The Centaur Posted May 11 Posted May 11 According to Craig Rail Jamie in hospital and it sounds quite serious. The end of the season racing awards have media and journalist categories. Jamie Searle deserves journalist of year award. Its all much easier if one is employed by say NZTR, TAB or leading industry outfits but Jamie launched the Southern Thoroughbreds facebook site on his own giving a complete range of industry activity in the deep south. Plus some great tips. Its a formula that should be repeated in other areas Anyway best wishes here's hoping there is recovery. Quote
Shad Posted May 16 Posted May 16 On 11/05/2025 at 3:49 PM, The Centaur said: According to Craig Rail Jamie in hospital and it sounds quite serious. The end of the season racing awards have media and journalist categories. Jamie Searle deserves journalist of year award. Its all much easier if one is employed by say NZTR, TAB or leading industry outfits but Jamie launched the Southern Thoroughbreds facebook site on his own giving a complete range of industry activity in the deep south. Plus some great tips. Its a formula that should be repeated in other areas Anyway best wishes here's hoping there is recovery. All the best to him for his recovery, have enjoyed his articles that he writes, keep us updated on his progress. 1 Quote
Special Agent Posted Sunday at 12:29 AM Posted Sunday at 12:29 AM The article and photo with Terry and Debbie Kennedy brought a tear to my eye. I've known Jamie for years and he's been a great servant to racing. Such a sad way to go but, you know what he's still upbeat, grateful and thinking of others. Some people moan about nothing. I wish the world had more Jamie Searle's. 2 Quote
Chief Stipe Posted Sunday at 01:17 AM Posted Sunday at 01:17 AM Jamie Searle - terminal but thankful Michael Fallow May 17, 2025 Wingatui trainers Terry and Debbie Kennedy, former top South Island jockeys, visit Jamie Searle at the Otago Community Hospice in Dunedin this week.Supplied Jamie Searle is pegging out with a strong sense of uplift. The former Southland Times racing, sport and regional reporter has written thousands of stories for a community that is now gathering support around him as he faces the tail end of a terminal diagnosis for a rare and pretty brutal form of stomach cancer. And now he’s become a story himself. Word of his illness has sparked a detonation of support, making for an uncommonly busy deathbed as he fields calls and messages. All the busier because his stricken situation, until very recently, didn’t stop him making work calls and filing stories from his hospital bed. As he saw it, life in general, and the likes of Easter races in particular, were still providing news that deserved be put out there. “Everyone’s got a story to tell.’’John Hawkins / The Southland Times Tears come readily to him nowadays - “I’ve had my meltdowns’’ - but they’ve more often been of gratitude for the messages and calls he’s received. It’s perhaps not easy for a modest man to say publicly, but he acknowledges that if there’s one phrase he’s found himself saying a lot, lately, it’s “I love you, too . . .’’ As for those messages - quick, Jamie. Pick an example. “Oh, fundraising offers to get me special medicine. Too late, guys. But wasn’t that typical New Zealand? Typical Southland. They get behind you. “I’ve had pillars all around me, helping me along the journey,’’ he said. “I’ll walk into a new world feeling I’ve been lucky. Done what I wanted in life.’’ Searle, 61, spent 36 years at the Times, 28 as a dedicated racing reporter, then moving into other sport, and community reporting. Jamie Searle in his element.Nicole Gourley / The Southland Times The Times was “more than home to me. It was a family,’’ he said. He lightly describes himself as “the slowest reporter in Southland’’ but it has been a characteristic of his career that he has always strongly preferred personal contact to zip-zap phoned interviews. From teenaged sporting up-and-comers to Anzac veterans, to just about anybody he’s ever met at an A & P show, he’s come to realise ‘’everyone’s got a story to tell’’ . “You just need to spend a bit of time with them to get it: People live interesting lives.’’ When necessary, he’s stepped up to cover stories of conflict and reproach, but his nature and his professional approach have always been to more ardently seek stories of achievement and positivity. Jamie Searle, listed among colleagues and friends.Supplied His ardour for racing has never dimmed - he’s owned more than 200 horses in his day, typically those he’s assessed as deserving second chances. He is an inductee into the New Zealand Trotting Hall of Fame’s media honours board. On industry racing programme The Box Seat, presenters recently shared memories and thanks for his “enormous’’ contribution to Southland racing, his support for the south, and his collegial presence as a man who would willingly lend a hand to anyone he could help. An “enormous’’ contribution to the racing industry, in particular.Shaun Yeo / Stuff The thoroughbred, harness and greyhound codes and Ascot Park Consortium have decided to name a piece of lawn that greets racegoers on their arrival at the venue the Jamie Searle Lawn. He’s touched, of course. “If they need a flash mower for it, I”ll buy one for them,’’ he added, brightly. 1 Quote
mikeynz Posted Sunday at 03:37 AM Posted Sunday at 03:37 AM No Reon Murtha or Reg Clapp on the honour's board. Quote
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