Freda

Slippery on a heavy 8 ? Really?

Who is Herman Brown?

That's disgraceful.

That has happened before to that set of connections - and the farrier told me himself - but at least he took the other plate off to even up the situation.

It may be similar to the Moroney/Gerard operation, maintaining stables in both areas. However, I couldn't see him having a great presence back here. Why would he need to?

Disagree. They have to be dim. Otherwise, a plan that is hopeless but still being followed religiously couldn't get any traction.

Was indeed. A young fella who thought his horse was 'quick' found out just how quick they need to be to sprint around Coast tracks on top of the ground!

Good luck with your meeting Thursday. Wish I was coming over.

Yes, my old boss Barry Taggart trained County Antrim, he was owned by his brother Richard. I think you might be right about Polacca and Lynnette Melville. Lord Gesmo was the horse to which you refer, he would, I suppose, have to be the best. He raced against some very tidy performers: Seamist, St James, Navajo Brave, finished second to Seamist in the Hazlett Stakes, then over a mile [ and worth 25k THEN - a long time ago ]. I had to accept that he wasn't quite up to defeating those classy performers over 1400 - 1600 m, so decided that he would have to step up in distance to try and get a decent one. He had the very good performer Reyjkavik to contend with, Prince Haze, Carlton King, Aquidity [ who subsequently went on to compete in a Cox Plate I think ] but finished third in the Easter Classic [ then 2000m ] and won the Grt Autumn Hcp of 2400m. A huge thrill for his loyal group of owners, all patrons of the Mitre Tavern in Lyttelton. Which hostelry has its own history too. Probably Oxford Aunt was potentially the best, though, but brought down in the 1000 Gns when rated a live chance.

Yes. And as S.A has pointed out, there is no disgrace in having second thoughts about a plan or strategy that doesn't seem to be working. That indicates strength and integrity, but to blunder on with what isn't working is cringeworthy.

County Antrim

Yes. Agree on that. In the more than thirty years I have been taking note of racing matters - as opposed to, in the beginning, just being a youngster enjoying working with horses and being involved - I haven't heard or seen one trainer or stakeholder [ apart from those who post here and a few elsewhere ] who has any idea about the bigger picture. I can go back those thirty years, and recall sitting in a district committee meeting when it was decided that there were too many open handicaps. Changing populations and the inexorable drift northwards of horses and people had to be taken into account, obviously. But the decisions that were made even then started the downward spiral and it has never been reversed. The Wyndham and Waikouaiti Cups were both run, then, on New Year's Day. So, the Wyndham Cup became a Class 3 event. So did the Westport Cup. Others followed. A close associate, a member of a very well-known racing family, had a very useful handicapper. He won 7 and had another 21 placings. Very handy. His owner said, that's me. They're f###ing racing. Most open handicappers will never win an Auckland or Wellington Cup. So there will be stacks of horses, nice horses, with nowhere to race. When Bob's finished, so am I. I'll never race another horse. So, even then, there were problems starting, and once the new 'Act' came into being in 2003, the rot increased. The ratings system was supposed to help there, but we have seen the flaws in that, and the very good and detailed work on that and more, given to NZTR was simply ignored. One commentator who did have an idea, was former journalist Dave McCarthy. But, to be fair, he couldn't be arsed trying to beat his head against a brick wall.

I think - and only my understanding, others may have more factual info - that when the 2003 Racing Act came into being, the old Racing Conference became NZTR, with 'corporate' management. What the industry needs, we were told, was a modern, professional administration. Get out of the dark ages. All that stuff. But, under the old club delegate/ district committee system, at least there were opportunities, at local level, to discuss with club members issues that were of concern. There were still complaints, of course, the bigger clubs had more leverage with their greater number of racedays. But at least there was a chance to interact. Since the 'flash harry' sorts got into the driving seat, things have gone downhill at an ever increasing rate. You can contact individual people, and some [ a few ] are very good, but as one told me recently, sorry, I can't help you there, I don't play in that sandpit. Generally it is hard to even get an answer on the phone, emails go unanswered, so where does one turn? The Trainers' Assn? heavily loaded towards the Waikato mafia.. Breeders? hardly. So where then?

I came in not long ago to watch...my thoughts exactly.

Yes. I recall the excellent work done, free, in the Purcell/Goodson era, about handicapping/allowances and a fair bit more, and I doubt if it even got read. Most likely binned. I mentioned same to Saundry at one of his early road shows, and he looked surprised, and said, oh, I haven't seen that. I did manage to send him some info from the one of the authors, but never got any acknowledgement of receipt and no doubt it got binned too. I ran into Marty Burns at one Rangiora trials meeting. He had originally been with the R.B but had relocated to NZTR. I introduced myself, and started on a really good note by first asking him how he could justify going from one dysfunctional organisation to another. To his credit, he covered his astonishment, and said, grinning, Mr. Purcell told me to watch out for you. I speak with Marty often. I tell him that he pays the price for ALWAYS being available, even when not at work. Frequently, no one answers the phone at NZTR, so Marty gets the job of dealing with whatever problem I have. Generally, the right contact is promptly found, or else he promises to deal with whatever. And he does. I am, however, just one individual, with no status as such, and of no importance in the greater scheme of things. But when the likes of Reefton get little attention paid to him, the outlook is bleak.

Yes. That is beyond sad..but, nowhere - apart from on here and, occasionally, the other websites - can one find any informed opinion and progressive ideas. Hell, any ideas, even regressive ideas might be better, looking back to when things worked may not be so bad after all. I watched an interview with Daniel Nakhle recently, where he was being commended for his innovation wrt the Jockey's academy, and also his part in bringing out the two classy S.A riders. But - and I'm sure we all appreciate his innovation and financial support to the industry - he was giving Sharrock and George glowing credit for their leadership and forward thinking. Really ? or was it tongue-in-cheek ? I haven't quite decided.

Where does the Timaru Cup sit? it's bad enough that it has now been lobbed into an industry day.

I'm confused. Not hard but still....the first paragraph referring to the 30 mill seems to me to repeat itself. The second is clear enough. I think.

Hmm. Just watched the replay several times. In the absence of a head-on view, can only be a speculative opinion [ IMO ] but to me, it looks as if the Mudhoo brothers have created the situation, not, in this case, Mose. He and Heidi Hi are sharing the speed in front, Heidi Hi drifts off the fence presenting a run to Asathought, putting Kilowatt 3 wide without any sins committed, at that point. Then along comes Rohan on Dunhill, pushing Kilowatt off line at the same time as Krishna is trying to dive between it and Heidi Hi. If everyone who didn't keep to their line is put out we'll have to run races in divisions of six. There won't be anyone left.

Jeez..I know I am naive in the big wide world of finance....but bloody hell. Confidentiality indeed.

Actually, J.B, it's worse than that...the wording was actually ' TOO the Clark...' Ffs. Simple use of spell check would have picked that up.

Lol...I was trying to indicate it is not available all the time so therefore wouldn't be getting daily maintenance. The poly doesn't get groomed daily either, I was told, although it is supposed to be. When it rains the plough is unavailable and can take up to a week to be suitable to use. And over the spring period there was clearly a cost- cutting strategy wrt mowing on the CP. We all saw the results of that.

Amusing topic, and it pisses me off too. I chide myself for being petty and pedantic, but it isn't really. An immigrant for whom English is a second language can spell and construct a sentence better than many of us. Communication via the written word is the effective and specific way we humans can pass on information, that means is denied to other living creatures, and also how we can express emotion in some beautiful poetry and prose in the written language. Technology is advancing at an exponential rate but ( IMO ) the dramatic drop off in literacy is a very dangerous precedent.

The additional AWT costs? the training tracks have reduced in number from 15 to 3.5. I should have thought there would be a significant saving. The regular visits from the Martin Collins crew were factored in to the original contract, most of which was met by the taxpayer.

What does Rangiora having a racemeeting have to do with losing money on training operations? And Riccarton is obviously not charging enough, thanks for that snippet, we'll just double our training fees to cover increased costs and watch the horses disappear.