The Met vs The Park

[TAB For Ever]

6 hours ago, Walt said:

Try naming your horse that now Galah  

Are there any horses or dogs racing that have a name reflecting the gender fluid bullshit? Could have some fun with that  

I remember a horse in the 1970's that George Shand had called "Mighty Gay"....he was by Gay Gordon and made it to Cup Class....A bit erratic from memory but you can live with that if they win 9 or 10 races for you. I doubt very much the name Mighty Gay would get through now.

George raced a few decent horses in his day. He also had Borana prior to Pete winning the NZ Cup with him in 1985.

 

 

I don't want to raise your hackles by offering a differing opinion WALT , but Mighty Gay may not have quite made it to NZ Cup class.

But one GD Shand horse that did was Eastwood Jaunty who was best suited to the grass tracks as he worked thru the grades. He ran in the NZ Cup won by Just An Excuse......by chance driven by the Wizard 😀 , and they beat Elsu driven by the Chief. In the also rans were the Post man ,  the Iceman , Mango ,while Eastwood Jaunty beat one home who was driven by Big Ba  ! Peter Shand drove EW in Cup. 

I incidently have never said I like or love the use of these nicknames , I merely said I liked AW and thought the use of these nicknames was a small but OK addition.

GD Shand trained many horse ,Mighty Gay and its sire Gay Gordon were two of the better ones.He also drove Caskey horses including a useful trotter Bambi an horses beginning in Tor eg Torpi !

[TAB For Ever]

here were many useful gallopers with Gay in the name.

Gay Filou wwas a good stayer in 60's and won the Wellington Cup.

Earlie there were some useful fillies related to each other ...Gay Blonde and Gay Sheila.

A couple of neighbours had the useful gallopers Gay Gabador and Gay Master ,the latter owned and trained by Jack Morris who was racing editor of Otago Daily Times ...and the user name of Gloaming in Friday Flash.

[TAB For Ever]

Another good GD Shand trotter was Pointer Hanover waho reached the top level and also bred several winners !

[Brodie]

19 minutes ago, TAB For Ever said:

I don't want to raise your hackles by offering a differing opinion WALT , but Mighty Gay may not have quite made it to NZ Cup class.

But one GD Shand horse that did was Eastwood Jaunty who was best suited to the grass tracks as he worked thru the grades. He ran in the NZ Cup won by Just An Excuse......by chance driven by the Wizard 😀 , and they beat Elsu driven by the Chief. In the also rans were the Post man ,  the Iceman , Mango ,while Eastwood Jaunty beat one home who was driven by Big Ba  ! Peter Shand drove EW in Cup. 

I incidently have never said I like or love the use of these nicknames , I merely said I liked AW and thought the use of these nicknames was a small but OK addition.

GD Shand trained many horse ,Mighty Gay and its sire Gay Gordon were two of the better ones.He also drove Caskey horses including a useful trotter Bambi an horses beginning in Tor eg Torpi !

Worst gaited horses ever were trained by Dick Caskey, without doubt.

Torli was probably the worst, half pie galloping in its hopples throughout,

Torpi, think may have been a trotter and just terrible gaited.

Pleased they werent bred from or if they did, they didnt race much at all

 

[the galah]

27 minutes ago, Brodie said:

Worst gaited horses ever were trained by Dick Caskey, without doubt.

Torli was probably the worst, half pie galloping in its hopples throughout,

Torpi, think may have been a trotter and just terrible gaited.

Pleased they werent bred from or if they did, they didnt race much at all

 

A good ,honest hard working man was dick caskey who always had a couple in work. Often raced his horses in southland and would always make the round 10 hour trip on the same day.

Used to love a drink as well. I remember hearing a couple of stories about him. One was when he raced a horse in central otago and when trainers came to feed their horses in the morning,there was dick lying on the ground,half in a stall sound asleep after a hard night out. I think he was a shearer for many years. I remember getting to know him when i was quite young after my car broke down one day and he happened to be going past and helped get it going again. He seemed to know a bit about car engines. Of course that was some time ago now.He once told me how he had taken bambi to australia to race.From memory bambi stood on the mark in its last race there and didn't move and he was told by the stipes to take his horse home and don't come back. At least thats how he told the story.He spent some time shearing in australia. He was one of those characters that you wouldn't come across these days. But a really good hearted bloke.

Edited February 21 by the galah

[TAB For Ever]

1 hour ago, Brodie said:

Worst gaited horses ever were trained by Dick Caskey, without doubt.

Torli was probably the worst, half pie galloping in its hopples throughout,

Torpi, think may have been a trotter and just terrible gaited.

Pleased they werent bred from or if they did, they didnt race much at all

 

You must be older than I thought to remember these horses.

Torpi was my friends favourite horse at Forbury Park and the family seemed so small. She won 3 races from 76 starts and her last 12 races were all 0's...but there were fields of 15,17 and 19 [Bank Pen].

She had 9 foals ,most raced ,all from different sires.One horse was called Wee Torpi.

2 others Torsim and Torey had 0 wins from a combined 112 starts.

Toris won 5 from 102 ,Torle won 6 from 114 ,and Tornesse won 5 from 146 starts.Sired by a French horse Iguassou and raced as a trotter.

I wonder if the family is still going ? Another Washdyke personality around that time was PC [ Paul] Gallagher or was in PP Gallaher ?

[TAB For Ever]

12 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Another exceptional article by you TABman . Again covering a huge range of events and status of Nz harness racing. The items all of great importance. thanks for the imformation. you fill in a lot of gaps for people in your posts.

A New Board at HRNZ you say ??  Can ONLY HOPE someone as knowledgeable and observant as your self can get a position on it . They need people with a ready insight and acute understanding of things involving ALL the stakeholders in the Harness racing Industry.

Cheers Gamma , don't get too attached to my Yarns you may get tarnished ! 😀

I'm past use-by date , but have an intense interest in Harness and Gallops , especially the Future cos the ATC in particular is barely hanging on. Cos I 'surf' around both Islands I somehow get into meetings and private conversations which feed a lot of important and critical information . And generally I not known to 'gossip' too much. 

But with the ATC's shocking situation and the Racing Clubs new track etc I often furtively hung around waiting for some crumbs of wisdom to come my way. If and when it did I then tried to filter out the BS as best I could !

[Brodie]

1 hour ago, TAB For Ever said:

You must be older than I thought to remember these horses.

Torpi was my friends favourite horse at Forbury Park and the family seemed so small. She won 3 races from 76 starts and her last 12 races were all 0's...but there were fields of 15,17 and 19 [Bank Pen].

She had 9 foals ,most raced ,all from different sires.One horse was called Wee Torpi.

2 others Torsim and Torey had 0 wins from a combined 112 starts.

Toris won 5 from 102 ,Torle won 6 from 114 ,and Tornesse won 5 from 146 starts.Sired by a French horse Iguassou and raced as a trotter.

I wonder if the family is still going ? Another Washdyke personality around that time was PC [ Paul] Gallagher or was in PP Gallaher ?

Still young, havent aged in the last 20 years!

Yes I remember Torsim and Tornesse.

How Torle could win races defies logic they way it raced.

 

 

Edited February 21 by Brodie

[Walt]

13 hours ago, TAB For Ever said:

I don't want to raise your hackles by offering a differing opinion WALT , but Mighty Gay may not have quite made it to NZ Cup class.

But one GD Shand horse that did was Eastwood Jaunty who was best suited to the grass tracks as he worked thru the grades. He ran in the NZ Cup won by Just An Excuse......by chance driven by the Wizard 😀 , and they beat Elsu driven by the Chief. In the also rans were the Post man ,  the Iceman , Mango ,while Eastwood Jaunty beat one home who was driven by Big Ba  ! Peter Shand drove EW in Cup. 

I incidently have never said I like or love the use of these nicknames , I merely said I liked AW and thought the use of these nicknames was a small but OK addition.

GD Shand trained many horse ,Mighty Gay and its sire Gay Gordon were two of the better ones.He also drove Caskey horses including a useful trotter Bambi an horses beginning in Tor eg Torpi !

You're determined to show the eggplant aspect of your nature.

I don't have an issue with nicknames in general. I know a shit ton that have nicknames. In all cases they are humourous and appropriate. Two I know are never referred to by their given name.

There is a time and a place for using nicnames / pet names and in my opinion that time is not during a race and especially not repeatedly.

Brent has had the nickname Mango since Jesus was in short pants. Even someone with half a brain can see why it's there so I'm confident you'll know.

Todd Mitchell and David Butcher are both top drivers with records to be proud of. They are however not Wizards and Chiefs. Those pet names are bloody ridiculous and dreamed up by someone wanting to curry favour and set some type of trend. Maybe Aaron has watched a few too many episodes of Game of Thrones. The fact he pointlessly uses those absurd names during race calls is bad enough but he does so repeatedly. He's determined to abuse listeners ears in the hope they will follow his lead. 100% fail. The fact you think that's ok is your choice but Auckland Harness has been going backwards in recent years and this action does absolutely nothing to enhance his calls. Never has and never will so why the fark do it? 

My actual name is not Walt. It's my user name / nick name. Have you seen the movie Gran Torino? The character in it is Walt Kowalski. My daughters, wife and numerous mates are adamant he's my twin. My email reflects that as does my user name. 

I will share a bit of person background for you. I farking hate your user name. It's an affront to me. Akin to a burglary syndicate that burgled my home and then returns several years later advertising the syndicate as if it's mothers milk. 

I've wagered in numerous countries around the world but especially in the UK and Australia. I'd have no hesitation is naming the NZ TAB the worst betting agency I've dealt with. One of my pet hates is the dictatorship they run and the negative impact it's had on others. I know of two bloody good guys that were effectively ruined by the NZ TAB. 

I had many chats with Micheal Dore back in the day pushing to have racing bought into the living rooms of NZ punters. It was just too big a gamble for them to press on. The irony of that was not lost on me or many others. I had the same frustration pushing sports betting.

I was a serious punter in the 1980's. My biggest ever wager was 20k on a Rugby World Cup final but had no problem putting 5k bets on. They were mostly put on via a bookmaker I've known for many years but some through the NZ TAB via a good mate running an outlet who was once a successful trainer. 

The TAB would send me a courier parcel of VHS tapes every week showing replays of the previous weeks racing.

There are a lot of things I don't do know that I did in the 1980's. Betting big numbers is one of those things. My bets these days are $50 and I'm happy with that amount.

Some years back the NZ TAB shafted me via wager for an amount North of 50k. Their blunder was owned to me privately lower down the chain but top floor refused to do the right thing and honour what they'd farked up. Didn't leave a good taste and neither does your user name. That's unfortunate as you clearly have some good knowledge dating back.

Back to the subject matter.

Mighty Gay didn't win ten races so in that sense at the time he wasn't Cup Class but routinely raced against all the top liners. 

I have a nice memory of Toris and Peter Shand. Not sure if it was Labour weekend or Easter but I do know he raced twice that long weekend back in 1985.  I punted him left and right for both days after the heads up about his work being his best ever. He won both days. He never won another race.

Pointer Hanover was a beauty and won a hatful. He raced against all the good ones in the late 70's.  He produced Frances Jay Bee who won half a dozen for Stu Campbell along with a host of other winners. 

Frances Jay Bee produced One Kenny, One Under Kenny and One Over Kenny who won a staggering sixty plus races between the three of them. 

Eastwood Jaunty was well known to punters in the 2000's. He'd race most weeks to the point some believed he was over raced. When you compare him to some going around in recent times on both sides of the ditch he wasn't over raced.

 

Edited February 21 by Walt

[TAB For Ever]

11 hours ago, Walt said:

You're determined to show the eggplant aspect of your nature.

I don't have an issue with nicknames in general. I know a shit ton that have nicknames. In all cases they are humourous and appropriate. Two I know are never referred to by their given name.

There is a time and a place for using nicnames / pet names and in my opinion that time is not during a race and especially not repeatedly.

Brent has had the nickname Mango since Jesus was in short pants. Even someone with half a brain can see why it's there so I'm confident you'll know.

Todd Mitchell and David Butcher are both top drivers with records to be proud of. They are however not Wizards and Chiefs. Those pet names are bloody ridiculous and dreamed up by someone wanting to curry favour and set some type of trend. Maybe Aaron has watched a few too many episodes of Game of Thrones. The fact he pointlessly uses those absurd names during race calls is bad enough but he does so repeatedly. He's determined to abuse listeners ears in the hope they will follow his lead. 100% fail. The fact you think that's ok is your choice but Auckland Harness has been going backwards in recent years and this action does absolutely nothing to enhance his calls. Never has and never will so why the fark do it? 

My actual name is not Walt. It's my user name / nick name. Have you seen the movie Gran Torino? The character in it is Walt Kowalski. My daughters, wife and numerous mates are adamant he's my twin. My email reflects that as does my user name. 

I will share a bit of person background for you. I farking hate your user name. It's an affront to me. Akin to a burglary syndicate that burgled my home and then returns several years later advertising the syndicate as if it's mothers milk. 

I've wagered in numerous countries around the world but especially in the UK and Australia. I'd have no hesitation is naming the NZ TAB the worst betting agency I've dealt with. One of my pet hates is the dictatorship they run and the negative impact it's had on others. I know of two bloody good guys that were effectively ruined by the NZ TAB. 

I had many chats with Micheal Dore back in the day pushing to have racing bought into the living rooms of NZ punters. It was just too big a gamble for them to press on. The irony of that was not lost on me or many others. I had the same frustration pushing sports betting.

I was a serious punter in the 1980's. My biggest ever wager was 20k on a Rugby World Cup final but had no problem putting 5k bets on. They were mostly put on via a bookmaker I've known for many years but some through the NZ TAB via a good mate running an outlet who was once a successful trainer. 

The TAB would send me a courier parcel of VHS tapes every week showing replays of the previous weeks racing.

There are a lot of things I don't do know that I did in the 1980's. Betting big numbers is one of those things. My bets these days are $50 and I'm happy with that amount.

Some years back the NZ TAB shafted me via wager for an amount North of 50k. Their blunder was owned to me privately lower down the chain but top floor refused to do the right thing and honour what they'd farked up. Didn't leave a good taste and neither does your user name. That's unfortunate as you clearly have some good knowledge dating back.

Back to the subject matter.

Mighty Gay didn't win ten races so in that sense at the time he wasn't Cup Class but routinely raced against all the top liners. 

I have a nice memory of Toris and Peter Shand. Not sure if it was Labour weekend or Easter but I do know he raced twice that long weekend back in 1985.  I punted him left and right for both days after the heads up about his work being his best ever. He won both days. He never won another race.

Pointer Hanover was a beauty and won a hatful. He raced against all the good ones in the late 70's.  He produced Frances Jay Bee who won half a dozen for Stu Campbell along with a host of other winners. 

Frances Jay Bee produced One Kenny, One Under Kenny and One Over Kenny who won a staggering sixty plus races between the three of them. 

Eastwood Jaunty was well known to punters in the 2000's. He'd race most weeks to the point some believed he was over raced. When you compare him to some going around in recent times on both sides of the ditch he wasn't over raced.

 

A good background story there WALT.....a bit of Clint Eastwood mannerism aye ?

I thought I'd sorted the name....WALT..the sinister evil scientist ftom Breaking Bad , and I think his nic name was Heisenberg the subject and beneficiary of your team driving allegation tonight.

Sorry you been shafted in past by TAB but bit of a stretch to blame that totally on your dislike of my comments ,posts etc

You were really sticking it up me ,I been eating razor blades for a few days before offering a reply.

One thing that did amuse me was your use of the word OBSEQUIOUS ...i think you used it 3 x times ,this is a Racing Chat site on the internet. 

Seems you have decided to go 'softer' on me .

My Username wont change ....I think I conjured it up pre-Covid ,when TAB was basically Insolvent and many Keyboard warriors couldn't seem to understand that the TAB wagering profits were necessary for stakes hence races to continue.Many seemed to think there was an endless moneytree from the govmint ! I was a reader not a poster !

I only began posting a couple of months back as I inspired by the re-opening of Ellerslie and Entains introduction ,I felt a real buzz about and even took a couple of small shares in some gallopers .Over the years I have see-sawed between Gallops and Harness, Really enjoyed Cup week as I always do plus had trip to Flemington and Vic Harness as well in October.

Always been a small but regular punter...had a day off , out of contact on Saturday so missed the TAB breakdown. My best divis over the year were when Pick 6 's were new and with decent pools .Some good divis ,but recent years become one of the 95% who lose !

Talk of GD Shand stirred some memories as he was my Dad's favourite horseman ,bar none.My father took me to the Wellington Cup and many other meetings [from the South Island] from a young age. Many of our neighbours/friends growing up were fully involved in racing as Owners,Trainers,Jockeys .

[Walt]

6 hours ago, TAB For Ever said:

A good background story there WALT.....a bit of Clint Eastwood mannerism aye ?

I thought I'd sorted the name....WALT..the sinister evil scientist ftom Breaking Bad , and I think his nic name was Heisenberg the subject and beneficiary of your team driving allegation tonight.

Sorry you been shafted in past by TAB but bit of a stretch to blame that totally on your dislike of my comments ,posts etc

You were really sticking it up me ,I been eating razor blades for a few days before offering a reply.

One thing that did amuse me was your use of the word OBSEQUIOUS ...i think you used it 3 x times ,this is a Racing Chat site on the internet. 

Seems you have decided to go 'softer' on me .

My Username wont change ....I think I conjured it up pre-Covid ,when TAB was basically Insolvent and many Keyboard warriors couldn't seem to understand that the TAB wagering profits were necessary for stakes hence races to continue.Many seemed to think there was an endless moneytree from the govmint ! I was a reader not a poster !

I only began posting a couple of months back as I inspired by the re-opening of Ellerslie and Entains introduction ,I felt a real buzz about and even took a couple of small shares in some gallopers .Over the years I have see-sawed between Gallops and Harness, Really enjoyed Cup week as I always do plus had trip to Flemington and Vic Harness as well in October.

Always been a small but regular punter...had a day off , out of contact on Saturday so missed the TAB breakdown. My best divis over the year were when Pick 6 's were new and with decent pools .Some good divis ,but recent years become one of the 95% who lose !

Talk of GD Shand stirred some memories as he was my Dad's favourite horseman ,bar none.My father took me to the Wellington Cup and many other meetings [from the South Island] from a young age. Many of our neighbours/friends growing up were fully involved in racing as Owners,Trainers,Jockeys .

Old Clint's character on the face of it was a grumpy old racist so I didn't enjoy that comparison from my daughters ffs but scratch a bit deeper and and you see an old school principled guy with a sense of humour and a back bone. I'll take that comparison as a positive   

Saturday's TAB debacle was just a repeat of what punters have become familiar with. It happened during the week also but apparently that mainly just impacted results. On Saturday many couldn't get their wagers on so it was a complete shitstorm. Most involved with the TAB would have been aware of that even if they weren't betting. 

Aside from your TAB arse lick user name, you have solid input so will skip past the brown tongue.

Ellerslie seems to have arrived as the place to be which I also embrace. Having said that, I was a big fan of the hill and looked forward to the Northerns like many others look forward to the Cup and Railway. NZ racing is poorer for the loss of the hill.

Seems our fathers like many others were our introduction to light harness. I recall the old Hutt Park days also. From a punting perspective, any horse that traveled up and crossed the Cook Straight to race was a heads up to get on.

I recall old George Shand as a uncompromising driver that you knew exactly what you'd get. On the track similar to Neil Brady and that's meant as a compliment. 

I fear the glory days of NZ Harness Racing are behind us. I hope I'm wrong.

Hugely disappointed in the decision to shitcan the Easter Cup. Such a time honoured event and the best indicator of who could win our best and most important race, the NZ Cup. I hope they reinstate this feature sooner rather than later. 

[Gammalite]

with Addington and Auckland running tonight as well,  and the John Devlin Memorial is on just now. Race 5 at Alexandra Park

. JD sure had done heaps for the industry . Buying and selling and racing and wheeling and dealing. was a great man and helped me out no end. many fun days with his horses.

Here's a snap of one he raced himself , the little Black Flash winning the NZ Futurity Stakes in his year in NZ . ran second to Smooth Falcon at his very first start in New Zealand too, and this photo was snapped with me about to give Vancey a workout in preparation for the Victoria Derby .Alas Another good mate in Vinny Knight beat him into 2nd  , (once again with Smooth Falcon)  that Vinny had picked up from NI in  New Zealand as well. Vinny always incredibly hard to beat .

And John Devlin ... very Hard to beat as a Top Bloke in life and harness racing. RIP 2 great men .