jess

Weasel, thank you. I'm sure I'm no more so than most of you here. You only have to have had horses for a while to understand how you can pour everything into them - heart & soul (not to mention bank balance) - & quite often they will defy all of this & find another way to break your heart. Whether it be a promising 3y/o sustaining a mysterious but career ending injury before winning a race, your best racehorse going unsound, a long awaited foal destroyed at birth & then there's those times when you are let down by people to whom you have entrusted your pride & joy. And this is just me! Friends have had as much, if not more heartbreak. But then there are the friends with the multiple group 1 winning home-bred .... loved sharing that joy with them ...and I continue to have my secret dreams that one day that might be me. Best wishes to you all, folks.

Just wishing Cambridge Stud, the owners and most of all this lovely horse all the best. Bad stuff can (and does) happen to horses who have the best of care. As far as the comms from Cambridge to date - a master class in PR in my opinion. Good chance I'd say if he recovers that they won't risk him again down under. Lovely horse - out of my league fee-wise but didn't stop me admiring from afar. A hard start for the Lindsays but they will cope with this. Best wishes to all concerned. J.

Greetings Freda Nah - not digging any dirt or casting any nasturtiums ? - just thought they've been pretty quiet for the time of year - and reflecting on previous news about them selling off stock & land and not planning to stand further stallions. Just wondering where they are at this 2019 breeding season... J.

- on an illustrious training career? The Gray property on the outskirts of Palmerston North featuring in Real Estate listings. If retirement is nigh - I hope it is long, healthy & fun-filled. All the best to you Mr Gray. Jess.

Has anyone heard any news in regard to The Oaks?

No I don't think it is that simple Kopia ... and I def don't think bigger is better in the thoroughbred. But if I had a tiny mare it would feel like tempting fate to put her to a small horse ....

Looking forward to the stallion register arriving - thought it was due out this week ..... Interesting when using the software to consider various matings how different the results can be ... plugged in one stallion to my mare's pedigree and G1 told me excitedly it was a 20-20 mating and I could see some merit in it too. Same horses into True Nicks software yielded an underwhelming "C" rating ... Hmmmm ... back to the drawing board. Quite a few new stallions - many stallions now are sons of High Chap. Nothing wrong with that .. unless you have a High Chap mare of course ... Any thoughts on the new horses? Thought the Valachi Downs horse US Navy Flag looked pretty exciting .... am I correct in saying he is quite a physically small horse? J.

What pedigree consultants here are worth their fee these days? I'd be interested in getting an opinion from one but I'd want to have some confidence I was investing in some reasonable expertise. I know stud masters just want to sell services to whatever stallions they stand at the time - but I would love to see more of a long term commitment to breeders. Would like to see studs who stood certain stallions publishing stats/making recommendations about broodmares from those stallions and what they would be well matched to. I do appreciate the studs whose sites offer Siremate/G1 software - but I feel they have their limitations. It would be great to see Haunui suggesting matings for Iffraaj mares, Cambridge for Keeper mares - Windsor Park for High Chap mares & so on. Rgds, J PS: interesting post All the Aces - & good on those over there who bred to that horse at the early $11K fee ...

Agree Curious - not saying it's the be-all and end-all - but besides the image (which they pay a whole lot of PR people handsomely to protect!) it's a matter of animal welfare. So yes -I think it is worth getting right. Thanks Thomass for that- I hadn't checked out the stipe report myself. So doesn't that just illustrate the point perfectly?! A whole bunch that transgressed but got the wet bus ticket treatment .. and amateurs in particular - barely stung by fines (which owners probably paid) - a suspension would have limited impact - but guess what would have worked? (you got it and I've labored the point - take the bloody race off them!) We are modelling to the amateurs - the apprentices - and demonstrating to the public - that our industry is ok with horses getting whipped 20+ times in the straight. Wake up people. I care because I am invested (to the limits of my meagre resources) in this industry - and because I have loved horses for my lifetime. Sorry to be so blunt. J.

I don't entirely agree Barry. If the lobbyists just picked a few races out from today alone & spliced the footage together - it would prove their point nicely, I believe. And thanks for posting the excerpts from the Steward Report - makes my point nicely. It's a weak response and no less than 3 jockeys censured for it. This approach is hardly stamping out the behavior is it? More likely it's tacitly condoning it ... and without looking at all the races - I wouldn't be surprised if there were others who exceeded their "allowance" too but who skated under the radar, with the stipes just picking out the worst of the worst ... Start taking races off them! Then the pressure really comes on - from trainers - & from owners. It's the only way (short of a whips ban). J

And the Trackside people seemingly endorsing/admiring (going by their comments on TV) this style of riding is not helpful either IMO ...

I hear ya on that Centaur - I hate that too - yanking and sawing away on horses' mouths sometimes ... I read about the other rider with interest - I wasn't picking on the amateur - it just happened to be about the only race I watched today. And it gave me no pleasure or desire to watch more if I'm honest ... Sorry to repeat what I've said in other threads - but until they start taking races off these riders - they will keep bashing the horses. Stipes - you can do this - you need to man up (they're mostly male) & lead this! It's never too late to say you've not been adjudicating as well as you could have - and change has come. Send a message to all yr riders telling them that they will be looking at forfeiting their place & getting DQ for behavior of this kind - a fair warning if you will. Then start responding as you should. You will have it 90% cleaned up in a week. J

The amateur rider race today. The winning rider - said by the Trackside man to have "carried" his mount over the line (thrashed it over the line more like it...). Then went on to say what good riders coming through etc .. Good rider he well might be. But while our governing bodies allow horses whipped excessively to hold on to their wins- and do little or nothing to penalise this sort of riding (actually - we are rewarding it, in effect ...) - we can expect more of the same; more riders who thrash their horses & more people in the community who form the opinion racing is cruel. And when you have a fan (who breeds & rears & races horses) starting to believe they have a point - I think we have a problem, Houston. J.

Thanks Freda. That's really interesting. And how nice to red such a positive account of the way someone in the industry is going about their business. Rgds, J

Oh my - perhaps you are a well-heeled weasel. Or at least yr mustelid mates are ?. He's another who is outside my budget. I need to spot the good `uns early while they are affordable ... I certainly haven't always got it right but have managed it a couple of times - in one case the horse's fee is now more than double what I paid and another was 6-7 times the fee the following season ... I've seen some nice weanlings from Tivaci & some decent types by the Auret horse Unusual Suspect in recent months. Any of the new horses catching your eye Weasel? And Freda - any observations from a trainer's point of view seeing a range of horses from various sire lines as you would? Kind regards, J

Remember saying that I thought the hike last season from 7K to 12K was not justified and I didn't think he'd get many outside mares at that. And now he's knocked down to 6K for 2019. It's their business & decisions of course. But I think the horse has possibly been done a disservice with his 2018 fee - lost some opportunities and reduced his chances of better establishing himself early in his career. Not sure what they were thinking - and I'm definitely not bagging the horse - I like him. But just couldn't see 12K value in 2018. I hope he can succeed nevertheless - and that one day we'll look back at a champion sire and dream of getting him at a mere 12K ..... . Jess

Ah bless for that message - my mother's day mustelid. All I can do is look on. I be thinking hard about where to head in the spring, but that lad be too pricey for my girls .... ?

You're = you are. The wee apostrophe thingee indicates the missed letter (the a) of the full phrase. Your = expression of ownership (ie yours, mine etc).

I heard on the radio that the response has been a ban on some of the drugs previously allowed and whips can be used only "for safety" and not for just making the horse gallop faster. Can anyone confirm? Further details?

Short-sighted is right Freda. Overdue for change here. As much as some people on this forum bag the "greenies" - I too hate seeing horses beaten throughout a race. I'm happy if we go to 5 strikes or no whips at all. But it needs to be enforced properly. A friend's steed in the other code was beaten recently - by a head - by another horse whose driver bashed it in the straight (twice as many strikes as authorised). Fined a piddly amount (that the owner probably paid anyhow) - got thousands more for the winning stake by cheating. Yes CHEATING. And essentially - the stipes let them cheat. Until they start taking more serious punitive action when the rules are breached (whether those rules are as they as they are or if they are tightened up) - the whole thing's a joke and pays little more than lip service to either animal welfare or fair play. Maybe they need to start taking the races off these horses who are whipped too many times. My bet is that would tidy it up pretty quickly .... J.

From the Stipes' Report: "Track downgraded to Slow (8) retrospective to Race 1." Why a reading taken after Race 1 - and then a retrospective, downgraded track rating applied? (when no rain fell from prior to Race 1). Why was the track rating obtained around 6.30am relied upon up until that point? My questions are genuinely put. It strikes me as a strange way to do things - and maybe disingenuous. But I'd love someone to post some rationale to ease my mind & convince me otherwise ...

Yep ... seems to want you to start at page one every time. Thought maybe it was a new initiative for the older BOAYer - in case our short-term memories needed jogging as to how the stories started ... ?

Don't know the man Ashley - just the public persona - the impressions I have got from his utterances/attitude/demeanor. Of course it looked bad on the lad's part when he was said by his employer to have left without a word - but I reserve judgement on the young man as I don't know the full story. And stories, as we know, often have two sides to them. J.

Probably the most maturity/insight/self-awareness he's shown the whole time is to be found in some of those quotes in the article above (if they are indeed what he said). I am pleased to read he has gone to another job (albeit one that I doubt was brim-ful of inherent attraction to the lad - so probably more a case of "running from" than "running to"). Good luck to him though. Hope he keeps himself afloat & with some sort of moral compass as he goes on ... we have enough lost souls who are off the rails in this country as it is .. All the best Wiremu (beautiful name) or Billy - or whatever it is that you wish to be known as. You have the ability to be both good and great. But the choice to be so is entirely yours. Jess