Reefton

Lets not be too harsh on Tim Mills. At the end of the day he has staff that are responsible for this and obviously cocked up. BUT........ Messara and his NZTR cohorts assured us that the close tracks were not up to scratch and that the big boys knew what they were doing. Now there have been three track debacles this season and every single one has been on one of the 'big boys' tracks. What conclusion might we draw here?

I'm not sure it was urea but that track looked very lush and very green two weeks ago hence my suspicions. I could be totally wrong but it improved a hell of a lot from the two weeks prior to that. Anyway Riccarton has had millions spent on it and this is an example of how judiciously it was spent. As I warned/asked them at Oamaru 'what procedures do you have in place to make sure all this money you are going to be getting will be well spent because this might well be the last time you can go to the well for all those big clubs'. Bernard choose not to respond to that question.

Clearly D Walsh is an expert - why not simply use him? He is at every meeting. Peter O'Malley tells me exactly what you said Pam - the track was hard as hell underneath a very thick coating of grass. From the sounds of things the irrigation couldn't get through. But these guys have a team of track men - why didn't they know that? As far as more renovation goes the tell me they set it up as virtual road underneath - maybe they were getting it ready for the all weather 20 years ago?

Well if D Walsh reckoned that that tells a story. Why isn't he being paid to inspect every SI track pre raceday. I just thought that track looked bloody odd two weeks ago. Extremely lush and as if it had got away on them. And the throwback had to be grass clippings. They say you are not supposed to put urea on them but I would have said it(looked like) it had been plastered with it

Yes with an attention span of about 5 seconds each. Wonder how many will be back there next meeting.

And then we get those two halfwits at Hastings congratulating the club on a full house and shutting the gates . A glimpse of the grandstand and you can't see one frigging person (from the angle the camera was that is) Not too many 18 - 44 year olds about Winston.

A couple of weeks back I told you lot I reckoned they didn't know what they were doing. And you all rubbished me. Told you they had grass clippings all over it. On Thursday I wasted an entire day travelling to Oamaru (five hours each way) to listen to Bernard Saundry talking a good deal of piffle (admittedly some sense interspersed) about how good the Messara report was. I knew it would be waste of time but nevertheless for the sake of the club I travelled. Too many people there including a fair CJC delegation which meant I could not attack anywhere near enough for fear of hogging the microphone. Anyway the point is at the end Tim Mills says he cannot understand why these small clubs don't want to give up their assets for the benefit of NZ racing. Well Timothy this is just an example. I might add Murray Acklin and David Lloyd, both of whom I have had arguments with in the past, were both full of sense at the meeting. Needles to say Bernard wasn't interested. Another one of the 'keep' tracks turning into a joke. O'Malley is over there (no doubt pissed off) so grab him for some proper advice on how to present a track boys.

Yeah but as I have previously said I am dubious (and equally I didn't say it was commonplace) of the time though just looked at the video and she was impressive

Yeah just looked myself but as usual working off memory. Clearly a thought of 56 if you take 20m off.

Quality Street (I think) about seven or eight years ago. Kelly burne trained it

That exception doesn't prove the rule. D Walsh probably went to the front walked the first round and kicked away. How long ago was that?

I've been at them about it for years but they insist the distance is accurate. To be fair I'm dubious because they have also gone 56 for 1020m and Black Caviar was flat doing that dead straight at Flemington.

2.02 for 2000 commonplace at Reefton. A track of 1140m for God's sake! And they can't do it at Riccarton? I've said it before and I'll say it again they need to get people like the O'Malleys - farmers who know how to prepare ground. A person who would know tells me Waverley is as good as if not the best track surface in NZ and he attributed that to Colin (?) Cromarty (?) who is apparently another volunteer who knows what he is doing. Mind you at Reefton we make a point of accuracy in our penetrometer readings of course. We haven't had anyone tell us their horse wouldn't stretch out because it was not comfortable in the conditions. (In fact that is the first time I have ever heard that excuse ever on a good 3 barring where they were not firm trackers). No wonder the game is rooted! I better get onto the cops about this race fixing going on!

What was that 1200m time Blue Blood went in the Telegraph when there was noses between him Mop and Panagor? Trentham was a bog in the winter but it is still a bog in the winter and the bog season is a lot longer at Trentham now There are too many dung hill tracks in this Country, invariably they have been played around with and cocked up and invariably they are on Winsome's 'keep' lists Riccarton is not stuffed incidentally - it has improved vastly in the last couple of years but clearly was over watered prior to yesterday. And that is the point I have been making all week. Pike and Te Akau would not be hanging around down here is it was stuffed.

look at Riccarton usually. 1.08 for 1200 2000m races in 2.05? Expect 2.02 or better Accept it it wasn't a G3. The evidence is overwelming

You're all making excuses again. Was the track a good three or wasn't it? It was stated as such and a good three is firm. In all my years I have never ever heard of a firm track where horses did not feel comfortable stretching out (unless it was too firm for individual horses of course but this was clearly entire fields) . Clearly that track was not a good three based on the times they were running. You lot are like Donald Trump's mob trying to deny the reality we can see in front of us. It looked to me that the grass was odd - like when the lawn gets away and you cannot mow it with the catcher - and I suspect that grass clippings were what was being thrown up. For all that I reckon the racing was Ok but Winston needs to do something about that easterly - he is apparently God and has a friend they call the Messiah so he is bound to be able to fix it. As for putting clay into a track that would strike me as total madness. Clay holds water and what the hell do you want to hold water for? (especially when you have a track like Riccarton which really does get atrocious when wet and especially when you have a Track manager always looking for an excuse to plaster water all over it). Clay is why Kumara and Hokitika are bogs and it is now apparent to me how they stuffed Greymouth which was a beautiful free draining riverbed course but is now a shit hole when wet - I bet they put clay into it. All the more reason why they should not be touching courses. And getting back to these undulations - I have heaps of videos of Riccarton pre that work twenty years ago and I can't see any undulations. More BS to justify a botched job. Mr Illusion certainly didn't seem to have trouble with 'undulations' All in all these 'experts' have well and truly over complicated things and are now always seeking to justify the cockups. And before you lot say I am living in the past can I ask if that is the past where NZ had a selection of top quality horses (for whom the Aussie's would sit up and take notice when they ventured westward), when there were a selection of jockeys who you would be happy to take to Aussie to ride your hopeful, when there were a selection of Kiwi Trainers (instead of just one now) that the Aussie's respected, when meeting cancellations were a real rarity and when the officials (ie stipes) were really respected, and when you actually got the odd person onto our racecourses? If that is the past they I don't mind living in it.

So what are you saying? Horses were not comfortable to stretch out there yesterday? And if not why not? Seems like all this science and being able to read horses minds you lot are coming up with is simple bullshit. Bottom line is that track yesterday, early on at least, was not a good 3. As for a leader bias when the rail is out does the rail being out make for tight corners to advantage front runners at Riccarton? They've been saying it for years but there is always an excuse in racing whether it be for slow horses or deficient tracks, incompetant Ministers or bankrupt Clubs and the excuses are getting more and more exotic.

And another thing. Based on the times especially early on it was more like a dead 5 at best not a good 3. And there was some sort of material being thrown back too. Might have been grass clumps but looked a bit suspicious to me.

Hot? It was a freezing(and I mean bloody FREEZING) cold easterly that's what it was. Riccarton is a prick of a place for that. And don't get smug just because it didn't rain - the whole point was it was forecast and had it arrived it could have been a slow 7 or worse. And anyway there was something decidley odd about that track today - everything was winning from the front. And one would expect at the CJC HQ a more even pattern of winners. Good racing but a real bias for front runners

the GDP can do what it wants . That is history. Business confidence is what will drive the economy on the future and it ain't looking good. To be fair it is not all Teethcinda's fault. Look for some pretty restrictive lending practices from those four Aussie banks when this Royal Commission report into Aussie banking comes out - and if the banks tighten up on lending that is a real downer on business confidence - no good being confident and wanting to get stuck in when the Bank Manager has the s#*ts!

getting awful dark over Riccarton way(and it is a fair way off night time just yet!)

I am not actually expecting much anyway just a bit better run than in the bog last time. Certainly do not expect to win(though it would be nice)

If the met service say no rain it is definitely going to piss down! Better put my raincoat and gummies in the wagon!

looks like it is going to rain on the Christchurch Traffic cams this morning?

That's all right Pam - those guys who set the specifications and did the job clearly had an an effing sight less than your 'insignificant' knowledge And those undulations you were talking about - are those the ones that allowed Mr Illusion to go 53 or whatever it was for 1000 there? I think the undulations were in the minds of the silly Racing Authority pricks with the money burning a hole in their pockets