Greymouth trotting club

[Chief Stipe]

6 minutes ago, Mikie said:

You may accuse me of being picky but they weren’t joint code meetings

They were TB licenced days on which the TB Club ran a couple of trotting races, and the TB Club paid the stakes

 

I'll be picky back.  Yes I know the Galloping Clubs held the meetings however they were joint code meetings in that both gallops and trots occurred.  Certainly the trotting licensees were still licensed by HRNZ.

To be further picky one of the oldest trotting cups in New Zealand was run by the Hokitika Trotting Club.  There was also a Club in existence when those joint code meetings were held.  The  members had a significant influence in getting those races staged on the Coast.

[Mikie]

2 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

I'll be picky back.  Yes I know the Galloping Clubs held the meetings however they were joint code meetings in that both gallops and trots occurred.  Certainly the trotting licensees were still licensed by HRNZ.

To be further picky one of the oldest trotting cups in New Zealand was run by the Hokitika Trotting Club.  There was also a Club in existence when those joint code meetings were held.  The  members had a significant influence in getting those races staged on the Coast.

I disagree with you

There have been joint code meetings run

A TB Raceday isn't a joint code meeting as such but since it suits your purpose, which is to never admit that you are wrong, you can call it what you like

You are incorrect about the Members having an influence in the TB Clubs running  trotting races on their racedays. The Members had absolutely no influence whatsoever, zero. The first that the Members knew that there would be trots on their gallops day was when the Committee, via their Secretary, wrote to them to advise them

Edited September 23, 2021 by Mikie

[Chief Stipe]

6 minutes ago, Mikie said:

I disagree with you

Why doesn't surprise me.

7 minutes ago, Mikie said:

There have been joint code meetings run

Great we agree on that then.

9 minutes ago, Mikie said:

You are incorrect about the Members having an influence in the TB Clubs running  trotting races on their racedays. The Members had absolutely no influence whatsoever, zero.

I disagree.  My father was on the Westland Racing Club Committee for a period and he and some other members were avid Harness Racing supporters and owners.  To infer that he and his mates had no influence on what the WRC programmed is ludicrous.  But I guess you are used to running things in an autocratic way.

[Mikie]

As a background to the above, Thoroughbred Clubs were not permitted to run Trotting Races on their raceday

In order to do so, the Marlborough Racing Club had to apply at the AGM of the NZRC (as it was known then) for permission

The President of the Marlborough Racing Club at that time was Mr Kelly Thompson

At the AGM the case was put by the Marlborough Racing Club that they be allowed to run trotting events in order to ensure that 8 or more races were run

There was a lengthy debate and one of the most vocal opponents was Mr Wigley, the President of the North Canterbury Racing Club (and I guess, Gus Wigley's father)

A vote was held and the President, from memory Jim Bull but that could be wrong, declared that the motion had been lost as it had not reached 66% support

At this point Mr Wigley, who had spoken against the proposal quite eloquently, and had voted against it raised a point of order and advised the Chairman that the particular type of motion did not require 66% support; it only required 50% support

The Chairman then declared the motion passed

The Marlborough Racing Club then added trots and Westland and Greymouth followed

 

 

[Mikie]

3 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Why doesn't surprise me.

Great we agree on that then.

I disagree.  My father was on the Westland Racing Club Committee for a period and he and some other members were avid Harness Racing supporters and owners.  To infer that he and his mates had no influence on what the WRC programmed is ludicrous.  But I guess you are used to running things in an autocratic way.

Your father might have been on the Committee for a period

That's not what you said

You said the Members were influential in the decision to run trots

They were not

It was the Committee's decision and the Members had no idea it was even being considered

No doubt you will now say that you meant the Committee Members

I am not being autocratic at all

I was the Club Secretary and/or Raceday Secretary of every West Coast Club that decided to run trots on their T/B day the first time

Therefore I must have been the Secretary when your father was on the Committee

 

 

[Chief Stipe]

10 minutes ago, Mikie said:

Your father might have been on the Committee for a period

That's not what you said

You said the Members were influential in the decision to run trots

They were not

It was the Committee's decision and the Members had no idea it was even being considered

 

FFS Hokitika has a population of 3,000.  It has been around that for 50 years that I know of.  They talk about 6 degrees of separation - well in Hokitika not only did everyone know everyone (1 degree) most of us were related!!!!

Yet you tell me that Dad and his mates who were the leading businessmen in the town had no input or influence on the Westland Racing Club Committee?  Hell they even got them to agree to putting in training track for Harness inside the grass track!  The local parish priest and stalwart of West Coast Harness Racing Father Bill Middleton used to train his horses on it!

They may have done things differently in Blenheim but not in Hokitika.

[Mikie]

7 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

FFS Hokitika has a population of 3,000.  It has been around that for 50 years that I know of.  They talk about 6 degrees of separation - well in Hokitika not only did everyone know everyone (1 degree) most of us were related!!!!

Yet you tell me that Dad and his mates who were the leading businessmen in the town had no input or influence on the Westland Racing Club Committee?  Hell they even got them to agree to putting in training track for Harness inside the grass track!  The local parish priest and stalwart of West Coast Harness Racing Father Bill Middleton used to train his horses on it!

They may have done things differently in Blenheim but not in Hokitika.

FFS Bill Middleton was years before the trot races were run

Make up your mind when your Dad was on the Committee will you (although there were a lot of older guys so he could have traversed both eras)

I'm telling you the facts, the Committee decided that they would run trots on their raceday

If your "Dad and his mates" were on the Committee at the time (which was when I was the Secretary) then they were part of the decision making process

If they weren't then you are talking crap 

The horse "Sweet Billy" won 1 of the 2 trotting races at Hokitika, my wife's  horse 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Mikie

[Chief Stipe]

14 minutes ago, Mikie said:

FFS Bill Middleton was years before the trot races were run

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

My Dad had a share in a horse that was mad as a meat axe - but boy could he run just couldn't stay pacing for the whole race.  It raced at Hokitika in 1971.  I was there that day.  

 

Father Bill was the Parish Priest from 1976 to 1985.  Dad helped him build the training track around 1978.  He left for Temuka after 13 years on the West Coast in 1985.

http://ketewestcoast.peoplesnetworknz.info/image_files/0000/0000/2012/img-goodbye.jpg

[Chief Stipe]

I'll also add that the West Coast Owners Trainer Breeder Association also ran Harness races from time to time on the Coast.  

[Rangatira]

27 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

 

 

 

Mother of Wee Junior unplaced

Edited September 23, 2021 by Rangatira

[Chief Stipe]

This is another one for @the galah and @Gammalite

Contrary to what @Michael aka @Mikie says the local Hokitika Harness enthusiasts used to work with the Westland Racing Club to arrange harness races when the gallops were on.  They would organise sponsorship and many were harness owners so would encourage their trainers to bring horses down.  

Dad organised for his trainer Joe Hill to bring a horse down called Two Bob.  Essentially there were four races on the Saturday and four races on the Monday.  All the horses had two starts each day.   Anyway Two Bob didn't run a message on the first day in its two races.  😉

However in its first race on the second day it bolted in paying $13 to win.  Needless to say Dad and Joe had more than 2 bob on it.  They scratched from the second race and retired to the bar.

 

[Karrotsisback]

Great thread here you have started Ludwig.

Just before rage goes to another level, its funny, how Chief & Poster M go hoof to hoof regularly, YET Noodlum & Poster M got on like a house on fire, agreeing on most things.

Anyway as you were.

[Mikie]

26 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

I'll also add that the West Coast Owners Trainer Breeder Association also ran Harness races from time to time on the Coast.  

We are talking different eras

You are talking about the era BEFORE the NZRC banned Racing Clubs running trotting races

I am talking about the era when the NZRC ban was overturned

So effectively we are both right (and I’m not wrong wrong wrong) and so I apologise, sort of 

I couldn’t have been the Secretary in 1971 as I was  only 12yo then

 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Mikie

[Mikie]

5 minutes ago, Karrotsisback said:

Great thread here you have started Ludwig.

Just before rage goes to another level, its funny, how Chief & Poster M go hoof to hoof regularly, YET Noodlum & Poster M got on like a house on fire, agreeing on most things.

Anyway as you were.

Who is Noodlum?

[Rangatira]

5 minutes ago, Karrotsisback said:

Great thread here you have started Ludwig.

 

[Rangatira]

1 minute ago, Mikie said:

Who is Noodlum?

Son of Deft ?

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, Mikie said:

I was the Club Secretary and/or Raceday Secretary of every West Coast Club that decided to run trots on their T/B day the first time

 

So you were aged 10 at the time Two Bob won at Hokitika in 1969?

[Chief Stipe]

1 minute ago, Rangatira said:

Son of Deft ?

Is irony your middle name?

[Mikie]

4 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

So you were aged 10 at the time Two Bob won at Hokitika in 1969?

That would be right if I was  12yo in 1971 🙄

[Mikie]

6 minutes ago, Rangatira said:

Son of Deft ?

Yes, by Bachelor Hanover

[Chief Stipe]

Two Bob was probably the first collect I every had on a race horse.  Oh the days when you had the oil!

[Mikie]

7 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Two Bob was probably the first collect I every had on a race horse.  Oh the days when you had the oil!

Sweet Billy at $9, from memory, driven by my 60yo (about) Dad at Hokitika was pretty good

Especially since he was the only horse in the field that had raced right handed before

Figure that one out Chief?

[Chief Stipe]

7 minutes ago, Mikie said:

Sweet Billy at $9, from memory, driven by my 60yo (about) Dad at Hokitika was pretty good

Especially since he was the only horse in the field that had raced right handed before

Figure that one out Chief?

 

[Chief Stipe]

Raced in Auckland.

[Rangatira]

2 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Raced in Auckland.

Or Albion Park ?