The Centaur

Brilliant effort Barry, appreciate your time. Just keep off that whiskey until AFTER the last.

Barry I see Quantum ran second in this race last year. Hope it looks OK.

I think Barry will be "under the weather" by now.

I saw it at Avondale and looked fat. Lets hope its trimmed up.

Good spotting Barry. Pays to be on track. Looks like the inner against rail best.

It will be embarrasing if Pink Graffiti can't win today for Waikato Stud From the stud's flagship breeding line i.e. out of Escada already left Doncaster winner Vision And Power, Glamour Puss (went to Uk Ascot King Stand Stakes ) also Escadaire top West Aus racer and a host of other winners. Dam by Centaine and the Centaine's went ok in heavy. Other breeding tips today Luck Of Master (out of good wet track mare Monrose), Mangaroa Fire (out of Rotorua Cup winner a toff in the wet) and full sister to Mangaroa Flo Jo etc. Master Genie should bolt in with the fourth so a good day for Mastercraftsman.

Could be fake news unfortunately from a very unreliable source. Maybe I should have known better.

The whisper from elsewhere is that Winston Peters is going to relieve most of the current NZRB Board members the interesting part is this decision comes before the Messara report. Could it be the $50 mill spendup on sports software is unravelling? Certainly there would have to be a black and white reason.

All Wallace has done is help place Justify in China Horse Club ownership. Justify may well have done the same without any involvement from Michael. His achievement would be the total success of China Horse Club for which he is no doubt well paid. There are people around who actually breed, train and ride their horses putting up their own hard earned as well. Nice to see a triple crown winner but lets be reasonable Tiger Woods had Steve Williams as caddy I didn't see much accolades for Williams even though being on the golf course he was far more visible than Michael Wallace.

Possibly??? But he didn't breed, own, train or ride the horse. How many "team members" does there have to be? Neither was it the NZ Horse Club. Compare say to Snow Lupton winning the Melbourne Cup the joint selection with two others of Justify is rather insignificant.

Interesting how this applies to the NZTAB development of sports betting software. Is there any relevance at all? One factor I can see is Silicon Valley getting more involved meaning a whole lot more competition and products. I cannot see Trump allowing US citizens to send funds overseas so if NZ Racing Board were planning on some sort of bonanza then forget it. With the explosion in software means there will be cheaper systems and more innovative products which kind of makes NZ TAB look stupid investing in unknown untried software developed for a tiny market compared to that available in the US. I always thought NZTAB investing $50 million writing sports betting software was absurd now I think its an absolute disaster.

If the only way to bet at night is through the internet then correct if I'm wrong the internet has the progressive dividends. Also we are not going to be that familiar with the form therefore the best indication for us is the appearance of the horse with associated comments. The logic of obscuring the horse and doubling up with the divs just beats me.

Its been raining quite heavily in Auckland with thunder predicted during the day. I've been fooled before however when one expected an abandonment the track was still raceable. Any update?

THe name changes undergone by the Taranaki club of recentt times have been ridiculous. Same with a lot of other clubs just a yuppie idea to make new committee members believe they are modernising racing where in fact they haven't a clue. Back in the sixties when the New Plymouth airport shifted from the old Bell Block site there was some talk of relocating the racecourse to Bell Block which would have given it plenty room. However the New Plymouth track is used extensively by sports clubs I doubt any valid reason would allow it being converted to housing unless the Bell block site was still available for an all weather track.

Notable feat. Raymond Connors winning main races at both venues owning both. One a jumps race the other flat. She's Poppy fresh up after 182 days. Might happen with Baker/Forsman but rarely with a trainer with his numbers and cheapies.

Barry, That was the year of the share market crash. Some pie in the sky breeding ventures but really I didn't think racing was on any great roll. Got worse obviously after the crash but had steadily been declining since the fifties. Lot of differences however. No wall to wall racing at the TAB, no Trackside and no TAB bookies. About that time pub bookies started dying out as TAB race closing times were reduced. The pub bookie may have taken turnover off the TAB but really gave a bit of interest to the patrons which in turn fostered interest in racing. With no Trackside and no TAB bookies Revel Somervell's trials videos were a goldmine. Trial and race performers which now go out at $3.00 would then go out at $20. Betting wise TAB bookies and Trackside have been a disaster.

Yes it appears Pike was caught out only because he or the staff wrote it up in the stable log book. In other words was Pike being too honest? If nothing had been written up nothing would have happened. In my short stint as owner/trainer back on the seventies there used to be a 7 day rule meaning any treatments given 7 days prior to racing had to be notified to the club by 5.00pm Friday before the Saturday. Being honest and perhaps naive I notified them. Then come Saturday morning at breakfast at the accommodation house a club rep came up to me and said we've scratched your horse because the withholding period for the ointment had changed. Thereafter I never bothered with the notification and I don't think many others were doing either.

Tony Pike horses scratched in Brisbane because of treatment on the day. Some other NZ trainers could well take note.

Agree. This constant playing the ageist card is pathetic. Racing has something for everyone regardless of age, gender, perceived status etc etc. There is a place for the high fashion adherents as well as the average joe blo's. There is no conflict only in the minds of small minded child like bores who never graduated from the school playground where the teacher is enemy number one.

THe prediction made by slam dunk in a posting on racecafe April 6 2014 has come true. snippet from RC "Remember a while back when Radio Pacific were having financial problems. Well the Racing Board invested into Radio Pacific and a few years later walked of with a profit of well over $20 million. Racings biggest ever payday. Now a prudent and enterprising CEO would conclude if that formula works why not try it again. Therefore investing in the Parnell Studio's would have been most likely the best options. Instead we have two or three individuals piggy backing on racing and probably walking of with millions profit when selling the business later on. Millions which should have stayed with racing. Just how much is Racing in terms of funding,expertise and goodwill contributing to NZ Live Ltd. Hard working industry employees,jockeys,trainers and long suffering owners, sponsors are being used as pawns to enrich a few."

Horseboy, I am intrigued by the definition of "members". Now I surf the internet a bit and here and there need to register to participate and do it with facebook user/password automatically. No way would I call myself a member of the particular organization although follower perhaps yes. Its very convenient with one click as opposed filling out a specific form then confirming the registration via email and actually participating in some way. .

My posting re BGP is in no way an accusation. Its a query. I am curious how a website or facebook entity mainly without any great original material can get 9000 members. The first thing that struck me is why a website into gambling should have so many high school members. Perfectly genuine question. Racecafe which has been going almost 20 years by my estimate would have about 15,000 members although many duplicates. If Internal affairs enforced the advertising law I doubt a judge would agree that simply having the .com suffix means its an overseas site. Quite frankly a weak argument unless everything is managed overseas. The law is quite straight forward... if in NZ you can't advertise overseas bookmakers. Mind you TAB renaming overseas races is a bit over the top.

A few years ago David Hayes was on record explaining the poor sequence of results he was on by blaming it on the other trainers using questionable drugs, vitamins and processes resulting in many of his horses just getting beaten. Now for someone like that to be saying it is significant. Like he not going to make conspirational accusations without some good knowledge. These guys have staff members switching stables etc. Now here in NZ I see some stables similarly having bad runs at times. Just a guess but would say the O'Sullivan family after the water trough saga would have come down hard and point blank banned any treatments before raceday on the stable. Their horses in the parade ring now just don't appear to have that finishing touch compared with a few other stables. Just my observation nothing else.

Actually Rogerson made a good point in the article. Makybe Diva didn't start racing until a 4 yo. Maybe the others they have raced too early.

I presume thats a soda. I've taken something stronger straight. I think Old Countess will run 4th to make a decent first 4. 8yr old jumper I know but ran ok at the trials. I remember being at Hastings 1974 and the Brosnan trained Our Countess won the main race paying over $200 for a win and Brosnan family over the years have a habit getting longshots.