Cambridge Junior Race - 2 males & 5 females!

[Slippery Slope]

11 hours ago, TAB For Ever said:

Of course Alexandra Park recently was upgraded back up to a 'Premier' track , presumably by Entain ,as HRNZ demoted it from this status last year and stuck them on many Thursdays !

It therefore in the immediate future will continue to run Group 1 and elite races...at night under the ribbon.

In a recent "Campbells Comments' interview the ATC President was defiant saying ATC contribute a lot to their stakes and he expects a bigger handout from HRNZ cos NZMetro gets much significantly more for its Derby and Oaks races than the ATC.

And he pointed out that Auckland region has the biggest sponsors ,the biggest breeders , the biggest and best this and the best that ...on historical results obviously Entain thinks it has the biggest potential. It certainly gone to a low base currently.

Why is it so hard for the ATC president (or anyone else in harness racing leadership to be fair) to be honest about the total amount of cross subsidisation to Alexandra Park in particular that has been going on for years, and still is? To cherry pick a comparison of two racs the Derby and Oaks but totally ignore the extra $000's his venue gets for every other non-Group race every week of the year is depressing!

[TAB For Ever]

As in business ,sport , politics etc leaders will pick on the slightest crumb of 'good news' and try to make a meal out of it.

Smoke and mirrors...accentuate the positive.

As pointed out the recent new Friday night Harness hooplah was able to throw up a 2% increase...the emphasis on INCREASE.

Drill down and it really was nothing and most likely a decline.....the alternative would be to say it was a slight decline but really we were expecting a much larger decrease. So a win !

Obviously employees and those close to action can't speak out against their leaders and the few journalists remaining have to stay onside and Club members etc largely 'sheep' who stay in the flock and follow on like good boy scouts !

We will all plunge over the cliff together !

[mikeynz]

On 7/19/2024 at 11:58 AM, TAB For Ever said:

As in business ,sport , politics etc leaders will pick on the slightest crumb of 'good news' and try to make a meal out of it.

Smoke and mirrors...accentuate the positive.

As pointed out the recent new Friday night Harness hooplah was able to throw up a 2% increase...the emphasis on INCREASE.

Drill down and it really was nothing and most likely a decline.....the alternative would be to say it was a slight decline but really we were expecting a much larger decrease. So a win !

Obviously employees and those close to action can't speak out against their leaders and the few journalists remaining have to stay onside and Club members etc largely 'sheep' who stay in the flock and follow on like good boy scouts !

We will all plunge over the cliff together !

Hey TAB totally separate issue but i note Green Island  win Dunedin Club Rugby final, first time in 46 years.

[TAB For Ever]

On 7/20/2024 at 6:15 PM, mikeynz said:

Hey TAB totally separate issue but i note Green Island  win Dunedin Club Rugby final, first time in 46 years.

Thats a surprise and a long time between drinks.

Hard to know why that suburb even existed , as Burnside and Abbotsford surrounded it . It had the stench of Burnside at one end and when the Abbotsford hillside slipped away it could have been buried in soil., I think their Rugby ground was.

Lucky some locals had shops there eg Moyles Supermarket and it had a Movie theatre and had a Mayor[ ? Crimp] ..I think he may have been shot in the Aramoana tragedy ! But it had no high school !

Its sports teams were generally lower grades battlers then two local boys Lyn and Merv Jaffray emerged as top players[ and All Blacks]. A weedy wing [Ex Taieri ] Jack MCLaughlan , from memory his son was a sprint champion and useful winger too ,emerged as good coach. And two local twins the Mitchells were small but solid backs and suddenly they were a senior team in tough Dunedin Comp. Then a couple of Southland University students with transport ,put off by the extreme competition of trying the make University teams went there ...a good halfback Chris Moreland , from memory and big lock [now kingpin Surgeon ]Dick Bunton . All these players played some games for Otago and they attracted other Southland students and Medical students eg Brian McKechnie the double All Black and Dr Peter Chapman Smith who for years had been a second string University player. Harness trainer Stu Campbell was part of this group ,he most likely a local lad.

It was this era they became serious contenders....of course since then they probably had many Otago reps the most famous being All Black Ben Smith.

Their cricket team were always battlers but their locals must have won their way thru the grades and achieved the difficult promotion up to Senior grade ,where the bottom team each year was relegated automatically unless the OBHS school team won second grade !Maybe a merger of  two Clubs gave Green island the opening.

From memory i think they got champion cricketer Glenn Turner to play by giving him free groceries and free meat...the only professional in a Amateur era ! Also they got NZ spinner Peter Petherick from Central Otago and veteran coach and Pakistan player Billy Ibadulla [RIP] who i believe died last week aged 92 ! They also had a new ground which was the Suunyview rubbish dump so the ground had all sorts of weird stuff on it ,and the pitch was a shocker  .

But I digress !

Back to their Rugby win ...last year at a wedding in Dunedin I met the Green Island Rugby coach who seemed very young ,so well done to him. He was a great dancer when the music started up.

Another vivid memory from their glory days , back in the day, was GreenIsland had a scrary rep [ ? Harvey] on the Otago Rugby Union.He was small and wore a big coat [ a la Colombo TV ]. One of his jobs was to go to the minor Rugby League games ,played at a hidden ground in Kaikorai on a Sunday and try and spot any Rugby players who were playing...if identified those rugby players were banned for life ...yes for life .I had a couple of Uni friends who risked this by playing league and another friend who reported the games for the Evening Star paper. He was constantly asked by this rugby sneak for the names ...of course they played under different names and some were quite original eg Joe Ninety and Fred Dagg.In those days the papers ,both ODT and Star reported all sports reults with the names of scorers etc.Not like today !

Ahh the memories.........

[mikeynz]

38 minutes ago, TAB For Ever said:

Thats a surprise and a long time between drinks.

Hard to know why that suburb even existed , as Burnside and Abbotsford surrounded it . It had the stench of Burnside at one end and when the Abbotsford hillside slipped away it could have been buried in soil., I think their Rugby ground was.

Lucky some locals had shops there eg Moyles Supermarket and it had a Movie theatre and had a Mayor[ ? Crimp] ..I think he may have been shot in the Aramoana tragedy ! But it had no high school !

Its sports teams were generally lower grades battlers then two local boys Lyn and Merv Jaffray emerged as top players[ and All Blacks]. A weedy wing [Ex Taieri ] Jack MCLaughlan , from memory his son was a sprint champion and useful winger too ,emerged as good coach. And two local twins the Mitchells were small but solid backs and suddenly they were a senior team in tough Dunedin Comp. Then a couple of Southland University students with transport ,put off by the extreme competition of trying the make University teams went there ...a good halfback Chris Moreland , from memory and big lock [now kingpin Surgeon ]Dick Bunton . All these players played some games for Otago and they attracted other Southland students and Medical students eg Brian McKechnie the double All Black and Dr Peter Chapman Smith who for years had been a second string University player. Harness trainer Stu Campbell was part of this group ,he most likely a local lad.

It was this era they became serious contenders....of course since then they probably had many Otago reps the most famous being All Black Ben Smith.

Their cricket team were always battlers but their locals must have won their way thru the grades and achieved the difficult promotion up to Senior grade ,where the bottom team each year was relegated automatically unless the OBHS school team won second grade !Maybe a merger of  two Clubs gave Green island the opening.

From memory i think they got champion cricketer Glenn Turner to play by giving him free groceries and free meat...the only professional in a Amateur era ! Also they got NZ spinner Peter Petherick from Central Otago and veteran coach and Pakistan player Billy Ibadulla [RIP] who i believe died last week aged 92 ! They also had a new ground which was the Suunyview rubbish dump so the ground had all sorts of weird stuff on it ,and the pitch was a shocker  .

But I digress !

Back to their Rugby win ...last year at a wedding in Dunedin I met the Green Island Rugby coach who seemed very young ,so well done to him. He was a great dancer when the music started up.

Another vivid memory from their glory days , back in the day, was GreenIsland had a scrary rep [ ? Harvey] on the Otago Rugby Union.He was small and wore a big coat [ a la Colombo TV ]. One of his jobs was to go to the minor Rugby League games ,played at a hidden ground in Kaikorai on a Sunday and try and spot any Rugby players who were playing...if identified those rugby players were banned for life ...yes for life .I had a couple of Uni friends who risked this by playing league and another friend who reported the games for the Evening Star paper. He was constantly asked by this rugby sneak for the names ...of course they played under different names and some were quite original eg Joe Ninety and Fred Dagg.In those days the papers ,both ODT and Star reported all sports reults with the names of scorers etc.Not like today !

Ahh the memories.........

Club Rugby in Dunedin as in other places has decayed a lot, some clubs like Green Island have been in the wilderness for years, Zingari as well.

Further South I see they claim to have a strong Stags team for the NPC , usually they do look good on paper but if you think 46 years is a long time be a lot longer before Southland achieve such heights, throw in the Warriers as well.