End of Allstars dominance confirmed

[Gammalite]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

@Brodie it was the dream team when you look at Mark's and Nat's experience and achievements.  Both natural horseman and from what I've learnt a big part of training horses is being tuned to the horse.  Not only in training but also in a race.  Hard to replicate what those two had.

Mark and Nat had different styles of driving and full credit to them they recognised that and they selected the right horses to drive for their style.

Absolutely 100% Chief. Their style saw a lot of Big wins come their way. You only had to watch Natalie get the Plugger 'The Fixer'  home first in the NZ Cup one year to see how good they went for her. And clean swept the board with 'Ultimate Sniper' at the last Interdominion run in NZ with domination , beating the locals and the Aussies. 

I respect what the Galah was saying about that Blair Orange has helped them for years and years,  but he is not as 'tuned in' to the horse as Mark and Natalie . comes from concentrating on One team . helps a lot too. Hardly Any outside drives as a distraction. 

Mark and Nat are at the Top of Mt Everest on the World Stage. Mr Orange is just at the Top of Mt Cook on the NZ stage.  there's a wee bit of difference.   Not hard to see why they lost a couple of lengths. 

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, Gammalite said:

Not hard to see why they lost a couple of lengths. 

That's all it takes at the top level.

[Newmarket]

The numbers in the 2yo races lately are a concern….

[the galah]

3 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Absolutely 100% Chief. Their style saw a lot of Big wins come their way. You only had to watch Natalie get the Plugger 'The Fixer'  home first in the NZ Cup one year to see how good they went for her. And clean swept the board with 'Ultimate Sniper' at the last Interdominion run in NZ with domination , beating the locals and the Aussies. 

I respect what the Galah was saying about that Blair Orange has helped them for years and years,  but he is not as 'tuned in' to the horse as Mark and Natalie . comes from concentrating on One team . helps a lot too. Hardly Any outside drives as a distraction. 

Mark and Nat are at the Top of Mt Everest on the World Stage. Mr Orange is just at the Top of Mt Cook on the NZ stage.  there's a wee bit of difference.   Not hard to see why they lost a couple of lengths. 

 

So it seems you and chief and tabforever seem to have settled on  natalie rasmussen being the key.

The stats  tell you,that is the only option you can use.

So mark purdon after years of training ,meets natalie rasmussen then goes from great trainer to the greatest trainer ever.

then natalie rasmussen no longer is there and mark purdon goes back to being a great trainer,no longer the greatest ever.

I mean really,aren't you fellas missing something.

mark purdon won the nz cup in 1995 and 1996 with il viccolo.

Then he went winless in that race until 2014,the year natalie rasmussen just happened to join him in partnership and then they trained the winners of 6 of the next 7 nz cup winners. sometimes even completely dominating, filling the top 3 placings.

Then she leaves and they havent won the nz cup since. Their winning streak ending coniciding with what i have mentioned before.

I mean you guys are ignoring the obvious. And the obvious,in my opinion is what i have said all along. 

Edited Thursday at 09:42 AM by the galah

[Gammalite]

20 minutes ago, the galah said:

Then he went winless in that race until 2014,the year natalie rasmussen just happened to join him in partnership and then they trained the winners of 6 of the next 7 nz cup winners. sometimes even completely dominating, filling the top 3 placings.

Then she leaves and they havent won the nz cup since. Their winning streak ending coniciding with what i have mentioned before.

I mean you guys are ignoring the obvious. And the obvious,in my opinion is what i have said all along. 

Also won the 3 yearold Sires stakes 9 years in a row at the Cup carnival to underline their Young Horse Domination as well.  Winning it the past 2 years with Don't Stop Dreaming and Chase A Dream ( both driven by Natalie) 

Their NZ Cup form has been Great. I don't Believe you for a Moment picking on that race.

Mark and Nat Quinella in 2020 . Self Assured a Big winner from Spankem . Then Natalie sort of retired when Amazing Dream won the Auckland Cup not long after. 

so the Allstars haven't won the past 4 years. . 2 NZ Cups won by COPY THAT and 2 Cups by SWAYZEE . 

Akuta ran 4th as a 3 yearold then a very good 2nd to Swayzee before breaking down . then Don't Stop Dreaming did everything but Win the last New Zealand Cup . (Blair did ok lol 😂 )  top runs really. 

So the last 4 New Zealand Cups have seen Top shelf ALLSTARS performances still . Even though they didn't win them. Copy That ( that bloody Orangeman again 🤣) and Swayzee ( that bloody Grimson twice ) stuffed things up 4 times in a row . and they said bad luck only comes in threes ?? 😋 .  probably cost me 10k in winnings too lol . but them the breaks 🙄. 

 

 

[TAB For Ever]

2 hours ago, the galah said:

 

So it seems you and chief and tabforever seem to have settled on  natalie rasmussen being the key.

The stats  tell you,that is the only option you can use.

So mark purdon after years of training ,meets natalie rasmussen then goes from great trainer to the greatest trainer ever.

then natalie rasmussen no longer is there and mark purdon goes back to being a great trainer,no longer the greatest ever.

I mean really,aren't you fellas missing something.

mark purdon won the nz cup in 1995 and 1996 with il viccolo.

Then he went winless in that race until 2014,the year natalie rasmussen just happened to join him in partnership and then they trained the winners of 6 of the next 7 nz cup winners. sometimes even completely dominating, filling the top 3 placings.

Then she leaves and they havent won the nz cup since. Their winning streak ending coniciding with what i have mentioned before.

I mean you guys are ignoring the obvious. And the obvious,in my opinion is what i have said all along. 

Not sure if you quoted me correctly.....you seem to be getting over intoxicated with your own exuberance.

Mark Purdon had been a great trainer for many years , always looking to improve ..and he just got better and better and when he moved to Canterbury the owners flocked to him . Made some big mistakes but that seemed to drive him harder and he was always learning looking to get better. His work ethic and dedication was second to none .

The big owners wanted their best horses to be with him , and in the big races he started having half the field ,certainly dominating age group stuff ,then trotting ,then the older pacers.

Once he joined with the #2 X factor horseperson Natalie they were unstoppable.

Some posters may have forgotten their utter domination of Group racing both here and in Australia.

The duo made a few changes eventually deciding to ease back on horse numbers etc and their partnership waived.

Nathan was weaned into the team initially in Australia....but whatever happened they cut back their numbers and OWNERS have started to drift away.  Many of their prominent owners with one eye on the industry , started supporting other younger trainers ,and with Mark so obviously easing out of the day to day grind...he lives and trains gallopers in Matamata. His property in Rolleston with the iconic straight track has earned him more money than his horses ever had. Why shouldn't he ease back ? A lot ?

Currently I doubt they have one Horse Of Year category winner...a couple of years back after Lazarus he had One Change, Ulimate Sniper ,Spankem ,The Fixer all category winners with Smolda , Have Faith in Me etc sent to Aussie to mop up.

That was just after Princess Tiffany , ElleMac .Dream to be Me and Adore Me had been dominant mares among others.

In 2021 True ,Fantasy ,Bettor Twist [8 x group 1] Amazing Dream ,Akuta and Self Assured fought for honours . Before Millwood Nike won 17 straight !

BTwist won $600k in a season, MNike $700k in short career, Spankem $900k in a season  and Self Assured $931k in a season ,$2.4 overall 

In 2022 the stable started Self Assured , Spankem, BTwist ,Mach Dan in small Auckland Cup field then wheeled out Akuta and Amazing Dream the next week !

Currently the stable has about 1 or 2 Open class pacers and Oscar the great trotter and their young horses are chasing Todd ,Dalgety , Cullen horses ...and soon it will be brother Barrys turn to burn dust . Many of these horses at least partowned by All Stars ex owners.

What was the question again  ?

[Gammalite]

8 hours ago, TAB For Ever said:

What was the question again  ?

Terrific summary of some great results TABman.

the question was . Why have they dropped off the winners list a bit  lately ?

The Galah thinks since Natalie left she took the 'gear supply' chain with her lol.  (I doubt that,  but it's not out of the realms of possibilities )  he thought Covid disrupted the supply. something he can argue with Chief about. 

The Galah thinks with Blair driving/ training at home the team they should continue winning the same. I disagree and as you mentioned earlier he doesn't train his own , nor driven the Interdominion winner , nor many things.

Mark has had Lazarus conquer everything. (Lazarus the best NZer ever) and Natalie had Blacks A Fake conquer everything ( Blackie being the best Aussie ever (until superseeded by old hubby Grant with Larry recently )) Therefore the  Amazing Dream ( love the pun there 😂 ) combo of MARK and NATALIE we're always gunna Smash the Australasia world together. And they Did. 

Chief thinks the Allstars results are still fine. But most have noticed the drop off in number of wins even though the prizemoney is still good from placing in the Big races . ( e.g were 2nd in the Betcha race to Larry to earn good money)   

Anyway . it's great seeing Regan Todd , and Carter and Hayden winning the Big ones these days  . apart from the Aussies. 

Note the Vic's have Emma Stewart sent a runner over to beat the Allstars tonight at Alexandra Park tonight as well . You guys are bleeding winners to the Aussie bleeders real bad now , with Aussies turning up all the time lol.  😎

The QLD trotter looks a bit weak though in the Rowe Cup tonight though 🙄. You should win that 🤣. Hope Ben Hope doesn't get cleaned up by the stable-mate at the start again like last week lol 🤣 silly standing start. 

[the galah]

i'm not disagreeing with anyone who says they are still a very dominant force in the sport.

But the general concensus from those who have posted on this topic,apart from chief,is the current stable is not replicating the level of achievements thats were achieved going back 5-10 years.

i think what the current stable is achieving really, is results similar to 15-20 years ago.

we have been discussing why that is. and i've been saying ,some have been overlooking an obvious factor.

Back around 1990,the peter blanchard stable and the kevin townley stable were top trainers,then they went through about 5 years where their achievemnets went to unprecedented heights.Then they introduced the pre race milk shaking testing and those stables chose to operate within those rules and there level of performance returned to the previous levels.

I've also referred to the new york/nz  connection.

i have previously referred to how the trainers who were imprisoned and lost parts of there wealth as a result of those cases,trained at yonkers and were mid table achievers,then when the drug peddling vet came along and they became  clients,they went to the top 3 spots on the yonkers training premierships. Thats all documented.It was no coincidence.

So the nz owner who regularly went to new york,who was a documented client of the crooked vet,who regularly attacked on his meida webiste anyone who said anything bad about the all stars and who also used his website to heavily criticise jeff gural for insinuating that thiose yonkers trainers were using performance enhancers.

It just makes sense to me to consider that theres a link between the  increase in level of performance by not only the all stars but the oher stable he used and thatfurther proof of that link has been the subsequent drop off in performance.People can think it coincidental if they want,but personally i don't. 

[Chief Stipe]

47 minutes ago, Gammalite said:

Chief thinks the Allstars results are still fine. But most have noticed the drop off in number of wins even though the prizemoney is still good from placing in the Big races . ( e.g were 2nd in the Betcha race to Larry to earn good money)   

The Betcha is a Slot Race and as far as I know is not included in Trainers Stakes totals.  So when you combine Stakes won and their UDR the current Purdon partnership is far off previous stats.

[Gammalite]

1 minute ago, Chief Stipe said:

The Betcha is a Slot Race and as far as I know is not included in Trainers Stakes totals.  So when you combine Stakes won and their UDR the current Purdon partnership is far off previous stats.

They have 8 runners tonight in some good races. Let's see how they go then.

I'd back some of them with Natalie or Mark driving.they  just don't go the same for Blair ( nor Cox for years of trying either ) 

Interestingly Chief , In a feature Group 2 tonight the Delightful Lady Classic.  Chris Alford from Victoria is driving one of the Allstars runners , while the Victorian Favourite Ripples is being driven by Mr Orange. ?? that All seems a bit wierd to me ?   is Blair hired help to prepare the Allstars or not? 

Nathan should just hit the Gym and lose some kilos and drive them himself. stop that sort of thing happening .Nathan drove quite a few winners in Aussie once. Just being a bit lazy getting the Big training bucks from the millionaire owners I think 🤣😂 would do him good. 

 

[Chief Stipe]

13 hours ago, the galah said:

So it seems you and chief and tabforever seem to have settled on  natalie rasmussen being the key.

The stats  tell you,that is the only option you can use.

So mark purdon after years of training ,meets natalie rasmussen then goes from great trainer to the greatest trainer ever.

then natalie rasmussen no longer is there and mark purdon goes back to being a great trainer,no longer the greatest ever.

I mean really,aren't you fellas missing something.

We are not missing anything.  You're obsessed with your theory of PED use even though you have no evidence.  A serious question have you ever worked in a harness stable?  

I have as has @Gammalite (I know @TAB For Ever has been very close to the best trainers in NZ).  The point is both @Gammalite and I know that a very small change with a horse can make a huge difference in performance.  

Nat and Mark are like Torvill and Dean or Barker and Corbett.  Torvill and Dean great skaters in their own right but together unbeatable.  Barker and Corbett great individual comedians but didn't individually reach the heights as they did as a duo.

I worked in a stable that did very well with very limited resources.  In those days problem solving took time and often meant reaching out to Trainers friendly to the stable.  The likes of Don Nyhan and Ted Lowe.

I can only imagine the level of expertise that Mark and Nat had between them.  While one is driving in training the other is watching.

That's all Nat bought in her luggage.  Not some secret potion that she snuck through customs.

Your fantasy stems from INCA where Nat's recreational drug us was collateral damage of that very flawed investigation.  

BUT the fact is after years of investigation, after years of swabbing and years of stable visits NOTHING, ZIP, NADA.  Not a smidgeon of anything.  Why?  Because there wasn't anything.  Sure they tried novel treatments like blood spinning but most of the finger pointers don't know the science of that treatment.  It is therapeutic not a PED.  Just like the legal joint injections based on new science that are available now and are used on ALL elite equine athletes.  They reduce inflammation, aid healing and generally make horses feel better and not sore.  Horses that feel better run faster.

 

[Chief Stipe]

10 minutes ago, Gammalite said:

Interestingly Chief , In a feature Group 2 tonight the Delightful Lady Classic.  Chris Alford from Victoria is driving one of the Allstars runners , while the Victorian Favourite Ripples is being driven by Mr Orange. ?? that All seems a bit wierd to me ?   is Blair hired help to prepare the Allstars or not? 

Normally when something like that happens a sale is in the offering.  Have seen it often in gallops.

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

i have previously referred to how the trainers who were imprisoned and lost parts of there wealth as a result of those cases,trained at yonkers and were mid table achievers,then when the drug peddling vet came along and they became  clients,they went to the top 3 spots on the yonkers training premierships. Thats all documented.It was no coincidence.

How many times do I need to keep telling you @the galah!!!!!   Those trainers were done for drug adulteration and mislabeling and knowingly attempting to deceive authorities both federal and racing.  That is essentially fraud!!  They got wrapped up with a snake oil salesman who was relabeling readily available drugs and selling them as something special!!  Some of those drugs are able to be used legitimately in horse racing in NZ as long as withholding periods are followed and records are kept.  What also undone the NY guys is they kept false records. 

https://paulickreport.com/news/former-harness-trainer-banca-sentenced-to-30-months-in-federal-doping-case
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/harness-trainer-christopher-oakes-sentenced-3-years-federal-doping-case

NOT ONE OF THOSE DRUGS DISCOVERED WERE NEW OR NOVEL!!  That is they are commonly available.

1 hour ago, the galah said:

It just makes sense to me to consider that theres a link between the  increase in level of performance by not only the all stars but the oher stable he used and thatfurther proof of that link has been the subsequent drop off in performance.People can think it coincidental if they want,but personally i don't. 

You don't understand testing science nor the compliance protocols required in NZ.  As you said the alleged connections were widely known. 

1 hour ago, the galah said:

So the nz owner who regularly went to new york,who was a documented client of the crooked vet,who regularly attacked on his meida webiste anyone who said anything bad about the all stars and who also used his website to heavily criticise jeff gural for insinuating that thiose yonkers trainers were using performance enhancers.

Do you honestly think that NZ authorities are so dumb nor so isolated from an international jurisdicition that they weren't receiving ANY intel from overseas?  Do you think that when what was being used was discovered that testing hasn't occurred specifically looking for those drugs?

I guess you reckon the Emma Stewart stable is now on the act given that stables dominance?

I'm sorry @Gammalite the cowboy days when you were heavily involved in training are long gone.  The testing technology available today is light years ahead of your time.  I've mentioned this story before but I was involved in the chemical fingerprinting of manuka honey.  The objective was to discover all the active ingredients that gave it is therapeutic properties and to determine regional chemical variations that would help determine its origin.  During that process two previously unknown chemicals were discovered - that is chemicals that never been isolated before.  They were given new names Leptosperin and Lepteridine.  The "Lepto" portion of their names being derived from the latin name for the manuka plant - Leptospermum scoparium.

Those chemicals were first noticed as unidentifed spikes in a spectography analysis.  So if you draw an analogy between blood and honey testing - the blood is the honey and the chemicals contained within are represented as spikes on a spectrogram.  So race testing authorities is they had suspicisions could take a blood sample and perform a wide ranging spectography analysis and identify chemicals that wouldn't normally be in blood.

However if there is some special previously unknown PED being used in NZ racing then it has evaded importation checks and testing checks. 

Yeah na - Occam's Razor - the All Stars dynamic changed when Natalie left and Mark reduced his level of involvement pure and simple.

[Newmarket]

1 hour ago, Gammalite said:

They have 8 runners tonight in some good races. Let's see how they go then.

I'd back some of them with Natalie or Mark driving.they  just don't go the same for Blair ( nor Cox for years of trying either ) 

Interestingly Chief , In a feature Group 2 tonight the Delightful Lady Classic.  Chris Alford from Victoria is driving one of the Allstars runners , while the Victorian Favourite Ripples is being driven by Mr Orange. ?? that All seems a bit wierd to me ?   is Blair hired help to prepare the Allstars or not? 

Nathan should just hit the Gym and lose some kilos and drive them himself. stop that sort of thing happening .Nathan drove quite a few winners in Aussie once. Just being a bit lazy getting the Big training bucks from the millionaire owners I think 🤣😂 would do him good. 

 

Gee Gamma…. not like you to serve it up to people…. poor Nathan he is living the dream in obviously a good paddock…. like me 🤭

[Newmarket]

10 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

How many times do I need to keep telling you @the galah!!!!!   Those trainers were done for drug adulteration and mislabeling and knowingly attempting to deceive authorities both federal and racing.  That is essentially fraud!!  They got wrapped up with a snake oil salesman who was relabeling readily available drugs and selling them as something special!!  Some of those drugs are able to be used legitimately in horse racing in NZ as long as withholding periods are followed and records are kept.  What also undone the NY guys is they kept false records. 

https://paulickreport.com/news/former-harness-trainer-banca-sentenced-to-30-months-in-federal-doping-case
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/harness-trainer-christopher-oakes-sentenced-3-years-federal-doping-case

NOT ONE OF THOSE DRUGS DISCOVERED WERE NEW OR NOVEL!!  That is they are commonly available.

You don't understand testing science nor the compliance protocols required in NZ.  As you said the alleged connections were widely known. 

Do you honestly think that NZ authorities are so dumb nor so isolated from an international jurisdicition that they weren't receiving ANY intel from overseas?  Do you think that when what was being used was discovered that testing hasn't occurred specifically looking for those drugs?

I guess you reckon the Emma Stewart stable is now on the act given that stables dominance?

I'm sorry @Gammalite the cowboy days when you were heavily involved in training are long gone.  The testing technology available today is light years ahead of your time.  I've mentioned this story before but I was involved in the chemical fingerprinting of manuka honey.  The objective was to discover all the active ingredients that gave it is therapeutic properties and to determine regional chemical variations that would help determine its origin.  During that process two previously unknown chemicals were discovered - that is chemicals that never been isolated before.  They were given new names Leptosperin and Lepteridine.  The "Lepto" portion of their names being derived from the latin name for the manuka plant - Leptospermum scoparium.

Those chemicals were first noticed as unidentifed spikes in a spectography analysis.  So if you draw an analogy between blood and honey testing - the blood is the honey and the chemicals contained within are represented as spikes on a spectrogram.  So race testing authorities is they had suspicisions could take a blood sample and perform a wide ranging spectography analysis and identify chemicals that wouldn't normally be in blood.

However if there is some special previously unknown PED being used in NZ racing then it has evaded importation checks and testing checks. 

Yeah na - Occam's Razor - the All Stars dynamic changed when Natalie left and Mark reduced his level of involvement pure and simple.

Hey Chief, so what are your views on Mark and Nats involvement in Blood Equine Services? Now don’t get upset, I’m not saying it wasn’t all above board, but if you look at the timing when  they were involved, the stable delivered its best results. And while some had differing views on how it helped the horses, obviously for owners / trainers to spend big money on it, must have produced results. 
 

 

[Chief Stipe]

9 minutes ago, Newmarket said:

Gee Gamma…. not like you to serve it up to people…. poor Nathan he is living the dream in obviously a good paddock…. like me 🤭

Yeah but when was your last winner?

[Newmarket]

1 minute ago, Chief Stipe said:

Yeah but when was your last winner?

Between the sheets about 6am this morning… slow early, improved then produced a dour staying performance to finish all over the top of them 🤭

[Chief Stipe]

4 minutes ago, Newmarket said:

Hey Chief, so what are your views on Mark and Nats involvement in Blood Equine Services? Now don’t get upset, I’m not saying it wasn’t all above board, but if you look at the timing when  they were involved, the stable delivered its best results. And while some had differing views on how it helped the horses, obviously for owners / trainers to spend big money on it, must have produced results. 
 

 

I have no problem with their involvement at all.  My understanding of the blood spinning science is that it is therapeutic as opposed to being a performance enhancer.  The theory is that the platelet rich plasma (PRP) is separated from the red blood cells and then is injected into tendons, ligaments and joints (which generally have poor direct blood supply) to enable quicker repair from wear and tear or injury.  The PRP has growth factors in it that are found naturally in the body and are what stimulates repairs.

As @Gammalite will attest when training race horses at a high level a lot of stress goes on the joints such as the fetlocks, the knees and the hocks as well as the connecting ligaments and tendons.  These parts experience a lot of wear and tear.  So the injections reduce inflammation and aid repair and recovery.  They don't make the horse go faster other than the horse heals and can maintain longer periods of training and high level racing.  

There are different substances that are available now that can be injected that do the same thing as blood spinning.  Some would argue that the newer technology is better at getting results.  For example a common one is Arthramid Vet (tradename) which has the active ingredient Polyacrylamide Hydrogel (PAAG) and it is injected directly into the fetlock joint.  It has less complications and long term negative affects than the traditionally used corticosteroids.  The Arthramid injections cost around $500 a fetlock and last a year.  https://arthramid.co.nz/arthramid-vet-2-5-paag/  

Having had a knee injury through my sporting career I've always taken a keen interest in the research.  So I don't find the technology alarming at all but fascinating science.  They don't make a horse go faster (very few if any alleged PED's do) or have more stamina but they help reduce wear and tear and so a horse is less sore less often.  A happy horse is a fast horse.

[Chief Stipe]

18 minutes ago, Newmarket said:

Between the sheets about 6am this morning… slow early, improved then produced a dour staying performance to finish all over the top of them 🤭

So about 1:58 for the mile?

[paleface adios]

On 4/29/2025 at 10:51 AM, Chief Stipe said:

I guess the All Stars still have the good stuff!  😉 😜 

 

Is plain simple  they have the horse flesh. Like buy a dunger of a car you get what you pay for . So if you buy the best you get best results that's why they champion  trainers 

[the galah]

chief we've discussed the new york cases  many times before. 

i've referred you to the indictments,the evidence presented,the press releases from those prosecuting the cases and the judges comments at sentencing.

I've even referred you to the admissions made by many of those charged and the evidence given by some, as to  what they knew and how they particpated in ,illustrating the guilt of others.

Yet you keep sticking to all those 30 or so trainers,most of who were sentenced to significant jail terms,were gulity of being sold snake oil..

If you followed the cases you would know why most were just charged with the one charge of drug adulteration or misbranding.

all that,yet you just ignore the relevance of it all.

your views expressed on here have never properly represented the cases,in my opinion.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 01:40 AM by the galah

[Gammalite]

47 minutes ago, Newmarket said:

Gee Gamma…. not like you to serve it up to people…. poor Nathan he is living the dream in obviously a good paddock…. like me 🤭

getting too Cynical😋 . I loved Craig Ferguson late last year when driving Marketplace brilliantly , and also winning the NZ Derby too at 15-1 ( We Walk By Faith ) , but after a 'Bit Of A Yarn arguement' converted me to serving it up to him as well😉 . Getting beat on Marketplace a couple of times lately , and Mo and DSD . we're a fickle bunch🤣.

Yeah , get Nathan to lift his game too 😋

2 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

Normally when something like that happens a sale is in the offering.  Have seen it often in gallops.

Allstars owners don't need the cash at all Chief. so don't see them selling very often. Chris Alford is probably staying with them . and is driving the Queen too.(Queen Elida In the Rowe Cup) .The trainer ex-pat  Brent Lilley learnt the trotters craft at Roy and Barry Purdons a long time ago , before shifting to Victoria and doing very well . Think he won an Interdominion Trot final once. 

[the galah]

2 hours ago, Gammalite said:

They have 8 runners tonight in some good races. Let's see how they go then.

I'd back some of them with Natalie or Mark driving.they  just don't go the same for Blair ( nor Cox for years of trying either ) 

Interestingly Chief , In a feature Group 2 tonight the Delightful Lady Classic.  Chris Alford from Victoria is driving one of the Allstars runners , while the Victorian Favourite Ripples is being driven by Mr Orange. ?? that All seems a bit wierd to me ?   is Blair hired help to prepare the Allstars or not? 

Nathan should just hit the Gym and lose some kilos and drive them himself. stop that sort of thing happening .Nathan drove quite a few winners in Aussie once. Just being a bit lazy getting the Big training bucks from the millionaire owners I think 🤣😂 would do him good. 

 

Nathan purdons doing the right thing not driving.

when he was driving there was a handful of topics  on this site about his driving.

If i commented ,it was always along the lines of, for some reason horses just don't run for him.

personally i've always though b orange is the best,as good as d dunn,but n rasmussen not too far behind and mark purdon tops as well.

Actually one thing thats always been true about the all star horses.

When they go to the races,even in the lead up races to the bigger races they were always there to win. Compare that to say marketplace.That is why the all stars drivers have always been held in such high regard by all punters.

mark purdon is obviously a very cunning driver. Like when marketplace got beaten in its first run at auckland. There was mark purdon on rubira,he drew the outside,but no doubt he would have read the comments from the marketplace connections. So what does he do,he anticipated the possibilty of a the negative drive by c ferguson out of the gate,and quickly took advantage of that to position himself in front. H ewon a $60,000 race when really he shouldn't have,simply by being more cunning that the other drivers.

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

Yet you keep sticking to all those 30 or so trainers,most of who were sentenced to significant jail terms,were gulity of being sold snake oil..

If you followed the cases you would know why most were just charged with the one charge of drug adulteration or misbranding.

No I said they were party to drug adulteration and mislabelling.  The mislabelling had "snakeoil type names".  Some of those convicted and banned from racing DIDN’T know that what they were injecting were common drugs used to treat horses more often outside of competition.

Some of those banned under racing rules were banned NOT for returning positives but because they were injecting something that was unapproved because it wasn't labelled correctly.  There were guilty of not following the rules of racing and using something they THOUGHT was performance enhancing without knowing what it was!!

For example one of the mislabelled drugs was Clenbuterol - a known bronchodilator i.e. a drug that opens the airways making breathing easier (if you have asthma then your inhaler containers a bronchodilator).  BUT it was labelled something along the lines of "Go Fast 1000" with no indication that the active was Clenbuterol.  

The reasons positives weren't returned is because the "secret administration instructions" which had to be adhered to just happened to match withholding periods or detection limits.

That said a couple of trainers did stuff up and positives were found.  Samples of ALL the mislabelled drugs were found well before investigations were complete or charges laid.  It would be extremely naive to think that the authorities didn't know exactly what to look for in race testing.

Both there and here in NZ.

[TAB For Ever]

4 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Terrific summary of some great results TABman.

the question was . Why have they dropped off the winners list a bit  lately ?

The Galah thinks since Natalie left she took the 'gear supply' chain with her lol.  (I doubt that,  but it's not out of the realms of possibilities )  he thought Covid disrupted the supply. something he can argue with Chief about. 

The Galah thinks with Blair driving/ training at home the team they should continue winning the same. I disagree and as you mentioned earlier he doesn't train his own , nor driven the Interdominion winner , nor many things.

Mark has had Lazarus conquer everything. (Lazarus the best NZer ever) and Natalie had Blacks A Fake conquer everything ( Blackie being the best Aussie ever (until superseeded by old hubby Grant with Larry recently )) Therefore the  Amazing Dream ( love the pun there 😂 ) combo of MARK and NATALIE we're always gunna Smash the Australasia world together. And they Did. 

Chief thinks the Allstars results are still fine. But most have noticed the drop off in number of wins even though the prizemoney is still good from placing in the Big races . ( e.g were 2nd in the Betcha race to Larry to earn good money)   

Anyway . it's great seeing Regan Todd , and Carter and Hayden winning the Big ones these days  . apart from the Aussies. 

Note the Vic's have Emma Stewart sent a runner over to beat the Allstars tonight at Alexandra Park tonight as well . You guys are bleeding winners to the Aussie bleeders real bad now , with Aussies turning up all the time lol.  😎

The QLD trotter looks a bit weak though in the Rowe Cup tonight though 🙄. You should win that 🤣. Hope Ben Hope doesn't get cleaned up by the stable-mate at the start again like last week lol 🤣 silly standing start. 

And I didn't even mention Auckland Reactor or Chase Auckland....didn't want to inflame the Crusaders , anti- Auckland faction.

Galah seems to take Harness very seriously and follow it closely but I think he should get out more !

When he doesn't know stuff he just makes it up !