The Centaur

By needing to twist the argument you are losing. Where have I said I condone "jiggering"? For your deafness and closed mindedness I will reiterate. I consider the punishment to Weir has been well and truly sufficient and taken nobly by him.

Your argument is illogical. You say Weir is a cruel bastard. Maybe you assume the thousands who shared in the ownership of horses trained by him, the staff fellow participants all were ignorant. There is no way he would have risen to the heights he did if was "a cruel bastard". Have a bit sense. All you are doing is getting on a self righteous bandwaggon with no on the ground knowledge.

Its when someone can't present a rational argument they resort to personal abuse. Maybe you consider capital punishment as an appropriate penalty. After all the financial cost to Weir has been massive.

Joe Bloggs You are totally over the top with your comments. Weir to his credit was willing to plead guilty 3 years ago but instead dubious charges of conspiracy to defraud were laid. For heavens sake having a $50 bet in the Melbourne Cup was deemed by some as "conspiracy" There are far worse instances of cruelty around than Weir's so lets have some consistency. Given the number of horses Weir was responsible for his "rap sheet" as you describe it I thought was quite stellar.

Does "raceday" actually need horses? If Boxing Day at Awapuni had plenty attractions planned perhaps with some added attractions the event could proceed with say large screen hooking directly into Trentham.

In all this track talk I hear no mention of Woodville. Why is that?

JB. Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd catch you here. Sad to hear about passing of Ronnie Franklin recently. You must have known him early days in Hawera. I note his first winner was Bravata at Marton 1973. He won for me in 1975. I'll always remember that day.

More legal stupidity. Whats to stop a jockey telling his wife and the wife passing on the info down at the hair salon. Sure discourage this behaviour but hardly worth all the legal clap trap.

When it comes to Ready To Run clubs should be involved and receive income. After all its racing infrastructure that is used to educate these horses. NZB should not have a monopoly particularly online. NZTR has the data to generate breeding catalogues. Just needs some initiative.

One thing with social media such as this is that whenever a suggestion is made its met with total indifference but plenty are willing to complain. As I have said the best way is a petition to reduce the judicial/integrity costs. OK $1m total cost maybe a bit unrealistic but aiming for 50% reduction certainly viable. Better use of video conferencing, return of honorary officials are some of the ways to achieve cost reductions and off course removal of bloated salaries and fees.

You forget that the whole purpose of racing was for social reasons. Gambling should only be secondary. People do go to the races over summer. If they don't it can be poor weather on the day or poor marketing. Trentham should have had a bumper crowd. During the week when a local race had finished instead of giving TV viewers insane greyhound ramblings there should have been build up for the Saturday meeting. Thats just one, even minor instance. There are so many ways to get people oncourse. If I was given half a chance there would be at least 10,000 ontrack.

During COVID lockdowns there was a reawakening of online conferencing. It could be possible through technology to have experts based in Australia officiating over racing in New Zealand. Therefore the key to attacking the massive RIU and judicial costs is forcing the use of technology. First Step: With this in mind there needs to be someone with a current profile to introduce a petition for signing by jockeys, trainers and owners. Judicial costs should be no more than $1M per year.

Summertime is about getting people on track. If that means twilight then YES. If Saturday then YES. If mixing trots and gallops the YES. If More meetings less horses then YES. There are plenty betting options available everyday of the week so no need to program everything around betting.

This week is Fieldays week. Date changed this year. To illustrate your point I doubt NZTR know how to leverage the thoroughbred industry around the event. There are numerous ways e.g. grabbing some of the exhibitors for sponsorship and free space at major meetings.

One of the things to make an event of it could be to have a reasonable large screen. As the role of the TAB Christmas at the Races is to supply marquees to clubs then perhaps they could hire reasonably large screens to private functions and I repeat some exclusive livestreaming. Can't see any problem in that.

Somewhere in all that is a formula which a club could cooperate and licence outside functions. Perhaps some exclusive livestreaming to add to the day.

Radical?... who on earth put that word in. NZTR wouldn't know what the word meant never alone how to spell it. It seems NZTR is trying to deflect blame on to the club. NZTR is in charge of racing therefore they should have had someone qualified on the ground doing inspections and other duties ensuring safety of all participants. If they want be radical how about standing up to the TAB particularly on the televising of racing. NZTR need to extract Trackside TV from TAB setting up a stand alone media organization which would make TAB easier to close down or sell off. NZTR should be pushing the changes to legislation to allow clubs to run their own pools which can be combined with marketing efforts.

Retiring???? That's silly. He's just starting to get a fan club.

Looked in good order albeit I noticed that after the race. There is a R75 1400m at Cromwell which has a nice smooth surface. Does he need only 1600m?

Mr Bloggs were you riding when Great Luck led all the way winning a jackpot race at Marton. I had the 2nd thru to 8th horse in the jackpot. Amazing when these massive upsets occur its invariably a horse leading all the way. Light Up just reminds me of that day.

Someone will probably have to rescue Brent. What a win!!

Looking back at some recent replays what strikes me is the amazingly quick construction of the all weather. Over recent years the farcical playing around with the bend approaching the straight. The housing development where one could have allowed for extension of the course. This probably started 20 years ago. There has to be some logical explanation.

Yeah good observations. My take is that the hysterical scream from the starter has something to do with. The horse hears it and at the same time the noise of the gate totally mesmerises some of them. Why the starter has to yell "watch the gates" is beyond me. Hate to think what happens when the gates fail and the scream has already taken place.

I fail to see the logic in knocking the NZ Cup. This is a race that allows the bread and butter participants to exercise their wares. If there is a problem it's the absurd placement of the race as Race No. 11. Should be about Race 6 when there is maximum interest. Also the problem is North Island racing not giving more recognition to handicap racing. The winner will be carrying the Bonecrusher colours so whats wrong with that?

Just as well you didn't pursue a career in the judiciary. For your info Weir is serving a four-year ban from racing after pleading no contest at a Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board hearing to possessing the jiggers and conduct prejudicial to racing. The board made no finding that he used the jiggers on any of his horses. Possessing jiggers is not a crime, but is a breach of the rules of racing. Given the number of horses Weir had and the almost universal statements from his staff at the time championing Weir proving cruelty is going to be mighty hard. The so called video says nothing. Terms such as cruelty, torturing are in the legislation that's why they are being used.