Freda

That a lot of people are easily pleased.

Er..yes..but my Indian is piss poor, Thai fair.

There are many issues unfolding from these events, IMO. The biggest [ apart from safety of horse and rider which has to be always paramount ] is that the product must be attractive to punters to ensure the prosperity - survival, in fact - of the industry. Clearly, it isn't. So, those in charge of protecting the integrity of the racing have been shown to be incompetent, and, given the agendas outlined in many posts above, possibly corrupt, by making decisions based, not on safety, but on some other notion. The matter of upholding safe riding tactics - i.e their job - has been ignored, which, in the Reefton incident, could have caused a catastrophic chain reaction, if the field had gone over the top of Moseley if his horse had actually fallen, rather than being bounced off the outside horse. And the bigger issue for mine, is that riding infractions are not, now, policed adequately, anywhere, which leads to more disinterest in betting locally. The likelihood of a meeting not proceeding is creating an even bigger drop off in interest among those few, intrepid remaining punters. No wonder they bet elsewhere. The point made by Reefton, that he wouldn't want to see anyone disabled as a result of an accident, I know is shared by everyone. But the tragic fatalities incurred in the industry have not, in my memory , been caused by track conditions. Interference or clipping heels seem to be the common denominator here, which in many cases, is a direct result of NOT policing riding infringements, as well as the prevailing practice of not allowing horses to run along at a decent gallop. The rule about 'changing ground' in a race is, or was, ' your own length and another clear length ' before shifting ground. How often does that get ignored now with no consequences whatsoever..?

Ostensibly.

Nope.

Yep, he did. Still good to see on a horse.

Yes, I can recall tales of horrendous methods of weight loss, others not so horrible but still involving a helluva lot of effort. Now, most go to the sauna. The constant starving must be soul-destroying.

It is interesting what the lack of a comma can produce.

The day was great, good atmosphere, very hot [ again ] hospitable committee members, and a very emotional Kelsey when winning the Nuggets for her biggest fan, Kenny Rae for whom she used to work. All round good vibe and the track was fine too. As was the whitebait.!

Yes. He has. But it is not his call.

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.