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Probably unhelpful and uncomfortable. But why put the industry in this position. The facts are, and they are there for all to see, that there is a deliberate push from the industry at the highest level to mislead and pervert the Stipes report. They are wrong to do this as it threatens the entire racing industry. They are proving that they are not to be trusted, and cannot tell the truth. When I read a Stipes report, I want the facts, warts and all, not some spin that will ultimately prove that they are trying to hide something. I deliberately read this Stipes report because I wanted to know the outcome for Dirk. Instead it gets buried because it does not suit their agenda, that being to hide the fact that a dog may have been euthanised. This is the very thing that NSW's was guilty of. The thing that gets me is, whats to hide. All reasonable thinking people will, and do except, there is some risk in all sports and walks of life. In Greyhound racing there are risks, and some dogs get put down because of these risks, its a fact of life, so why hide it. We should be proud of the fact that very few dogs get put down at the track due to terminal injuries. So why the hell pervert the reports where no problem exists. All people that are part of Greyhound racing should expect that their Governing Body can be trusted to tell the truth, and walk a straight line. I have rung Stipes, will not name them, after reading one of these misleading reports to enquire the outcome for a dog that was in their report as having been referred to the Vet, then no outcome, to find the dog was put down at the track, but they the Stipes were under instruction not to put this in their report. The last Stipe I spoke to regarding this said he she didn't like doing it, and it sat uncomfortable with them, but this was the policy from on high. Hey, I say there are risks in every walk of life. With the number of dogs that get put down at the track due to injuries, would be very small considering the number of races that are held, and 90% of people will realise this. The Governing Body should not be seen to be perverting and misleading these reports to appease a small minority of nutters. We should be proud of the standard of Vet care we have at the tracks, and the fact that a dog is put down for humane reasons is a rarity.

We should stump it up GD12. There will be a tangible economic return (TER) for the NZ economy. The govt stumps up millions for the Olympics and Comm games with nowhere near the TER to the country. The individuals benefit and the country bathes in pride at their glory. But with the AC, we have pride, can gloat, and all along there is going to be the huge return economically. It's a no brainer and all this "rich mans sport" (which it is) whingeing is just ignorance. As for the aside of "cleaning up waterways", can't "regulations" fix that?

My take on why things changed here... There was a period when the value NZ dollar was scraping the bottom of the barrel, thus making everything imported into NZ too expensive, including horses. On the flip side, any NZ revenue converted to mainstream currencies was just about worthless. Hence to buy a reasonable European / UK stallion was too expensive and Northern hemisphere operations wouldn't send stallions down here because there was no ROI. So where did NZ stud masters head to for their new stallions? Across the ditch and bought/conned into 2nd rate Aussie sprinters. Mind you there were 1 or 2 that did work out well. That coincided with the emergence of Asian racing and the slipping into oblivion of NZ racing. So the next stage of the industry's demolition occurred - everything not bolted down was/is sold. Hence robbing the industry of good colts & fillies that could potentially find their way to stud here. You can actually timeline the slide...but NZ industry, in particular, the rock solid owner/breeder type - the ones normally responsible for the success of the initially, moderately priced stallions - have stuck to breeding to what they can afford and it's starting to fill the gaps in the Aussie market being left by the Aussies (new entrants & their Agents) absolute obsession with money & "colts into stallion prospects", which will inevitably damage their industry along the way. Short term gain for long term pain, I think could best describe the current state of the industry across the ditch?

Dear oh dear, when has there ever been a two horse market where one is paying $8 and one $1.50. That's a market percentage of 78%. I will leave it to Nimue to honour you with the Frampton Award

Well we know he has proved unbelievable in winning races but he has had made headlines for another reason last Sunday as the $1.20 win favourite:

If I walked on track with $10k I would more than likely walk out with about $10 bucks in loose change.

Peter , have to post early ok ! Race 1 # 7 ~ 8 Race 2 # 8 ~ 10 Race 3 # 1 ~ 5 Race 4 # 3 ~ 7 Race 5 # 3 ~ 9 B/B Race 6 # 3 ~ 15 B/B Race 7 # 6 ~ 12 Race 8 # 1 ~ 14 Race 9 # 6 ~ 16 Race 10 # 6 ~ 18 Good luck Jack ! Have a memorable tipping day champ ! PJ, cheers !

It is totally staggering to me that she hasn't offer her resignation as the Chairperson of the NZRB. She was a Policewoman herself and to me she has hindered a police investigation by asking the complainant to withdraw her COMPLAINT and offering a settlement to do so. This just smacks of a lack of Integrity,something the industry asks and demands.This has been a total embarrassment to the National party and a PR disaster to herself and the National Party. If David Bennett doesn't ask for her resignation,they will lose my vote and I am sure many other National supporters in the upcoming Election SNR.

Yes the information flow is absolutely rubbish. To be honest I hardly bet on Greyhounds anymore, and cant see myself going back to punting over $1000.00 a week on them either The racing has become boring, especially in the Central districts. I am not interested in betting on a race that has dogs racing three times a week and most of the runners are from the same kennel. Dogs not chasing properly, a lot of slow dogs running around look poorly broken in.

Not 100% [well short] but did OK. .....Tim Williams was the other driver I was interested in and the Williamsons need attention in trot races.Of course 90% of Forbury trot races are won by one of six favs so put all that the mixer and hit "start'. Had Arthur Lowe won I would have been gonski ,but Dunn/Orange had the two favs in that one with good draws so only had 2 in that one...... But it wasn't too hard....but 6 winners rarely easy !

If David Walker did it he'd get seven years. Mind you when Denis Quirke pulled his rorts and the industry turned a blind eye it became fairly obvious things were different if you operated out of Petone.

Incorrect, they got half their expected return.

I see that George Pell has been charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse. I trust that the Pope will ensure that he returns to Aussie to face these charges. An inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has revealed that there has been over 4,000 settllements between The Catholic Church and sexual abused in Aussie alone with approx $270M paid out. It is also estimated that 7% of Priests in Aussie were sexual abusers. The time is right for Catholic Prime Minister, Bill English who attended St Pat's Silverstream, a school well known for sexual abuse and cover ups, to order an inquiry into The Catholic Church in NZ.

about $2087 by my calcs, based on a take out rate of 14.5%

HERVE FILION the worlds winningest driver has died at the age of 77. He drove 15179 winners and his record for a season was 814. Would've driven more if he hadn't been disqaulified for 7 years in the mid 90s. A fire destroyed his stables and killed 40 horses in his stables in 1978

This news is a week old...????its been in the press everywhere.

WAP what was deal with mark purdon and dream about me. Nothing will change in HRNZ and RIU as long as we have the same people at the top of the tower.

Nasrullah what facts do you have to support this statement. I'm fairly sure that the results show NZ breds have won around 50% of G1 Aus Derbies and Oaks over the past 5-6 years. This current season has been close to a clean sweep for the Kiwis (G1 Derbies/Oaks). Surely a horse such as Ocean Park at stud refutes your claims? As Berri has stated too many breeders confuse speed and stamina. Stayers must have speed as well. The key factor may well be maturity. Few can afford to wait till a horse is 4 before it races seriously. Personally I think many confuse precocity and speed, but they are very different. i.e. Black Caviar and Chautauqua etc.

R 1 4 / 7 R 2 2 / 8 R 3 2 / 4 R 4 2 / 4 Best Bet R 5 1 /4 R 6 5 / 11 R 7 4 / 7 R 8 5 / 13 Best Bet R 9 10 / 12 R 10 10 / 12 Good luck to you Ian :). Go Thunderbirds PJ , thanks :).

Also hypocrisy from TIME magazine who want Trump to take down a Time cover showing him on the front with some praise. This is the media who with the push of a button on a computor can make a bum big small or non exsistant,make a tummy disappear,who can make a nose big or small,who can put an unflattering cartoon on the cover, what a load of jerks.

Torch, what I meant was that with limited resources we had managed to construct a brilliant boat and it became clear from early on that once the crew got their head around sailing it ,it was very quick and I am sure Oracle knew they were up against it. And Trump, envy doesn't come into the equation for me. It would be interesting to know how many other country's citizens have been told their govt is going to stump up millions for a boat race. If the spin off pays for operations in our hospitals, improves our roads, or cleans up our waterways ,then hey, I'm all for it. Oh shit there goes another flying pig

Maybe instead of LW I should have used Sir Stephen Tindal or, Sir Colin Giltrap or any other such high achiever to make my point. Someone you may not have done business with Berri? I'm sure you got my point re the importance of the rich. Every time I go to church I pray that the rich get richer. Without them we would all be poorer

I really like this horse, however I'd be curious to know why Coolmore did not hang on to him? In saying that, to win a breeders cup Juvenile is excellent....His female line is superb and his fee is more than reasonable. But I guess, the commercial breeders will be drawn into Tivaci...

So what if he is he is not Robinson Crusoe there is he now... but what Trump says is true no matter what type of businessman he is there is no doubt he has tipped a fortune into racing... and employed hundreds of people.. those same wealthy c.... will bring their regatta to Auckland hopefully and good old NZ will make a tidy bit of dough from it... how is that a bad thing...?????? Berri this is not a dirty laundry thread this is about a fantastic sporting achievement for a team of underdogs.

No Trump, Lloyd isn't a c##t because he's rich....he's just a c##t. When Moroney and I were in business buying and selling horses, the bloke asked us to buy a Melbourne Cup horse in the UK. We chose Natski. When it came to him paying our commission he told us to piss off and that he was doing us a favour allowing us to buy the horse....good exposure he said. Horse ran second beaten a nose and never before have I ever cheered a horse as much to be rolled in the great race. Missed by a nose. Then he concocted the deal with Packer to take money off banks, poor contractors and a government, by placing Crown Casino into administration, getting Packer to bankroll a settlement where $800m was wiped off everyone else's balance sheets, only to end up as a part owner..... One of the worst...

what a load of crap... some of you in here really are unbelievable... what they achieved against a much bigger and better funded outfit was fantastic...just enjoy for a few days...is that not possible???

You forgot to put some options in for 9th and 10th PJ. How about the winner gets one night at the Sharela Motor Inn in Porirua. The losers get two nights at the Sharela Motor Inn . in Porirua.

I must admit I do find it incredibly arrogant and condescending this govt foisting someone with no apparent skills or qualifications upon the Racing Industry. It shows how little they care about the industry. It may even be that there aren't that many suitable people about, but surely we can do better than an ex shotputter, or something like that.

Yip i'm in the same boat as you.Have followed it since day dot.After last week when it had every chance i'm seriously thinking about giving him the flick.

Opawa Brad jumped ok from box 2 and when the #9 decided to give up the rail he said thankyouverymuch and cleared out to win by 5 lengths for a very well-deserved win in the $15,000 Group 2 race today at Manukau. I certainly do not intend to lessen the quality of Brad's win but it is noteworthy that his time was 0.14seconds slower than the Shotgun's. My point is simply to highlight that remarkable performance. PS I think I heard Peter Earley say that Brad's win made it #99 for the Faheys in Group wins. Now that is also sensational.

Not sure Turny that simply changing the distance of the Jewel's is going to help. I think the Jewels needs more promotion. Why not have a dinner & party function based around the draw to get people into the party mood early. Maybe the night before the Jewels have a party where trainers & drivers are interviewed and give an assessment of their chances. Combine with local businesses, say a local supermarket where the week before the jewels all customers receive a card with a horses name on it. Take it to the course and if your horse wins you go in a draw for a overseas trip for two. This would get some locals along to the track that may have otherwise not gone. Approach the Ashburton or Cambridge Council about decorating the main street of the town with Harness Jewels Flags to make the local population aware of the event so they can get behind it. Just a few thoughts

I agree Alan......there or Winton both very good Harness tracks.

My vote is sunny Wyndham

This is an interesting one. I've been to every Ashburton-based Jewels since inception, and while I agree there's no longer quite the 'buzz' there was on the very first occasion, it's a long way from that to concluding the day is now 'flat'. I suspect Mr Guerin spent too much of the day inside his sealed-off broadcasting caravan. That aside, the other options seem to have all the supposed disadvantages of Ashburton, plus others to boot. Methven would be great, but I doubt if holding the Jewels on grass is the look we're after. Rangiora and Mot are also grand courses, but both have all-weather tracks inside a grass one, and neither track is up to the standard of Ashburton. Ditto Nelson and Winton. Wyndham is a possibility, but it's a long way to go for the 80% of horses that are trained in Canterbury --- at a time when it's getting harder and harder for owners to stay in the black, would we really want to saddle so many of them with significant additional costs? In the NI, there are even fewer options. It's either Cambridge or Alex Park (unless one thinks starting on a bend at Palmy is viable!) The only change that I think might merit consideration is reducing the number of days in the NI to once every 3 or 4 years. Over the last two years, NI stables have provided 69 of the 227 starters, i.e., about 30%. That doesn't warrant hosting it every second year, at least not if the objective is to make the day attractive to owners by minimising the costs they face. So I'd say go to Cambridge once every 3 years. Whether the extra SI year would then be held at Ashburton or elsewhere is up for grabs, although I'd suggest that moving it far out of Canterbury would, at least as far as owners are concerned, be potentially a case of exchanging the frying pan for the fire. Although personally I'd be quite happy to find an excuse for a weekend trip to Southland (or Nelson if the road gets fixed).

Southland gets bloody cold in the winter and the cost to get there would be horrendous. Once AirNZ hears there is any demand at all it would be way more expensive to fly Auck to Invercargill than Auck to Perth.