The Centaur

H'mm... don't know enough. Do know one can go broke backing his horses.

Running the major races as say race 9 or 10 seems ridiculous. If as you say the patrons are retreating about 4.oopm then the answer is run the main race as race 5 or 6. THats what they did in the olden days and there was a reason.

I thought Grand Win would have been a great broodmare but I don't think they put her to any good stallion. There was a horse you might remember Grand Marnier which was very impressive first up at Otaki but didn't go on. I just spent one school holidays at Deacon's but it was a huge experience. The buzz in the stable was an unraced two year old which Brian was having problems curing a swollen leg. Anyway all my wages (which weren't great) went on Mr Mink when he first started. Maurice Campbell who wasn't even riding races then was the track rider for Mr Mink. Now that jackpot day at Marton you got beat on Kartika and they threw a pie at you maybe that was the race the $130 outsider called Great Luck led all the way and knocked everyone out. I had all the winners except that one and in that race had the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th horse. Pity I had already eaten mine !!!!

Noticed Alan Baker winning today with Guertlyn. Hate to think when last time trained a winner but trained in New Plymouth in the seventies. Best described as battler but one autumn got hold of Blue Nile and the horse was just unbeatable that year. I thought it won the Thompson Handicap but the records prove me wrong. Maybe before your time but Alan's parents raced Grand Win which was probably Brian Deacon's first really good horse. Really fantastic mare and I remember riding her to and from the track.

Or holding hand out for wage subsidy. Not only did the government fork up many millions for the America's Cup but the businesses down at the Viaduct got millions in handouts. Some of the bludgers are actually on the "rich list".

According to NZHERALD the sentencing was due yesterday. I hate it when the press starts a story and doesn't follow up. Now according to the court Leo Molloy's case is set down for 24 Feb 10.00 am. If thats the same case then there surely there is something strange going on. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes to decide what the punishment should be. Seems to me a concerted effort to delay.

From my small involvement with AR I concluded he was the smartest racing manager around in racing. I gathered that opinion from the work he put in attempting to get funding for 100 years commemoration of ANZAC bearing in mind Trentham played a major part sending soldiers overseas. So he let the media have it somewhere along the line. Without the full story don't go jumping to the media beat ups. Reading the piece above it sounds like he physically "attacked a female reporter". THe truth is probably he strongly responded to some erroneous press.

The demise of radio needs investigation. There was never a proper explanation with facts and figures given. Today we have Counties racing with a host of young horses racing that will disperse all over the holiday period. So what do we get...... approx 8 minutes per half hour on Trackside with the balance of the time devoted to greyhounds with long winded form details from the enthusiastic but hard to listen young lady. There are so many ways to promote local midweek racing in conjunction with the sponsors that clearly shows TAB should not be running TV. Bernard Saundry has no clue. His idea is "all I know is whats in Australia"

I noticed NZHERALD have removed their story. Wonder why? Now the way I see it there are errors in the story but supposedly Herald got it from court documents. These in turn would have originated from sworn affidavits. So are the affidavits true?

I notice Leo Molloy is due to come up for some sort of sentencing. According to NZHerald the illegal posting occurred in Main Street Cafe of Channel X. Now I know it started in the Racing Section. Therefore it is assumed Leigh McKenzie transferred it to Main Street Cafe. So by posting it himself McKenzie is just as at fault as Molloy. Rather than transferring it the posting should have been immediately deleted.

What gets me is each year there is an new influx of "super successful" business men and other "highly qualified" experts get on these boards and management committees yet that is the last you hear of them. Now it doesn't take much business brain to figure the TAB should not be running media. Instead a standalone company covering all aspects of TV, Radio/Internet/Print/Digital and outdoor display should serve racing. Add in advertising across all channels as well as sponsorships the whole operation could be self funded and not cut into the betting take. However something with a bit of common sense too much for these geniuses.

... or are they trying to drive racing into the ground? Big day racing in NZ (3 meetings) plenty in Aust. So TAB Trackside devotes Channel 2 to idiotic races with no time giving proper coverage on Chan 1 for NZ racing. No Invercargill prelims so switch to Chan 63 and find Temora Dogs and Penn National about to start. Penn National with a massive win pool of $17 dollars and the commingled Temora dogs with a pool of $411 so not even popular in Australia. Look this is total madness. Where is Bernard Saundry advising the TAB? If the races are idiotic the music is even more so.

I would have thought the system would have come through NZTR and not the Racing Board. If through the Racing Board perhaps shows the vague boundries of responsibility.

Chittick was at one time chairman of the Racing Board. What hope has the industry got when some one like that can't get it right.

To a degree the recorded video has become the source for times therefore the errors for that type of timing should be examined. e.g. how does the starting point line up and how accurate is video timing versus on the spot real time. A video is never going to be more accurate than 1/25th of a second and even then some frames of the video are duplicates because the computer compiling the video isn't fast enough.

Getting a simple message to racing participants isn't easy. My contribution has been getting across the fact that the TAB is not a $2.5billion enterprise rather a $450million one. A year ago I read one of Garry Chitticks pieces on his studs website and even he referred to the TAB as a $2 billion business. The point might seem trivial to some but its the start of the wastage. With a $2.5billion enterprise you need to be paying the salaries for that size business then all the way down the chain everyone gets a cut of the billions. Except there are no billions its a convenient lie for senior managers never to contradict.

Don't believe some of the crap written about Maradona. The socalled western press went out of their way to besmirch Maradona. Reason being he was a champion for the underdog. e.g. Promoted the Palestinian cause so immediately fell foul of the Zionist funded press. Formed a close association with Cuba i.e. Fidel Castro as well as Hugo Chavez the popular socialist Venezuelan leader. This obviously this didn't go down with with the Jewish Lobby in Washington i.e. the US government (explanation the Jewish Lobby contributes 80% of US Presidential election funding) Nevertheless good article as I wasn't aware of Maradona's horse racing involvement.

Have any of the RTR horses used the new track including Finnbar's. ?

I note horse is full brother to Viva Chef recent 1000M winner at Happy Valley. OK maybe quite impressive after being wide but I query how valuable is Happy Valley form. The Sacred Falls seem to be going much better now but dissapointing until now. Stlll after after visiting breednet and seeing the prices paid for yearlings now running in maidens around NSW then a ready made racehorse probably a better buy. Its quite common to see on breednet yearling sale price $500,000. Recent online sale $2000

You miss the point. The Melbourne Cup is a valuable brand. Most bars owners are not banned from racing and Melbourne Cup is just another major sporting event shown in the bars. If one wants to use the Cup over and above the norm then like any trademarked event I daresay would need permission.

I presume the Victoria Racing Club holds some sort of trademark over the Melbourne Cup. Therefore if a business wants to use it for advertising and promotional purposes it would need to obtain permission. There is no way the holders of the trademark would allow a banned person exploiting the Cup regardless which country. Offcourse this being outside the normal duties of the mega paid legal eagles employed by the TAB or NZTR then obviously over their heads.

Just to add to the topic. The Racing industry bans a person from participating or deriving benefit from it. The TAB on the other hand says stuff you we need to derive max benefit so they join up with the banned person and in a whisker the approx $15,000 fine is eliminated. According to head honcho at the TAB their operations are more important than a Racing Industry ruling. On Melbourne Cup day the TAB betting caravan was located on or next to property leased by Molloy. I don't necessarily agree with the banned requirements but surely any judicial rulings should be applied equally to all. Banned should mean banned. But hey David Walker is hosting the TAB betting caravan at his home. All welcome.

Probably buried thats the way the NZ legal system works when an influential QC is on the job. Now its interesting that all around Australia and to a lesser degree in NZ there are bars and restaurants cashing in on the Melbourne Cup at no cost. Thats not the case when fight promoters in the USA find their fight being illegally shown. e.g. Mingling among the fight fans Saturday will be an army of private investigators and freelance "auditors" armed with smartphones and camcorders who are paid a bounty for finding establishments that show the event without paying the commercial licensing fees. And for those who get caught, a bevy of lawyers stand ready to extract more than a few pounds of flesh.

Amazing how the industry operates. Example David Walker lifelong career destroyed over alleged corrupt bets no more than $1000 similarly Darren Weir over some instances of using jiggers. In Darren Weir's case.... Mr Weir will not be permitted to participate in the racing industry in any way over the four-year period, including, but not limited to his participation in the training of horses, attending race meetings and licensed premises and deriving any benefit from the industry. Now look at Leo Molloy. Advertising for Melbourne Cup day with the iconic Boys Get Paid. $150 per person with heaps of prizes. Not only is the prizes element arguably against the Gambling Act ( you can't say a 2 course lunch is worth $150) its obvious Molloy is "deriving considerable benefit from the industry". Hard to fathom Boys Get Paid already falling foul of gambling laws now associating with Molloy. There are plenty businesses running Melbourne Cup promo's but then again only Molloy thinks he is above the law.

British Standards for AWT  should have a course width of at least 21.9 yards (20 metres) catering for the maximum number of runners permitted. The Safety Figure will usually be 16-18, although this may vary depending upon the start position involved (see 1.4 - Safety Figures). Some flexibility may be possible depending on the Safety Figure intended. Furthermore, in certain circumstances on AWT tracks, a 20% reduction in the width of the course on the bends may be permitted. So it seems its a the very lowest of allowable width.