Yes always good to see those two doing well,a few of those good riders of that era training a few, Danny Frye, Bruce Smith who had success with Lombardi, which I haven't seen racing, looked promising, interesting you mention Mr Hamilton, was he the trainer from omakau and won a Grand National with Kid Colombus, had an apprentice Jo Chong back in the day, even trained a few harness horses.

Yes not a good way to express your views as an owner, maybe more in disappointment than anything, but when your paying for 7.5 hrs travel for zip, one could understand, a double edged sword in some respects, bit the bullet go with it, and have a fresh horse for next start, or start and have a tough run, and  possibly ruin a prep for rest of the year.

From the other channel ...... ATC as at 31/7/25; Westpac Debt @ $82.5m, including Finance costs of $6.2m We are now 7 months into the new year, so there will now be an additional $3.1m interest added, which will bring it up to a minimum of $85.6m. Which is a minor problem, because the Westpac facility was amended subsequent to balance date, and now expires on the 30 July 2026, with a limit of $84.6m. Even though ATC earned over $3m from the Gaming/TAB, and over $3m from the Rental units, they had a Bank overdraft of $213,000 at balance date.  

Of course you agree.  Not sure why you bother racing a horse.

"We argue it’s time for a wholesale review of the tax and regulatory privileges that have accrued to this industry without any convincing rationale." I totally agree for the reasons well stated by these authors. I have being saying for two decades that racing's taxpayer funded beneficiary status could be wiped out by the stroke of a politicians pen. In an election year it will be interesting to see if politicians and political parties might call for such a review.