Brodie

Harness punting is only a small inconsequential part of my life nowadays! I can take it or leave it and at the end of the day the betting restrictions or ban does far more harm to them than myself! Far more profitable investing ways without the BS that the TAB adopts now! It is a serious worry for racing in NZ that things are so bad that our own country needs other countries to run our sole betting agency! Seriously we have a bunch of muppets in charge of most things now and all to the detriment of NEW ZEALAND.

Retired from stud work nowadays Paleface! Fertility probably gone

You are correct Chief, so surely Service Fees are far to high in many cases? I realise that breeders need to be optimists to be breeding but if harness wants to continue to be in operation, there needs to be more horses bred! Reality is that harness racing breeding requires significant money be spent to get a yearling to the sales and often for no return! As rime goes on, there are going to be fewer breeders prepared to take the risk and therefore less horses bred! For the top bred horses there is profit in it providing the mare does the job, however the average mare it is not worth the time and money! I just hope we can battle thru this to ensure racing continues

No chance at stud nowadays Trotsfan! Firing blanks😩

Point is that paying tens of thousands for a bit of semen to breed a horse with a small chance of making money is not financially sensible.

Good to see that there are some good sales Chief, for the sake of the harness industry. We do need this however for the average breeder at the moment there is absolutely no profit in breeding and selling with all the costs! The ones paying the bigger money for the horses can afford it, but the average person that wants to buy a horse and race it, they are unable to. The Stallion Service Fees for the top ones are ridiculously high for a bit of semen!!!!!!!! Costs compared to what you can win in stakes nowadays are just so out of whack, and the chance of being on the positive side is virtually non existent! You only have to look at the crowd at the sales venues, to see that you need to be past the retirement age to be owning, apart from several trainers buying for stable clients to syndicate!! The only opportunity to own now for most is a small share in a syndicate and will it ever get better??? Some may not agree but Brodster telling it the way it is!

Yes apart from the hikes in insurance premiums for us all, I believe there are going to be many properties that insurance companies will not insure! Even before the floods, the IAG group of companies have become so much harder to deal with, it is a nightmare at times. They have tightened up massively and dealing with people from a Call Centre in the flippen Phillipines is a pain in the xxxx! They will be now reluctant to insure anything in flood plains so difficult to buy and sell in these areas, you would think! No insurance and therefore no Bank finance.

You should be made to change your name Blackie! Not politically correct in this day and age and everyone with the surname White, is racist surely?

Not sure, but it isn’t his driving ability! He seems to improve the hell out of everything he races, and most of them were not flash before he improves them. Dont think he learnt it from Hamish Hunter though? Either an absolute genius or has assistance?

Unfortunately there are no new owners coming thru, same old same old most years now. With the extended lockdowns in Auckland due to the bad flu, the reduction of house prices and now the horrific floods in Auckland and further south, people aint going to be wanting to gamble their hard earned $ on a losing yearling! Some of the trainers that have bought horses this year could be left holding the can!

One third passed in would be high I would say compared to previous sales! Average of 61k not that flash by the time you take out all the costs, there is buggerall profit if any if you are paying full service fee to Bettors Delight! Owners are getting the stitch!,

You are correct! It was the stablemate Philadelphia Filly! The Stipes are pretty incompetent currently, but it also doesnt help that many if the rules that they are operating under are Crazy!!.

Carter is a great driver Blair’s UDR .22 Carter UDR .52 Says it all really?

Chief, you are correct, the trainers do it to show who is in control and would be done by most trainers at some time. Not going to name names, however there are leading stables in the country that do more than the odd impact to the horses stomach!

All the NZ TAB is doing is driving away the punter! Anti- Money Laundering my XXXX! These people who are living overseas maintained accounts in NZ! The NZ TAB will be able to easily determine whether these punters living overseas has been laundering money thru their accounts and if they have been then the right channel will be notified! The amount of BS that we are required to accept nowadays is just colossal! The money laundering I see is the NZ TAB staff accepting payment for performing poorly! Things are going to get very dire for harness racing in the next few years! Mark Purdon whose stables has plundered most of the big stakes races over the past couple of decades, thinks that harness is stuffed, then it is STUFFED! He is off to the Gallops Darksid!

Personally Brodie doesnt condone violence per se! However parents nowadays do not seem to be allowed to discipline their own kids, as the government has put out laws to prevent this happening! The kids have now got the upper hand over their parents as they know that the law is such that no level of hitting to discipline is acceptable. The reality is that things have deteriorated significantly since the anti smacking law cane into force! Who wouldve thought that there would be these blatantly abhorent ram raids occurring and robberies during the day in broad daylight in front of people? Time for the KINDNESS to these thugs and horrible humans who do these crimes ceases, and harsh punishments brought in to stop this BS once and for al!! But it wont happen as we have so many limp wristed politicians in government!!!

The horses probably know that they arent allowed to be hit or slapped or they can press charges against the trainer! The world has gone mad and needs changing quickly. The dirty lowlife scum that are doing the crime and ram raids etc. actually do need a damn right hiding from their parents, to scare the living daylights out of them. What part of the “anti smacking laws are not working” do they not understand? The youth need some serious discipline as things are out of the control from the “lefties”!

Geez the Stipes had a field day at Methven yesterday trying to fill the coffers! A couple of charges as Cross Codes pointed out in regards to socalled cruelty to animals! Over the years I have seen other trainers do this to horses as a way of showing who is in charge, and it is very common but probably shouldnt be done in front of the general public. Once again the current PATHETICALLY WRONG WHIP RULE that was brought in by HRNZ and Edward Rennell without much thought whatsoever, was broken by many drivers!!! Many drivers have had their licenses suspended and HRNZ WAKE UP, you have stuffed up, admit it and change the rule to what it used to be decades ago, was common sense, and WORKED!!

Not sure with this one HJ? Andrew Faulkes certainly hasn’t been using it on many of his horses including the Averos Spitfire!

Probably best to turn the lights out at Palmy!

Na, they are full of termites now!

Many reasons for harness decline Forbury. There has been a lack of promotion to get new people into harness racing for decades and is now even harder to attract them. The existing enthusiasts and punters are turned off by the actions of both the TAB and HRNZ decisions, so much needs to be changed or the industry will continue to suffer!

Alexandra Park track is stuffed from all of the rain Forbury! Going to be awhile before anymore racing at Auckland. Great to see big fields at Cambridge.

There has to be some system that encourages Juniors to get drives so they get experience. Maybe more Junior drivers races being held but it won’t work in the North as they haven’t enough going ones with licenses. The point is that there are several Juniors that are far better than many of the Senior drivers and will continue to get heaps of drives. This is great that they can get drives but yes it does come at the expenses of the other drivers. Maybe the concessions should be for Juniors under say 30 wins or such.

The handicapping system they operate with at the moment doesn’t work. when you have 10 win horses racing 1 win horses seems crazy. Yes it keeps some horses racing and earning money but it also drives owners to sell overseas.