Reefton

They'll cock it up. They always do

That's dead right. Struggles to do what used to be second nature and having lost Evelyn and being unable to drive is a huge handicap. He used to be an unbelievable man to party. He nearly killed my Uncle(Kevin Doolan) and his mate Bill Kennedy on the whisky one time on the Coast after Bill had trained four winners at Omoto one day. Sprung out of bed early next morning and off to Hoki to get on it again while the other two never got out of bed till afternoon. At that time I had no idea what my Uncle looked like in the morning because he was always out of bed in the dark Legend JG Carran Tell us the story about trotting Napiat past the Paparoa Prison Morty

He had a lot of those good sorts plus the extra good ones a lot owned by John and Evelyn Carran and Ray Coupland. El Chico Coup Align(never the same horse after they took him off Pitty) Milo Savvy Coup of course(plus others) El Chico was a great story which I hope Pitty and John Carran(another top top bloke) won't mind me telling. John is a fairly canny farmer from down south and Pitty heard of this two(or maybe four) race winner El Chico for sale. Won't quote the numbers but it was a five figure sum. JG told him there was bugger in the what he calls 'the biscuit tin' and said 'offer them $xxxxx' (exactly one half what they were asking). 'They wont take it' said Pitty 'no chance' but sure enough they did. The horse won another 20+ races and about $600k for them. When they picked him up the stable jockey told them they called him El Cheato. Pitty didn't do too bad to won anther 20plus including two Stewards with him. John Carran actually trained himself for years earlier on - probably trained 100 winners and many associated with one KW Morton(Muzenza365 himself). There are some legendary stories especially about a horse called Napiat who was a very good horse in the early 80's. JG started out as a cook in a bush gang at Te Anau and ended up with a bunch of farms. There are also a lot of legends with the trips he used to make to places like the Coast. He didn't mind driving for a long long time. Wonderful wonderful bloke(Racing is full of them but not too many seem to get a seat around that table at Petone or Parnell). Jack Frost.(an earlier edition of Jack Frost). he was a good three year old the same year as a handy three year old of my Uncle's Cappiemore

Back in the seventies really. The reason I remember was that when the Coast Circuit would come around I was hanging around Omoto as a kid and the non racing horses had to go to Victoria Park(the Trotting venue) to make room for the visitors. Michael(as an unfashionable trainer at the time) was also relegated to stabling his horses at Victoria Park so I remember him being there. I think his first winner was a horse called Ben Ahee at Hokitika which must have been around that time. I think(I could be wrong) his first top horse was Just Tommy but he also trained Beks which won a Trentham Stakes - when It was a good horse's race - and went on to be the dam of Popsy which won a Derby and herself produced Rock n Pop to win a 2000 Guineas. He would have to tell you more himself but we all know he has had a hell of a lot of good 'Country Cups' horses and a fair few real good ones as well

They tell me the Pitman racing team has just trained it's 2000th winner (last week). Not all in Michael's own name of course since Diane trained for a while in her name only but regardless an extraordinary performance considering their battling beginnings in the game and by doign it form a South Island base(and regularly taking North Island rejects to Trentham and kicking butt!!. Congratulations team!

Ok accepted(we do not have a lot of training activities) but regardless it is not the time to challenge someone when they are astride a horse and trying to get onto a track to work it. Seems like a hell of a good way to upset someone badly to me. And one also suspects this crossing keeper guy might be a little Hitler given the nature and content of the attack on him by the licenced person(might be wrong there too) But from what you are saying it is possible that the prominent unvaxxed trainers and rider in Canterbury could still attend training and ride work? Presumably Tauranga is saying 'no problem to be on the course and unvexxed so long as you are not on one of the tracks aboard a horse while unvaxxed' Perhaps they are worried the horse might catch covid???

Whether it is good rule or not is pretty irrelevant. The NZTR rule is you are not allowed on a racecourse without the double Vax so the Tauranga Club is required to be checking at the entrance to the course not when someone is aboard what might well have been a young green and uneducated horse. The younger Pender, if he is not double vaxxed, should have been identified and escorted off the property before he ever got on a horse and clearly the Tauranga Racing Club was remiss in not having appropriate security to do so. Accordingly they placed their crossing keeper in danger of being abused or assaulted when he had to take matters into his own hands. As a responsible employer you have a duty to keep employees out of harms way. Whether the law is right or wrong it remains the law and we are well aware of at least one high profile racing personality who has run foul of it. Personally I think that law is a crock of shiite but there are a lot of laws and rules that I think are crock of shiite but when wankers get a mad idea in their head what can you do?

Bottom line is Pam the Tauranga Racing Club should have been manning the gate to the racecourse property/training stalls not the track crossing. If Jim Pender's boy was on the property without the required vaccinations then there is an issue immediately. The fault here lies with the crossing keepers employers for not keeping him safe As far as what happens in stables I think it was a hell of a lot worse 50 years ago. For all that my experience is that it is bloody easy to blame the rider when a nag gets beat. If I had a dollar for every time I had heard the excuse 'poor ride' I would be making money out of racehorses instead of pouring it down the drain on them.

To be fair I spoke firmly to a trainer who abused one of my(female) committee at our recent meeting but I did it myself not rushed to the stipes to do my dirty work, the person he abused was merely doing a job on a voluntary basis AND she acted on instructions he himself had provided then changed his mind(ie someone else's horses ended up in a yard/paddock he initially indicated he didn't want then changed his mind). On the topic of people speaking quite directly if I was an Auckland City Council senior staff member I would be spending the next few months filling my pants at the prospect of what might happen in November. Mind you most of them are probably like John Allen and too thick to realise the danger they are in

And besides which I have heard stories of a certain prominent Club CEO who apparently regularly explodes at trainers who don't kiss his butt. And he obviously does it with impunity! So where's the fairness? The bloke doing major work in providing the product cannot fart without the full weight of the system coming down on him but the 'authorities' can be as big a plonkers as they like and nobody reacts.

Don't know about that. If these people act in a very mediocre fashion(like the vast majority of the people who are working in public funded jobs) then they need to get chipped when they are out of line. Otherwise we are just encouraging that aforementioned mediocrity and God knows the administration of NZ racing is chock full of mediocrity. The bloke 'believed' Mr Pender's trackwork rider did not have the correct vaccination status. Why did he not enquire instead of relying on his 'belief'? If the guy had assured him he had the status he could have said 'when you are finished working the horse please bring me the proof'. If the guy couldn't or didn't he could have reported him BUT I am sure(and I do not know him) Jim Pender would have been aware of the rules. If he flouted them then it is up to a higher authority than a crossing keeper to take action. Alternately Tauranga ought to have had someone on the float park gate checking the passes before riders were mounted on horses. By the time they are at 'the gap' tehy are possibly already well in breach by being on the racecourse property. We run into the same thing all the time dealing with government departments - utterly useless systems designed by utterly useless f-wits who have never done the job themselves but know exactly how the rules should be implemented. And when you get stuck into them they come at you with this 'Abuse will not be tolerated' crap. How are they going to improve if they will not accept correction? And how do I charge my clients for time spent trying to decipher their idiot systems or fix their cock ups? As often as not I have to wear it financially and it pisses me off! You might say submit on the problems but those types are just like the powers that be in racing - the calls are generally made well before any submissions arrive and changes are extraordinarily unlikely. Witness those halfwit politicians on that racing select committee last year or 2020 (1) 90% of them wouldn't know which end of the horse you poke the tucker into and (2)Winston and the Waikato Mafia would have had the Labour bloc and the National bloc (respectively) well schooled up not to listen to common sense but that the bill was to go through basically unchanged(which it ultimately did) As an aside a couple of years ago I quipped to an IRD staff member that if I ended up blowing my brains out over the topic of the discussion it would be IRD's fault. Two weeks later I get a schreeching letter(which I chucked in the bin) about not mentioning suicide and upsetting their staff and God knows what. Do you think they might have remotely considered the possibility that I was serious?? Not a bloody hope. All they cared about was their own fat arses.

Hoki has a grievance but no more than Blenhiem, Waikouaiti, Wairoa or Dargaville. All places where people love to go to the races but the powers that be could not have people actually keen on witnessing the product in action so they had to shut them down. And it was probably more by good luck than good judgement that we didn't join them

Not sure young Matthew Cross would believe he is in the twilight of his career nor the Evans bloke. G Simon and T Lee perhaps

I'd love to see you and to see you and Pam get the money! He was perilously close this time

You weren't at Reefton were you? Sounds like our 'sponsors' room (which we have constant problems with freeloaders accessing). Our public bar has (in the past) been the topic of compliments as to its range of ale but I went to Ellerslie as an owner on KM night a fair few years ago and surprised that there was only Speights from a can in the owners pre race parade area(Champagne and whatever else as well but very limited beer selection) so we are not on our own. if you were at Reefton(I know your horse was and was bloody unlucky too) I would like to have thought you would have made a point of making yourself known.

Other than family reasons why would Tom want to leave one of the world's finest racing jurisdictions to come back to the NZ industry? He got treated like shit when he was working here previously. I'd have thought he might be fancying taking over Darren Flindell's possie(though M MacNamara might have eyes for that too of course).

'dump your race calling equipment'? You should have suggested they dump their racing administration equipment. I know who did a better job in their time in NZ racing

Just told. Although when Reon was in action for our Reefton Clubs he was a fixture. We would have Reon and the others had whoever. These days we are liable to get anyone. Las six years for the Jockey Club I think Craig Rail, Matt Cross, Craig Rail, Mark MacNamara, Matt Cross and maybe Jason. some talent there.

All the best. There will be a place for you over there for sure and be inspired by Tom who was hardly well treated here but has risen above that to heights none of those who held him back here will ever reach.

Sorry to hear that Jason. Always enjoyed your calling and most certainly your brief association with the Reefton Jockey Club. Another thick witted call by whoever is responsible. All the best for your future. Brian Molloy

How is it JB that NSW and Victoria racing do so well but Queensland is in the doldrums? It just makes not sense to me that two states are going gangbusters while the one right next door is(apparently) in disarray. I might add I am taking your word for it because I don't really follow Aussie racing any more. NZ has the excuse of incompetent administrators, boards who know absolutely nothing about racing and underperforming big clubs sucking the industry dry financially but what is Queensland's problem?

Too true - lazy frigging recruitment firms do not thoroughly check the claims in trumped up CV's these failures produce when applying for jobs and the same useless pricks circulate around the cesspool of publicly funded roles

I might knock them a bit but well done to the CJC and horse connections today 110 runners entered and only two scratchings. Well done everyone

Media Release 17 January 2022 TAB NZ appoints Mike Tod as new CEO TAB NZ has appointed corporate executive Mike Tod as Chief Executive Officer. Board Chair Mark Stewart says Mike will take up the position on March 21. “The Board and I are thrilled to welcome someone of Mike’s international experience to lead TAB NZ. He is a deeply customer-centric leader with extensive experience in key areas of focus for our organisation, including product and service innovation, marketing, brand and consumer engagement. His appointment and those areas of focus will allow us to drive further revenue growth for our racing and sporting stakeholders” Mr Stewart says. Mike has held senior roles with TVNZ, Fonterra, Air New Zealand and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He is a former member of MasterCard’s Asia Pacific Advisory Board, is a Director of Queenstown Airport, and is an advisor to Live Ocean Racing. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme and the university’s Sustainability Leadership Programme, and is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. “Mike’s global experience with Air New Zealand - in particular as Chief Marketing and Customer Officer where he led the resurgence of the brand and delivery of proactive and service innovations internationally - places TAB NZ in a strong position to meet its financial potential and to deliver upon the expectations of its stakeholders,” Mr Stewart says. “His experience in highly regulated industries and with organisations with significant stakeholder complexity, will be invaluable to TAB NZ. Mike says he is thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead TAB NZ into the next exciting chapter of its history. “TAB NZ is an iconic organisation that is inextricably linked to New Zealand’s way of life. Now that the racing industry reforms are well advanced, this allows TAB NZ, as a commercial wagering operator, to focus on its objectives of maximising profits for the long-term benefit of racing in New Zealand, to maximise returns to New Zealand sporting organisations, and to support our communities,” Mike says. Mike‘s commencement in the role on March 21 will complete the transition from the New Zealand Racing Board and the Racing Industry Transition Agency to TAB NZ. ENDS For more information, please contact: Matt Smith TAB NZ e matt.smith@tab.co.nz m +64 27 228 5423 Another bloke with zero/zilch/nought experience in racing admin (and probably even less interest in the industry) appointed to cure all the industry woes. When the eff is this industry going to seize back control?

Listen you frigging idiot. Matthew Pitman is not Michael Pitman - he is Michael Pitman's son. You fancy yourself as knowing everything but even the basics are beyond you. Michael Pitman is on the programming committee sure(probably because nobody else will do it) but as I previously said that is basically a rubber stamping exercise for last year's programmes to be repeated and Tim Mills dominates that. As Pitty has often said how could you manipulate the programming effectively when you are doing it three to six months ahead? How do you know what horses will be graded where.