Brodie

Race 4 at Nelson Forte Lustre having its first start for Ivan Court has been hammered by the Bookies, Anyone know why it has been so heavily backed in? Seems puzzling to be reduced so much on what it has shown in public!

Not too sure why some people often pick on Tim Williams. To my mind Tim Williams has been one of most improved harness drivers that NZ has had! When he started out he had plenty of ability, probably too much, as he probably wanted to be as good as his mate, Dexter! When he was down south he used to be very aggressive but once he came back up to Chch and worked at the AllStars stables he improved dramatically. You only have to look at his UDR to see just how good he really is! I rank him very highly, and yes he doesnt always drive as consistently as say Blair Orange does! He is one of the very best we have and a credit to the industry and his family!

Harness racing registered foals in NZ has been declining in numbers drastically over the past decades. There was only 1367 foals registered in the 2022 year a decline of 59% in the last 2 decades which is alarming! HRNZ have acknowledged this now and are going to give a subsidy Of $1k off the service fee to all breeders for the 2023 season on a 42 day positive test. This $1k is paid to the stud and is a credit off the invoice for the service! Totally agree that things have to be done to stop the decline in breeding numbers or without people breeding their mares, the industry is doomed! Breeding horses to make money from selling and racing is a difficult business nowadays, that is the reason that people have got the stitch and arent bothering with the horse breeding like they did last century!! it is going to be interesting to see if this $1k subsidy makes any difference in promoting breeding their mares this season? Hopefully it helps a bit but probably will not make one iota of difference as $1k is not a lot when you consider the stallion’s service fees and the many other associated costs, is it much of an incentive do you think? Not sure what Bettors Delight service fee is but probably around $30k? There is also a $3k subsidy for breeders that breed from a mare that was not bred from in 2022 if it is an additional mare owned by the same owner! This is estimated to cost around $1 million to HRNZ so hopefully it works to improve numbers being bred! What do you reckon, will it make any difference????

I say the more Junior Drivers we have available the better for the good of the industry. There has to be something for the young ones who are working in stables, as there are far easier ways of making a living. I certainly would not want to be getting up when it is dark and driving to the stables anytime of the year and work as hard as young ones do. Andrew Fitzgerald is a total harness enthusiast and is an asset to harness and promotes the industry more that what HRNZ does, so not great to knock him as he is a top bloke and we need him to keep up his great work.

Basil, calling Brodie an Ass, is very upsetting for me. I have not got a hard skin and I will now need counselling. Are you not aware things like that to people could have consequences? Basil, from your comments You would be one of the Dickheads that think by reducing speed limits is going to reduce the road toll!

That’s my point, serious punters would desert harness racing if whips were banned!

Personally would be far more concerned with the increase of deaths in humans over the past couple of years that is being hushed up! When did we ever have ads on TV about heart attacks, and shingles etc? Never until after the Pfizer jabs were given to most of the population and for what? Locked the country down gave away billions and now we are paying for it! Why are they now not worried about all the positive tests and deaths when it was so worrying to them before? Why? Because it is the biggest scam in human history and the ones getting crook or dieing are the ones that believed that they were being vaccinated by an approved substance!

Have “The Race” if you want to but all the media BS on Trackside etc. is just blatant annoying! The corporates and wealthy owners put the money up to pay for the stake and all we get is this The Race by Groms for flipping months! So much more than the NZ Cup and force a race that lasts for less than 2 minutes. Promote harness racing to the public not this novelty race for the elite as it does nothing for the benefit of harness racings future unfortunately!

Lol, Colin De Fillippi is one of them that they are continuing to hammer for not using the whip according to their stupid rule! Do not agree that they should ban the whip whatsoever. Ozzie Chief harness administrator brought in banning the whip and that did not get off the ground! The Ozzies did not accept that BS!! The ozzies use the whip more than what the Kiwis do. I definitely believe that if drivers were not allowed to carry a whip or persuader harness racing would be a thing of the past! Serious punters would not bother offloading their dollars at all!!! Seriously would decimate the industry! There are far more bigger issues in harness than the whip and it would take next to nothing to change the rule back to what it was and what worked!

Interesting! Not sure there is a lot of integrity currently coming out of the RIU, although they are probably following a very bad rule in regards the whip rule! The thing is you would hope that the Stipes would have enough common sense and go to HRNZ and have a full discussion in regards the lunacy of the current rule? Obviously they havent, they appear to not want to rock the boat and keep claiming their salary for doing a very job! Unfortunately Brodie has seen too many poor decisions that affect our horse people to have any confidence in this lot!

What are that actually saying Chief? They did allow Brodie to post for quite awhile, not too sure why I was banned, think It was telling the truth and always being on the money, some dont like that? Not sure what Happy Sunrise is saying, he seemed a decent person when he was on this premier site for years?

HRNZ need to own up and admit that the current harness whip rule is just so wrong!! The Dickheads that brought it in need to totally reassess it and go back to what it was and actually worked before Rennell brought the last 2 amendments in! The decisions being brought into harness racing is crazy and doing far more harm than good! You only have to look at the Stipes Report from Mot yesterday to see that it just does not work and needs to go. The Stipes are unnecessarily affecting the livelihoods of very hard working drivers. It is long overdue that the association stand up to HRNZ and tell them that enough is enough and we want the whip rule changed back to what is was, or are they too weak to do this???

Yes the rules for harness Junior Driver qualifications has just been changed. There are several drivers who have rejoined the Junior ranks including Andrew Fitzgerald, Jack Harrington, Andrew Drake and Fergus Schumacher. It is to encourage young ones to stay in the game

“The Race” over hyped and not to the benefit of harness racing only to the ones that dont need the money. Weird the way they promote this “The Race” for months and yet the rest of the year they do very little promotion of harness racing to attract newbies???

Think The Allstars originally trained Sicario when in Canterbury. Whisky Cavalier was pretty tough when he raced here. The thing is most reasonable horses here can go over to Oz and win races, our horses are just so much better than theirs on average. NZ has lifted the standard of their racing due to our exports. Far easier to at least break even racing horses in Oz as far more opportunities.

Who is Nancy Delaney? Nathan?.

FortunatelyI have blocked his posts as he never has anything whatsoever of any benefit to say! Brodie will post what he thinks, whether O’brien agrees with it or not! The problem we have had in NZ over the past few years is citizens of NZ believing the BS that has come out of our current incompetent lying government! Do I think i know everything? I have an opinion on everything and how does that make Brodie wrong? People have the right to an opinion unless they want to be continually controlled as they have been over the past few years!

Think he is getting mixed up with raging Chief!

O’ Brien, I am a rager and not a raver! Geez it is good not being able to read his posts!!! I thought you had given up caring?

Lol, “on the money” too much for the Darkside anyway Chief! Do I care what they think? Nah! Brodie keeping it real and telling it the way it is! BOAY, a far more interesting and enjoyable read without the ravers!!!!

You are correct Mickey. In this day and age you have to be professional and give great customer service to retain customers in any business! The TAB is lucky that it has a monopoly on racing wagering, however their performance is not great in trying to retain customers! They do do an excellent job in trying to deter customers. You are correct no punter actually needs to offload, however racing can not afford to keep losing and not attracting new customers. The paid employees from the NZ TAB do not seem to care as long as they retain their salaries.

Lol you are correct Amateur races are a nightmare and think best I leave alone. To be fair Had a few goes after Xmas and this was the first and only one that I haven’t got a collect on.

It didnt go much at Omakau, and didnt go much in a maiden trial recently either. Not much when Andrew Stewart had it either. It did have a good run today but on what it had shown up to today there is no way it couldve won today even though the field was weak. Something going on here when the Bookies opened at only $3! Thank Christ they only race on that track once a year!!!!

What a shocking track to bet on is that Roxburgh. Only fit for trials! How on earth can an unplaced maiden in 12 starts that went average 2 days ago beat race winners? It couldn’t even win a maiden trial . It is great for a holiday venue but as for worth betting on it is a shocker! Yes I had an investment in that race which did miss due to a poor drive but we should all know by now that amateur racing should not be tote betting! Never again will I have a go on that saucer track.

How on earth would the Bookies open a 12 start all unplaced maiden as favourite in the amateur race at Roxburgh on Wednesday, opened at $3! Went only fair in a maiden race at Omakau on Monday after having an economical run. Now trained by Cheree Wigg,, Previously by Andrew Stewart, and has not shown that much ability so far!! Has drawn 1 against race winners including an out of form 7 race winner Change Around! Does seem very odd but there have been many unusual bits of odds settings over the holiday, but this has suited me down to the ground. It is not a strong amateur race but I can not see this horse winning on what it has done so far and to be opened at $3 is very strange. There was a horse that was opened over what it should have been and I think it has a massive chance of victory.