Freda

I've just had a message from a mate in Perth who likes to keep up with the goss.....she's had a gutsful of Thommo too, has taken BOAY off her favourites. Why do you two - and others - give him air? deprive him of the attention he craves and he might just go away painlessly...! I must admit to being OK with his constant critique of the feds....someone needs to hold the police to account....if he could leave it at that instead of launching off into meaningless tirades about ....nothing....

If - and that is a big IF - the planned changes initiated by Winston/MAC/Messara come to pass....leading us out of oblivion and back to the promised land....will we all forgive him for being a hypocrite? Will we be happy being hypocritical ourselves? You betcha...

Oh shit.....

Heard that too.....must be short of dosh...

Like him - or not - there isn't much choice but to 'sit back and wait '....because the current lot, of both NZTR and NZRB, don't have any idea whatsoever.

Quite right, Thommo.

No comments about the tremendous training effort of Mark Todd to turn this horse's form around? What an effort, fresh from the N.H and out of form, to run as he did over 2000m on a testing track...proof yet again of the superb horseman Sir Mark is. Time will tell if that run has knocked his socks off, or whether he can come on from that...it will be a grand Queen Elizabeth if he has.

Owner doesn't appear to give a sh#t about his horse, only about getting his own way - in not a very nice manner.

You on drugs?

Now, now....

Sound familiar?

My understanding - and only that - is that any necessary 'treatment' or gear required is on the starter's sheet. If that is in fact correct, it is very likely that stipes forgot to notify the starter, or make sure the addition was noted. Has happened to one of mine, starter was all set to carry the can, but when I rang him to discuss the 'blue' he confirmed that in fact the horse's requirements weren't added to his sheet. As it was the first time the horse had raced out of his district, the fault was pretty clear. Horse hurt and scratched. No one offered to pay the acceptance fee, or the vet bill though...or the transport.

No..No...no....leave it as it is. P.C gone mad...to coin a phrase.....as it is, i would be surprised if more than five per cent of the general populace had heard of the the Crusades - before Friday's awful events that is. It's a brand, it works, don't mess with it. Changing a name will not stop nutters doing horrible things.

Kinda par for the course I guess....lack of vision and so on...

Yes, moves are afoot to prevent that particular practice...which may not have been the case in this incident of course. You would assume that RIU would know if that WAS the case, but....

Yep....I am

The hell it isn't....death to the infidel

Whatever is decided it needs to be enforced and consistently. What makes you think punters would care? Very quickly those free- running and genuine sorts would come to the fore and the reluctant attendees would be phased out. Harness racing in some Scandinavian countries has banned whips and seems to operate just fine. A look at the recent Cheltenham races shows how ( in some cases, not all..! ) energy and upper-body strength can drive a horse on without needing to cut it in half.

sadly..so right. Fear begets fear...and, nutter though this guy - and his allies - are/is, anti-Moslem sentiment is building throughout the world as a result of atrocities carried out by radical Moslem minorities. It is abhorrent in the extreme to think of innocent people targeted in this way, but no surprise that reprisals have and will continue to be carried out. No one wins, unfortunately. Brodie is right, I can't comprehend how his meaning is not clear to some.

A mate went down to the pub last evening to have a flutter on the Gold Cup.....was stunned to find no markets for anything at Cheltenham apart from the Triumph Hurdle...Fontainbleu [ sp ], on the other hand, was covered for all events. FFs....

Arguably....I shouldn't comment because I don't [ can't ] use it ...but as I am locked out - again - after being 'allowed' to participate briefly, I would have to give it a D also.

I can't get on to the effing TAB site.....so what channel is it likely to be on tonight?

so....I went to record the races as I did for day 1.....but no indication on either channel. Scrolled through several times, got up during the night to check, still nothing.....dogzone, Hk ......then put TV on this morning to find Band of Outlaws romping home....grrr...

Don't think it is up to Messara...he provided the blueprint, we are supposed to be actioning it. And the reason for the track closures, for his report, was to garner funds to upgrade a few tracks to present a slick, modern, professional product that overseas punters might just possibly want to bet on....given that NZ racing is effectively insolvent. When the reaction of the country clubs made it quite obvious that there were no funds forthcoming, the reason for closures became null and void. The wailing about allweather tracks looks to have all been in vain....things have gone ominously quiet there too....not that there would have been any punters left to bet on the blasted things.

Nope. And it won't. This is the mantra that Alan Jackson has been pushing for a fair while, with no quantitative evaluation or other evidence to back it up....and as for the 'quality experience ' no one goes to Riccarton apart from on Cup Day - and National Day , but that will stop quickly enough; with the best jumping venues on the 'closed' list , the National is a dead duck.