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Glad to see the club looking after the Cole kennels with 5 invites into the $15,000 race, including a sprinter never proven over a middle distance, and a C2 dog who has only had 3 races, none in the country. It really makes these 'invitation' races a bit of a farce.

He won a hack race at Ellerslie on Boxing Day 1972. Why do I remember such an insignificant fact? Because it was the first day I cracked $100 on the punt. My maiden punting century.

Hi jimbob not an unreasonable request by any means! This industry needs your fifty bucks & anymore you can spare. I'm sure more people would be encouraged to invest on greyhound racing if given the right tools to study form. In this day & age video assistance in doing form is an essential part of studying race form in general. I say this as both owner & punter of greyhounds. How hard is it to upload a race once it's run? Being unfamiliar with the workings of social media & the likes of Facebook & co but isn't there uploads immediate to the Internet? Does it mean someone within NZGR needs to be designated to get this up & running? It's my opinion the availability of replays is now an essential & vital part of the punt! Tell me who doesn't want to know the racing traits of dogs drawn either side of your own charge for me I need to know do they go right or left do they run off at the turn or cut back in. Three days to get a replay up is just unacceptable in 2017. Comet Michael Hart

As Branson said today if the water is being exported it's commonsense it should be taxed etc. The Chinese are coming here in droves on holiday why not incorporate a day or two at the brand new racing complex ? Every time I stay Ridges in Rotorua fior the races the place is teaming with well heeled Asian tourists being herded onto buses of follow the well worn path of tourist attractions.All i I see is a missed opportunity for Arawa park and the racing industry in general that they havent somehow formed a relationship to entertain them at the races which is only 200 metres from Ridges lobby.

We all breed hoping to get 500 meter plus dogs but it always doesnt goes to plan and end up with 300-400 meter off spring and you are left with no alternative to race them to recoup your outlay.

If the track is in poor condition,Lets hope they get it sorted Gordon ,as the Silver Collar is not too far away and the 779m distance which is already too far will make it way worse for the dogs if they have to plough through slop. AC

quick fix reduce stakes for 300 squib races and increase 457 & beyond.

Why was top prosecutor, a group one winner and has made several finals not one of the first choices?

Hi Craig, that won't be a problem. Generally the track is acceptable and this was a one of as a result of holding Polyfest at the venue. Having said that I believe the club does not follow the advice given last year by the track manager from Sandown. That was the track never be left to dry out, must be watered continuously, and when turned must be done down to 100 mm deep. Then properly compacted and the correct water levels maintained down to 100 mm. Our track dried out over the festival and then turned down probably 50 mm or so and they tried to compact the dry sand before adding some water.

The reason we are in this position is BECAUSE of imports. NZ ran 90% middle distance races and usually a distance race each meeting untill the flood of imports years ago that were unwanted in their home country. I was one of many at the time warning of the likely outcome down the track and it is exactly what happened. I remeber being very vocal about reducing the distances at both Auckland and Waikato. For all of that , it has happened so we must get on with it. Gary is probably right we are a sprint racing industry, it took years to get there and will take a lot longer to get out. Maybe we should reduce the distances again so Waikato may avoid the death throes they find themselves in. Eventually we would get down to the length of the straight only races. The NZGRA were looking at controlling how we selected dogs for breeding. How about bitches that have won over 500m above class 1.

Don't remember who owned him, but ! Here's a great true story. My wife's Cousin (from Wanganui - or is that Whanganui these days?) went to a Stud in the Waikato to look at yearlings and at this particular stud, there were two colts roaming around. He was offered either of the two for I think what was 1000. He tossed a coin, heads the one on the left, tails the one on the right. Heads it was and he bought the Leftie. It didn't do any good. The other one was ? KIWI CAN ! Don't you just love racing stories like this?

I think it is pretty easy to predict where this is going. NZ racing is now minute. A very small contributor to the economy. I expect a new report is likely to be sought detailing what they believe that economic benefit to be in the not too distant future. No government that wants to stay in power will just gift 100 million+ dollars to something each year without some level of justification. They likely had the justification 15 years ago. I can't see that they do now. Eventually, politicians being politicians, this will come to a head. I don't know what the deal is. But if the government is to keep gifting funds to racing (and some to sports), I bloody well hope that the fees to sports go up a lot. That might help NZ racing buy some time in which they hopefully start working through a strategy of focusing on NZ racing and how to make it self sustainable. Rather than relying on revenue from sport, pokies and off-shore racing. At some point, some one is going to ask the question as to why the government is persisting with propping up an industry delivering no benefits to NZ. I have been a huge fan of racing in NZ. But what we have now is not something the government should waste the current level of money on. I think there are areas more needing of those funds. The country was up in arms about spending a few million on the flag debate. Imagine if they actually knew what the government gifts the racing industry every year from revenue that is 100% unrelated to it. Instead of worrying about why revenue unrelated to NZ racing is possibly going to be lost to NZ racing, perhaps start worrying about what NZ racing needs to do to actually start generating revenue for itself.

Interested in peoples thoughts in regards to this horse, has the Stallion/Breeders market gone crazy? Winning Rupert has recently been purchased for a reported $5 Million (AUS), his best performances have been winning a G2 and a G3 in Brisbane , never raced in Sydney or Melbourne and never outside age group racing. No doubt he was very talented and fast but those wins were all he accomplished. Pedigree wise he's by Written Tycoon who is currently going very well but otherwise apart from himself there are no other black type performers within his first 5 generations! It has been announced that he is standing for AUS $22,000 inc. GST This must be the weakest female family seen in a stallion for a long time, and is only a Queensland performed racehorse, it will be interesting to see how he is received and how he goes. Thoughts?

Personally I think that is a tired old argument. I don't seriously believe oncourse bookies would attract anyone extra on course.

So if you breed sprinter to sprinter or with a bitch that just got 318 ( no matter how quick ) how can you hope to get a decent 500m plus dog ?

Ratings based handicapping suggests the winner of the Auckland Cup, Hawkes Bay Cup, Nathans Memorial and Karaka Stayers Cup is inferior to a White Robe Handicap winner who also won the Valachi Downs South Island Breeders Stakes twice. That's a fairly clear point to ad hoc handicapping or the Auckland Cup, Hawkes Bay Cup and Northern open class races are inferior to South Island Group 3's and mares only Group 3's

Berri, it is good to hear you are an advocate of making NZ a betting mecca. Sadly that seems to contrast with your own view that you are a realist. What is actually the issue if any deal with sports increases their payments by 100%, 200% or even more? You seem to be hung up on what the Act states currently without thinking about it being a moving piece of legislation. What might be suitable for racing up to now, might require tweaking because it is no longer suitable for racing to receive what it gets. Did you expect the Racing Act to carry on supporting the racing industry in perpetuity irrespective of the level of interest and benefits the industry provides? Is that how you think governments work?

whose the panel

You are a hard case Berri and you do love to present assumptions as fact, especially about me, even though your assumptions are mostly dead wrong or based on your distortions of what I actually said. You did get one thing right. I have started a degree that I didn't complete. Three actually. You say you don't know who I am but FYI, we have met. It was a long time ago for sure (Vision Bloodstock days for you) but I once picked you up from the airport in Lexington,KY and delivered you to your lodgings. We shared a few beers in subsequent days, looked at a few horses, and I thought you were a pretty good bloke, a decent judge of a horse and pretty astute. I guess the years have not served you well, so next time you can catch a cab.

so there is special rules if you supply the most dogs

The Auckland track yesterday was totally unprepared in many ways and in my opinion was unsafe and should not have been raced on. No there were not many major injuries but there were many dogs that came off in an exhausted and stressed state. If we had got "any" of the predicted rain for the weekend, even a decent 30 minute shower, the racing would have been abandoned. I handled a dog in race 8 and caught a dog in race 11, had a good look several times, and spoke to other trainers. The top 40mm of track was very soft and shifty and below that quite firm. When dressing the track between races, in the home straight there were many foot holes 40mm deep that were not being refilled by the mat. If you watch the replays of the 527 races as the field comes round into the straight you will see the dogs throwing up a trail of sand similar to that of horses running on a heavy 12 track. You only need to look at the times being run for the 527m races. C0 won in 31.97, C1s 31.75 & 31.40, and the C2 31.42. Only the winners of the C2 and 1/C1, only 2 dogs out of 4 races, beat the required qualifying time for unraced unqualified dogs of 31.50 sec. All the rest would have failed to qualify.

must be a good phone getting reception at Motukarara !!!

Hi. I have said it before and been pulled up for it but when should drivers say enough is enough! So many safety items necessary for everybody these days on a racetrack with horses travelling at high speed and and we allow 85 year olds to risk heart failure and bringing down a whole field ! compare sports such as form 1 motor racing,where reactions are necessary in 100ths sec. Most drivers retire by 42 yet we allow even 100 year olds (in theory) with a friendly Dr. on to our racecourses. Stupidity and unfair to put at risk all other drivers.

what a great race, some wonderful winners over the years, five of the best. 1. persian puzzle 1964 h, molloy 2 .citius 1966 , g moore (23) 3 yo F 3, gunsynd 1972 r.higgins 4.tontonan 1974 r,higgins 5, happy clapper 2017 b,shinn

where are all the dogs ?? 8 races at waikato thursday 9 races palmy friday open the flood gates let the aussie dogs in or we will have no meetings in the north or 8/9 races of c0/1 300 plus races each week. it is desperate times for owners/trainers in the north.

I got a price from them for the Mrs's Car, $15k vehicle. what are others thoughts or experiences of this so far?. Premium was via QBE Insurance & was competitive enough & cover looked fine. (They appear to deal with QBE, Vero, & NZI, pretty standard as they are about the only companies left now for brokers). At the bottom of the quote they highlight what your contribution is toward racing as per below (based on a premium of just over $500) Your contribution to Thoroughbred racing nationally is $22.00 As we have all learnt with disasters in recent years, pricing is only a small part of it, confidence in how they might respond when it all falls down around you is another thing entirely.

Sorry Ted, but is that photo supposed to be of Kiwi Can ? cos your photo of Kiwi Can differs considerably to my scrapbook pics (and the racing colours too), plus from memory he was a straight bay, but you could confirm off Roger Lang.

Why is the 779 distance to far Craig.?

I can assure you I have no desire to kiss you. You should choose your words more carefully. Yes, I'm pretty sure you bought the beers. Thanks. You just left me the bill for the accommodation and the whisky from memory. Next time you get a camp stretcher in the tack room. With respect to Mardi's post above, I think it's dead on. You have to realise that RB FOB turnover on sports is now closing in on that of FOB racing at around $600m. That's also well ahead of the entire turnover on domestic thoroughbred racing. It's only a matter of time before the politicians and public notice. So while I respect your right to fight from racing's corner to preserve as much of what it has as possible for as long as possible, longer term and starting asap, racing needs to figure out how it can be largely self sustaining again as Mardi says. Preferably before the government says what silver lad suggests they might, "you f....d it you fix it". I suspect JA smartly has realised this with the pending legislation amendments and chucked Sports a morsel to keep them quiet while the legislation is on the table. Whatever the cost of that turns out to be, it has to be worth it if it works. As you and Midget continue to point out, he is mandated to make these deals in the best interests of racing under current legislation. What is for certain IMO, racing needs to get off the beneficiary list of things that as Mardi points out are 100% nothing to do with their own product. I doubt any government will take away racing's right to the revenue they generate from their own product but removal of subsidies from sports betting, offshore racing and pokies will always only be a pen swipe away. In your words Berri, if the horse hasn't bolted yet, it inevitably will sooner or later and in racing's best interests I sometimes think that sooner might be better than later which would force the issue to be addressed. I learned this the hard way, but what government gives, government can take away.

Mr Graham N. Hill of Te Aroha. He had a feed company. His son Grant is seen around the tracks here and there.

Not saying Rotorua for a new complex just stating Chinese love to gamble don't you think the course could have a meeting or two a year that embraced the Chinese mixed in with a kiwi experience? What ideas do you have?

Monday night session Porky? Ha

Just a quick note to say I do get a tad Farked off with nah sayers about the State of tracks.../ pic-nic meets and country/regional tracks Health and Safety,s gone silly and as others have said...didn,t cause cancellations / abandonments in the past decades. Fair enough if the jocks deem it unsafe i suppose. Drop the all weather synthetic track push ...You city slicker Jaffa,s, spend the money elsewhere (stakes,free admission for party goers maybe!) ooops ssshhh ...now that would be unwanted look down ya nose @ type behavior.

You'd have to think the only reasons he is standing for that is cause he is standing at Newgate and he is a son of Written Tycoon. His female line is weak as you point out, compare him to a stallion like Albrecht who won a G3 and was G1 placed in Sydney and is from one of the strongest families in the stud book and stands for half the fee its hard to comprehend.

I guess you have a Group 1 winner of twice the amount of prize money rated at 100 versus a horse that's never even started at Group 1 level, rated at 101. Does seem strange to me

Thanks for the response but is there any chance you might directly answer the question I raised?

I suggested you not respond to me because you're a bull shitter. When will you learn that? And when will you learn to read? I've supported Johnny in creating an inventory of betting platforms - FO betting platform, an exchange, a tote (using new technology because our tote is rooted) and long odds bets. I've supported creating a structure that allows all bets, all bet events and all platforms to offer a uniform offering that allows affiliates schemes to be produced and managed....the more the better. I'm an advocate of making NZ a betting mecca by offering competitive take out rates across the board, events and platforms. These suggestions have been well documented over many years, including to the current NZRB. 25 years ago I formally suggested race fields legislation but was told it would be too expensive to police. I still support this initiative. By the way, does race fields include all content, including sport, that is created as a result of an event? What I wasn't ready for was receiving news that the NZRB had already agreed to a deal with Sports NZ in respect of changing the equation which may or may not be advantageous/ disadvantageous to racing, who under the Act, should be the main beneficiary for distributions from betting and betting services. I am proudly a racing guy, fully blooded, fully functional and will proudly and resolutely stand up and fight for the corner of racing. That is why I have been/ am speaking out because I know the effect of stupidly thought through initiatives. I like sport, I like my kids to play sport, I like watching sport but my game is racing. I don't necessarily agree to betting on sports because man is intelligent and therefore can pervert the course of an event that could promote un-genuine actions due to greed. I don't think our kids need to be tainted with some of this rubbish from a young age. But I am a realist, a capitalist and a business person. So bring on change. Just make sure its right and one thing I hate to feel is that I've/ we've (racing) been ambushed by a chameleon change of Racing Act. What is the deal? Can anyone tell me? It's been reported as being done so why can't anyone tell me/ us? Either its been badly reported (Bullshitter professed to know but he doesn't), or it doesn't yet exist, or it has yet to be completed. Why can't the NZTR, Trainers/ Owners/ Breeders/ Jockeys Associations tell us. That is why my voice is loud and my resolution extreme, on this site, to the bullshitters and imbeciles at this late stage. Has the horse bolted? The finer detail is often the most important.

No, stop all imports, just send the licenses to the Sth Island. We could have a meeting everyday.

John, one of the dogs I refer to recently ran 3rd in the Auckland Cup Final and is as fit as a buck rat. We also saw a dog like Multicam Ranger turning for home a good 6 lengths in front and only hanging on to win by a half head in 31.75. This being 15 lengths slower than he normally runs.

So there you go....self worth over rides the truth. You professed to know the deal but you're now offering an alternative.......If you knew the deal no alternative would have been proffered.....I knew you would catch yourself out because you can't prevent yourself from attempting to prove to others your self worth.....as I said before....yawn yawn...a bullshitter Arbitraging is the simultaneous buying and selling of securities, currency, or commodities in different markets or in derivative forms in order to take advantage of differing prices for the same asset. This can be a bet. The real issue with FO betting systems is that you either need multiple bets or multiple events available to the odds creator because you need to mitigate potential loss by arbitraging a hold. The process of FO offerings used to be done by human beings who either had ridiculously accurate inside information (insider trading of info... or cheating), or a researched hunch, or simply following a market. This changed considerably when Betfair entered the market because Betfair had new technology and liquidity. At the start of this era, a sucker would go to a rail bookmaker to place a bet. The bookmaker worked out that Betfair odds would give him a margin break because there was always someone willing to take on the odds in Betfair. He would accept the suckers' money and simply place a mirror bet on Betfair, thereby guaranteeing a profit margin. Then everyone got onto exchange betting so that ability was soon diluted. So then you have the conventional bookmaker. He would accept bets, and if overly exposed, would off load some of those bets onto other bookmakers (or punters) but tried to work a guaranteed market by playing the difference of the odds of the other bookmakers...an arbitrage. In the meantime the tote is operating, and if enough liquidity, a gambler is relatively guaranteed that the odds they took the bet at eventually was the same as when they placed the bet (the success of Hong Kong). So you had bookmakers accepting bets that they thought they could arbitrage with the totes. Then along came technology again in the FO betting platforms. Insider trading and hunches were forced into the background as the margins were established through either the bet event or a sequence of bet events, with the platform ensuring that the arbitrage between bets guaranteed a gross profit. Gross profit is generally accepted as the amount bet minus the amount paid out. If you were a bad bookmaker, then you gross profit would be non-existent. So if we were to take the NZ environment, the issues have been that the odds makers were average, there were too few bets and bet events to play with and the literal paperwork a shambles. So good on John for suggesting that a FO betting platform be created/ implemented in order to take advantage of this mess. The question is, do you develop one or do you white label one, or do you outsource one? White labelling is using someone else's operating service but branding it your own so that it looks like you are providing the service. The online poker industry did this very well with Party Poker offering the room and places at the table, but clients of William Hill would come through the William Hill gateway, everything looked like William Hill, but it was actually Party Poker. The only concern to William Hill was the client's details, which they wanted to retain and not allow anyone else to have access to, and the settlement process of monies won or lost (commissions, rakes and the like). So when looking at the NZ experience, these are the issues. With new technology, the bets can be automatically balanced (amended to accommodate the amounts bet), and this can occur over multiple bet events. So here is the concern that I personally have. IF you change the distributions from the current structure to a new one, which offers 1000's of bet alternatives on sports (remember that racing struggles to have multiple bet types or events because of the nature of horse racing), and the tote cannot offer the alternatives, people will probably migrate due to appeal, with loyalty to the racing product becoming diluted, then racing's returns may diminish as race betting diminishes and sports betting increases. If the tote has less liquidity (its currently suffering), then less is bet and the merri-go-round spins faster. Racing suffers. And please remember that the Act states that everything must be done to promote the welfare of the people in racing and the racing industry. I could take this discussion further but it would seem this needs to be a step by step brain dump. So what the most important thing? The race fields legislation or the deal with Sports NZ? Don't bother to comment Leggy....you wouldn't know and I cant believe anything that you say.

interesting just out of maiden class and straight into group 2 open invitation i guess what says is invitation but to get a run ahead of the reserves is a joke

I DON'T LIKE CRICKET.......OH NO.

http://thehorsesoftheyearspart3.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/rajah-sahib.html

You've got to be kidding!?!?! You OK with someone who has never known anything about racing and betting working with a group of people, who to date have shown they know very little, and doing a deal that hasn't to date been explained-for what ever reason- on terms that haven't yet been explained?!?!? Fuck me you guys are simple and stupid. Only in the racing industry.....wouldn't happen anywhere else you are all imbeciles and are deranged and Midgie is right ....not worth the continued space

just go straight to you tube and subscribe to greyhound racing, they are up there a lot quickert han when the link arrives on the website page.

The last 3 topics are titled Seduce me, Anyone into swinging and Geoff small. What next?

The track played very very well. Rumpole was more than happy with the track after the scintillating performance of Goodsav in Race 1. She may be back to her best

took me a while to warm to Geoff small, syn I was in some years back raced in the swing , Geoff gave us our first win with her, broken promises and red cosmic sky walker... no champions but great pleasure.. if I had big money, he's the one I'd get to train for me.. him and that other guy Tim what's his name.. I'm warming to him as well