and every week due to profit from the TAB bot being high enough to cater for the 3 different codes! Turnover needs to be increased to make sufficient profit and the TAB are not good at making correct decisions nowadays! Oncourse attendance is very poor now and needs to be turned around quickly. Oz gets away with it due to the much bigger population.

They need people on committees that know what they are doing and have financial nous! Our government has no one in their caucus when any business success whatsoever and it shows! Racing needs punters and turning punters away is just a no no, as there are bugger all new punters coming thru and are not being encourage either! Until domination of major races by the one stable disappears there is going to be big problems attracting new owners!

Riley Butt is probably not in Oz by choice. Tim and Anthony jumped ship due to financial reasons I would say as more opportunity

Gamma, they are closing many tracks already. Yes Forbury is finished! Yes we have to have Juniors coming thru and being mentored but there also has to be something for them at the end of it! Currently the future is not looking that bright! There are several reasons for this and the NZ TAB does not help. Addington will survive due to their investments however stake money will need to improve as well as currently it just does not pay to be an owner!

I do not think throwing money at something just because it needs it always resolves things! Auckland needs to improve themselves before they deserve the amount they are getting. With there capital base they should be doing far better than they are Gamma!

Galah, firstly the stake money is not evenly distributed and Auckland is getting far more than they deserve. The betting turnover on most of their meetings is poor and the racing pretty much the same! When most of your fields are small and you havent got enough Juniors to pay 3 tote divs there ks something drastically amiss! Galah, to be fair, Canterbury was by far the best team but for an error by the coach in resting players, they wouldve made the final and bolted in!!

To be fair, the two groups you mentioned are not prevalent in Christchurch nowadays! As for gang members they should be outlawed, however this lot in power are just useless and we have to be kind!

The point is that the Junior ranks are so thin in the North and does not look like changing! What can be done to alleviate this? Probably not a heck of a lot unfortunately and most of the current Juniors are going to be battling big time when they are out of their time! Maybe we should just base racing in Canterbury and then stake money will be better rather than propping up the North Island stakes, as they do not deserve as much!!

Yeah, born in Invercargill but you can not hold that against me! Only there a few months!

Jones, dont be a quitter just because of some stupid rule that you dont have to abide by. You are a very good poster and dont let the bxxxxxds beat us!

Think Bruce Negus has made a big difference! Didnt Steve Lock have it for over 100 starts, so that says something! Think it likes being in Canterbury rather than freezing Southland.

I think quite a few pull the plugs using your foot! Seen it many times, Dexter used to do it I am sure!

Jones, what is it that you are actually worried about? Why do you want to be controlled by people that you actually pay their wages? Do they not want the truth?

They are both very good drivers in amateur races! Thing is you just do not know what is going to happen in them!

Unfortunately it is a sad state of affairs when you can not get enough horses nominating to assist with Juniors getting experience. I take it is a penalty free win for the winning horse still? This is not looking that promising for the Juniors in the North and not too sure how we can entice more young ones especially in the North! There has to be a pathway for young ones and feel that it is an industry that is worthwhile getting into! At the moment there is no way in hell for anyone without contacts to be able to make a worthwhile living in harness racing! There needs to be some brainstorming from all to make this happen as without young participants coming through how can there be a midterm future for harness racing?

Freds, probably not. A lot of he horses that race in amateur races are cunning and just wouldnt run No good if tote betting! Do not sorry about SAFE they do not care about it!

Galah, I have always maintained that amateurs are just that and shouldnt be treated as harshly as the paid professionals! The Stipes seem to always step in and at the end of the day we can only hope that they continue to improve but that is possibly not that likely! I am wondering just how many new amateurs there are in the pipeline to replace the current ones? Personally I used to offload on amateur races, but do not bother now as they are just so unpredictable and really shouldnt be tote betting on them! However, it does give a lot of horses that have met their mark an opportunity to race!

Na no knock to the head at all JAKH! You can only go over them at 2km an hour and then they shake you up, downright crazy! Isnt it past lights out at the home?

This is aimed at Addington Raceway hierarchy, although it may not be their responsibility! Who was the plonker that approved the effing Speed Humps that are outside the Orange Theory building? They are just the most jarring speed humps that you could ever experience! The damage to vehicles with how hard they are would be immense and Ardern wants everyone on bikes????? Yes I know they are to slow you down but FFS they are just downright obscene! If it is not the Raceways ownership, how about sorting it with whoever responsibility it is?

The amateur races are just that, AMATEUR RACES!!! The Stipes come down a lot harder on the AMATEURS than the professionals! They are out there for the fun of it and if you offload on them, then you have to take the good with the bad, I wouldve thought? You take your chances when you bet into them, and we shouldnt complain afterwards as they are amateurs and receive no financial compensation for their efforts! There are some amateur drivers in the professional ranks going by many of the drives today. Yes conditions may have been wet, however why on earth the horses at the back today were not put into the races is hard to fathom!

Galah, there has been some very poor drives so far today! Yes some of the horses are pretty average, which is good for punting on! However you might as well leave your horse at home in a nice warm stable if your driver is just going to sit back and expect to get some money! Wouldnt say our driving ranks are overly endowed with talent at the money on average!

Yes and no Davis! The last 3 winners are still juniors so will be staying at the mo, be a different story when they hit the open ranks! McLlwrick, is on and off in the industry, you just wouldnt guarantee that he is around horses in the future. Stevie is making far more out of the sport! Robbie is probably be around for awhile as he is a good horseman! I think Michelle Neilson is back in Oz? Simon Lawson got a long suspension, is he back? Zac still going big time, but he is from a strong harness familyand has contacts! Shane Walkinshaw is only meddling in a small way at best! To make a living out of racing financially you need to be training a good size team or being one of the leading drivers!