Brodie

JJ, the Oamaru grass track today has had tons of water applied going by his green it was. It also has not been mowed for a number of weeks going by how long and lush the grass was. No point continuing but all I am saying is that for early punters they should be advised that the track has a long sole of grass! No investments today when I saw how long the grass was but otherwise going very well,thanks!

What a load of clap trap JJ!! It is a major ingredient as to how a horse runs. Today there were many horses that just didn’t handle the long grass. Off course the track conditions are determined by the weather, irrigation and dry, that is my damn point!!!! Punters that net early should be advised as to how much grass there is!!!

FFS Ranga, the posting was made on the basis that someone from HRNZ or the TAB would read it and consider doing this! This is a forum where we are here to discuss thoughts and opinions rather than you thinking I am having a whine!!!!!!!! If you haven’t got an opinion then Don’t comment, continue just changing your picture as you seem to want to do for some unknown reason?

Yes I am well aware of that. However, for people who want to bet before the first race there should be some indication somewhere. I note the track has been changed from good this morning to dead now! The track has a lot grass on it and would be pretty tiring for the horses

There should be some consistency! As I said look at the Oamaru meetings I quoted and tell me that there is even a semblance of consistency. The track last week must’ve had a hell of a lot of water put on it and wasn’t cut. This has to affect a horses performance and punters need to know whether the grass is long or short.

Grass track racing can often throw out long shot winners who haven’t previously shown much grass track form! The length of grass mush make a heck of a difference as to how well a horse will go. A horse that likes an all weather track you would think would prefer shorter grass and a quicker surface where an absolute plugger would,prefer a much longer grass. If you look at the replays from Oamaru on 30th November 2019 and the grass length on 15th February it is like chalk and cheese. The November grass was quite short and yet the length last week was like a paddock grown for grazing. How on earth are punters meant to know the length of grass without the TAB advising the punters whether the grass was short or long? Yes I know you can see it on Trackside once the racing starts but for early punters, is it possible for clubs to advise this???

Whiteman, as I say I don’t see the animal welfare brigade as a big worry for harness racing! It is only a worry if the officialdom are as weak as piss! Tell them to sling their hook, as their are far greater things that happen to animals tha. Racing horses. We breed animals to eat!!!

Whiteman, animal activists will stop harness racing within the next 20 years? There will be other things at play that will do far more damage inside the next 5 to 10 years! Not seeing any activists at Addington but it would help the of course attendance a bit! There are not enough new people coming into the industry, which includes punters, owners and trainers!!!!! Personally do not rate Animal Activists as they would be far better putting their efforts into protesting about things that concern human beings rather than animals. Some just protest about anything including this so-called Global Warming that’s right I meant Climate Change!!!

Greg, I am pleased that you are optimistic about harness racing and I hope you are right! However, can you kindly point out why you are optimistic? Please detail why you think harness racing has got a big future in NZ, especially when Auckland is stuffed, CD is stuffed, Dunedin is stuffed and upper S.I. Is not too flash either!!!

There are several things at play that is slowly killing harness racing. The cost of owning and having trained horses compared to return is probably the main one. The coming generations are not going to be able to afford or want to race horses if there is absolutely no decent return on money spent. Young trainers won’t be able to afford the cost of land to train. TAB not interested in harness racing, more money in Sports betting!! Younger people not interested in racing unless it is Cup Day and that is not to do with racing! Personally don’t think animal activists are a worry, as racing is not cruel on horses. Far worse things being done to animals, like eating them!!!! If the racing industry show weakness like HRNZ did with the whip rule, then there will be issues! AllStars dominance in plundering all the major stakes money is also a major problem but that is included in the fact that there is very little return nowadays in racing a horse for the majority of owners! The fact was this week, the buyers of most of the horses was the major stables with next to no new owners wanting to pay $40k for a horse with the prospect of even coming out with a profit being extremely low!

Old Whiteman, some will say very negative posting, but you are on the money without doubt. Too many won’t speak up and officialdom gets away with making many very poor decisions, without thought for the consequences.

Yes there will be the very odd one that will make a small profit on racing horses, very very odd one! I am sure that they get a lot,of enjoyment out of winning races, however I would want a far greater return on the money invested!

Brodie, tells it the way it is, whether it is negative or positive. If you take it as being negative, then take it for granted that it is a negative, and take it on board that everything is not all Rosey in racing! You can look at everything and not complain or just go with the flow but personally I am not one to accept things when they are not right. Some just sit on the fence in life and it gets them no where! Have I complained about being restricted in the last couple of months? No I have not, there is a reason for that!! Is there a lot of things that need improving and changed in harness racing going forward? Yes!!

To me, an investment is something that you put money into that is going to produce you positive income and a financial return! Harness Racing would return very very few owners with positive returns, so how could you consider it an investment?

JJ flash, is not Greg O’Connor! Forums are designed for expressing your opinion, and that is what we have on this Premier site. You can not consider harness racing as a form of investment unless you are a successful punter, but with the AML restrictions nowadays, there are far easier ways of investing successfully without the hassles. Brodie is back as well lol.

Fair enough If vendors are happy to breed and happy with what they get then all good. Some went for good money but others either passed in or a loss maker. bear in mind that Bettors Delight stands at just under the median at $25k plus gust so that puts things into perspective doesn’t it? Yes people enjoy breeding as a hobby but unless you have a successful mate and go to an expensive stallion you are unlikely to be making much if any. Certainly far easier ways of making money but then again it isn’t all about the cash in racing nowadays as we know. Just hope enough people continue in racing to make it continue

Haven’t looked at the average or median for the second day, and there seemed to be some reasonable sale prices but from what looked at in the results, seemed to be a heck of a lot of Passed In. Seemed also to be the same buyers and not many new ones. The bigger stable trainers were clearly buying and then will be hoping to get people to take shares In them. Hope it works out for them but I am sure there are going to be more breeders giving it away, as some of the prices wouldn’t even recover the service fee!

At the moment many trainers have to take what they can get as you have to be pretty good to win any race. Palmy is easy kill for most Canterbury horses if they travel up well.

They wouldn’t be getting a second drive from me

Ludwig, you would think that it was on its way out. Will it last another 5 years? Probably not! While the South Islanders are still going up it will continue but should they decide that it is not worth it financially, the racing will cease without doubt. However, there are other clubs also that will be history in the next few years at best.

I wonder if anyone knows why harness drivers do it? For a long time now I have wondered why many of them don’t bother pulling the whip out of the dust sheet until half way up the straight or even later?? So often a horse is going well and then the driver decides at the 100metres to get the whip out and use it a bit!! Often this unbalances the horse and they lose momentum!, Surely any half sensible driver will have the whip out and ready to use if required prior to the home turn???? Happened to turn over and saw the end of the last race at Palmy and Terry Chmiel didn’t pull the whip out till Halfway down the small straight and the horse lost momentum by him doing it then. Yes, the horse Sunhi Magic is a flea so all the more reason to have the whip ready to use earlier, I would’ve thought? Anyone else think that this seems pretty dumb from many drivers, and it happens all the time and yet the Stipes don’t seem to question the drivers as to why they weren’t giving the horse every opportunity!!

Baxter had no show the way that race was run today. They were walking and the best horses just sat out the back and race was over. Rocknpop is no star although she is racing in foal so this has probably helped but shite Baxter would be lengths better !

Actually I do think Trump is doing a very good job of President as the USA is going far better than many previous Presidents have. Dont believe in everything he does but the Yanks are getting in behind him more than ever and he will bolt in again, as have a look at the geriatrics that is going to be put up against him later in the year. As for the cat grabbing, we wouldn’t get away with it in NZ!!

Ronaldo, what a load of bollacks! Innuendos or whatever, most Harness supporters are aware that they are treated more favourably than they should be. Lily white I repeat! Ronaldo, I asked why do many of the females look like male horses?

To be fair I wouldn’t give the owners a heck of a lot of the credit at all for having winning horses. They just have to pay the bills and would have very little say especially the owners in the AllStars stable! The training and driver are the 2 most important facts. A potentially champion horse could be just average if the trainer doesn’t feed or train it well. A potentially good can be a very average horse with a poor driver on board and we see that week in and week out. Yes it helps to have owners who can spend big money on horses but theses same owners could spend plenty and send their horses to poor trainers and they will not get great results. We have been spoilt in NZ in recent years by having possibly the 2 best drivers we have ever had in Dexter Dunn and Blair Orange. Which one is better is hard to decide and if Blair was driving in the U,S. I am sure he would be cleaning up as well.