Kane T

Amazing not enough entries last week on the Synthetic so trials cancelled, now this week at Waipa there are too many. The following have been eliminated due to too many entries. Maiden 4 year old and up over 850m and 1150m, Maiden 3 year old 1150m and 11 maiden horses from the open heats have all been eliminated and given preference should they go to Ruakaka. Now if that doesn't ring alarm bells over whether trainers would prefer to bypass the Synthetic for a grass track, you have got blinkers on. I have only heard one trainer praising the synthetic, and I stand here to be proven wrong, but that is Chris Wood. All the other trainers are very quiet when it comes to their assessment of the synthetic track. It can only mean one thing, but I am happy to be proven wrong. Great for trackwork in the winter, but bypass it when its time to race, and now even trials. How many decent horses go there, not many at all.

In other words Leggy wouldn't it be beneficial to the horse if we could replicate the same surface on raceday as what it has experienced at the trials in a raceday situation. I do not think training and trialling on synthetic for over a year , then suddenly sending it to the races on a grass track would be in the best interests of the horse.

Well I am no expert and will never profess to be one, but my horses will be starting their racing careers off on a grass track, will spend most of their careers on a grass track, have both been nominated for a feature race on a grass track, so shouldn't they be trialling on a grass track. My trainer obviously prefers the grass or else we would have been there this week. Common sense to me and if I am wrong which I very much doubt, my trainer, one of the best in NZ at the moment, obviously favours the grass track for my 2 fillies than the synthetic so that is all I need. Once again this is only my opinion but trackwork on a synthetic is great, but if we are going to be racing on grass tracks then why not trial them on them as well.

I had 2 horses ready to go to the trials this week after performing well at Tauranga 2 weeks ago, and in the words of my Cambridge trainer, we do not want to put them on the synthetic, we will wait a week and go to Waipa and use the grass. I didn't have to ask him why, its quite obvious I would have thought.

Trainers: Stephen Marsh (Cambridge) Home: (07) 827-5536 Mobile: (027) 228-8889 Office: (07) 827-0884 Email: marshracing@xtra.co.nz Bruce Marsh (Singapore) Phone: 0065-81288234 E-mail: bandkmarsh@xtra.co.nz Public relations/newsletters John Jenkins (Hastings) Mobile: (027) 243-7271 E-mail: j.jenkins@e3.net.nz Kay Marsh (Singapore) Phone: 0065-81288237 Dear client: Stephen would like to advise all of his clients that he will be away at a wedding in Wellington for most of this weekend and may not be able to be contacted by phone. He apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause but will be back home in Cambridge again on Monday. Regards John

I think you will find her and Steve are off to a wedding in Wellington Saturday night.

I have attached the subdivision plans for Stage 1. Take note this is mainly Wallaceville Animal Research Land and the only Racecourse land is Lots 63-70 which starts on the west side of the shute at the 1200 metre mark. The part that is crossed out is the other side of the top straight which is Lot 200 that the racecourse sold which includes Brent Hrstich's stables, the stables next to it , the rubbish dump that the course used and all the land in between.. The top straight where the 1200 and 1000 m start is is Lot 300 so as you can see they have sold everything either side of it and everything in between. I am only guessing, but to me the land sold would be approx around the 100 acre mark. A lot of sections to give away.Hopefully I have downloaded ok. Racecourse.pdf

I totally agree. Sections are north of $300,000 and either side of the straight and along the edge of the course from the 1400m mark to where the 1200m race joins onto the straight will be prime land. Why they couldn't of even done it themselves is way beyond me.I will try and post a copy of Stage 1 sections which show the piece of land from the 1200m start and the sections available on the west side of it. They have all sold and title is not even through yet so it just shows how prime these sections are and what the land the racecourse sold is really worth. They missed out on a windfall by not developing it themselves. Surely having the local mayor, Wayne Guppy as president would have given them someone to help the process through council and with his contacts got this over the line. Sounds easy, and I assure you it would have been. Someone mentioned earlier where would you dump the concrete grandstands. Well Ill tell you the old concrete grandstand was buried onsite, in front of Brent Hrstich's yard and where his outside yards were built. The job was done by Dixon and Dunlop. Yes, Ron Dixon who was on the committee of the Wellington Racing Club at the time surprisingly won the tender for the demolition of the grandstand, and the burial of the grandstand was one of the best cover up stories of all time. How it got past council, if it ever did is beyond me and how much did Ron Dixon save on tip fees would be into the tens of thousands.

Totally agree with Trentham. A local developer is already sub dividing up to 800 sections north and adjacent to the racecourse at the moment on the old Wallaceville Animal Research land. This includes land that the racecourse has sold to them which included the block where Brent Hrstich used to train and all land on the east side of the course from the 1400m mark going north, and includes both sides of the straight where they run the 1200m and 1000m races. The first stage has been pre sold off the plans and a waiting list has been drawn up for the remaining lots. Upper Hutt is screaming out for sections.

I have a horse with Donna Logan and she's $80.50 per day. And we will running for $7 k shortly so Aussie is a no brainer.

Bit out of my depth. Wow I cannot for the life of me see how have I insulted him. Like I said I agree with him but also said of course he is going to praise his son and his mate. I am biased towards my family too. That is life.

Course you do. He's your mate and Tom's your son. It's only human.

It was a nice gesture but did he have to make a scene and tell everyone about it and then interrupt Joe's speech by telling all and sundry that yes I have bought it. He does do a lot for the industry but he makes sure everyone knows about it. He's a showman.

All I will say is that you will never see Steve Davis buy one even though there are many bargains or steals out there.