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I can take it, hiding behind a nom de plume and throwing stones, I love it! So we wait for a death of another horse or a jockey, constructive criticism I think you will find it is called! Love to meet you Blossom, voice your concerns face to face, I look forward to it! Have a great day!

Graeme Rogerson ......certainly one of the true characters and achievers in Racing , not only in NZ ! Could call him competitive as it is a very small list of NZ trainers who have their names on honours board for Melbourne Cup ,Cox Plate , Golden Slipper [ 2003 from memory] and various Derby and Group races ! Dunno what inspired you to deliver this Sunday morning offering.......maybe you lost 2 Bucks on one of his horses ? Of course he also active in Harness as well.....often supports the underdog...people and clubs....as he never forgets his start in industry ! I think he

My view I sympathise and support Mark & Nat totally I barely know Mark, and I don’t know Nat, but I’ve read the shit that was said in the Inca investigation, the actual evidence, and I know who from within your code worked with the Police ... and who the rotten apples are within the Police So many lies were told ( the same lies told here, presumably by the same people ), the character assassination, the bitter jealousy, the rumours, the defamation, blatant fabricated lies, the slur about the Equine Blood Services .... it all takes a toll and when you consider what these t

Addington have terminated Mr Lamb's services forthwith Press Release coming Shame on you stipes - this should have been done by you - stop sleeping with each other

What a pillock!

What a nice man Wally O’Hearn was. Always polite and engaging to talk to. A real gentleman. RIP Wally.

Chris, the TAB budget cuts removed camera's, radio, oncourse presenters.. I will never understand cuts in areas where you grown your product. However turnover is apparently up 10% so they feel justified. I personally cannot see how the product has improved.

The mess they have made of the calendar isn't helping , they have what they call ICONIC meetings i e , Karaka Millions , and that is all well and good but in reality they have decimated the true ICONIC meetings , Auck and Wgtn cup meetings , the Auckland Easter weekend , the Great Northern Queens birthday meeting as examples , the Levin classic day as well , and there are others . They have then tried to reinvent new Iconic meetings but the damage is done . Holding onto history isn't always a bad thing , you can put a modern twist on things without losing the DNA of what they are . They a

Bussutin/ Young 11%, Hayes-Dabernick 12%, Waller 14%, Danny O’Brien 15%, Kris Lees 13.%, Robert Heathcote 14% etc etc. keep it up Woodsie - you’re in good company! I think the Blossoms have stopped blooming!

And that proves the Police were lied to and misled by the low xxxxx at the RIU, motivated by Selinger who’d orchestrated his evidence This wasn’t your average garden variety Police, this was The Organised Crime Group... read their bio.... major international crime, drug cartels ... international fraud .... they were misled but a cluster of ignorant buffoons and ex cops who wanted to be famous .....and now ten million dollars later they’ve got NOTHING to show for their investigation, fucking nothing... 37 search warrants , four years of investigation and they’ve got nothing ... meantime t

A couple of weeks ago at Avondale, two horses lost their lives sadly, the Judicial report stated they couldn’t see the certain cause of this because of the lack of camera angles that were available. Yesterday at Waverley, their was a fall that involved Chelsea Burdan and Danielle Johnson’s horse being brought down. Once again, because of the lack of Camera’s, the stewards couldn’t confirm a conclusive cause of the fall. Is this going to be the norm, seems bloody strange to me!

Clearly ,they are not leaving or taking a clean break ! They are stepping back from the daily rigours ,responsibilities ,travel etc to enjoy a spell and plan a strategy for their futures. Their property remains a going concern with staff and most likely all horses in tact. Mark will still do some driving and they will assist in selecting and buying new horses . They have achieved everything in NZ Harness and worked bloody hard for their success. My guess is they will look......covid permitting........to set up a boutique stable in the USA , or return to a boutique oper

Don't worry about Blossom Lady. She's either a woman with periodic issues, a cross dresser or a male with certain functional issues. I had a look at the data in respect of her posts. Makes interesting analysis. As an exercise I compared Blossom Lady's data with my own posts (just as a comparison as I'm the most familiar with my strange foibiles) . So here are the results: Reactions

Harvey is the President. But sure to have some say in the track prep,along with a bunch of knowledgeable farmers on the committee. Everything about that club seems right, track perfect, facilities tidy and a very welcoming team of members going around checking participants were happy and offering lunch and a drink if we liked.

The blossoms may have withered, and turned into prunes?

All astute 'Cafers will know that the Cubemeister is hopeless on the punt And this week proves no exception And Cubity missed the first Saturday @ Riccarton 'cause we were in Dunners And Cubity's donkey ran like a donkey on Wednesday Yet The Cubinator has a smile from wide to dial 'cause Cubes is having fun at the track and catching up with 'Cafer mates and spinning some yarns Was that Tasmanman , Chelseacol , Hutch , Uneasy ,Dodecahedron whom we tripped over yesterday.....? Tough day on the punt but catching up with good sort 'cafers at the track makes it all wor

Take a few pills to relax as its cup week and you know who does not have many good ones. Will stands be stands or run/walk ups or any permutations of the 3 Ashburton was a disgrace and Kaikoura not much better. Gavin Smith showed great courage yesterday when interviewed on Trackside with his comments about the last start failure of One Over All Basically it was not the horses fault if you got his drift . Greg

Seven maiden races over the first two days of "Cup Week". Surely a record. I do wonder though if it is a good look for the South Island's premier racing carnival. Maybe it might have something to do with Banks Pen being dumped from the Sunday before Cup Week and the next meeting in Canterbury being THREE weeks away, and the following meeting TWO weeks after that; and both of those industry meetings. Perhaps someone suddenly thought "Oh Fuck! 140 maidens wanting a start and nothing for them for five weeks". Contrast that with Avondale last week on a perfect track with 60 scratchings a

What an absolute disgrace.... This fuckwit should never be allowed to utter another Riiiiight in his life. At the start the outside horses were in a full pace, the inside were standing still. No wonder punters are leaving the harness game in droves....

Currently Counties races 12 times a year, with 1 big day that makes money when weather is right. We lose money each year. Traditionally CRC has sold land to extends the lifeline. However we all know we cannot carry on like this. What CRC has is land that has been recently rezoned to mixed business. A merger with ARC would provide funds to develop this land rather than selling it and provide future income. CRC would then invest in training facilities with aim of having up to 300 horses trained oncourse. In our opinion it is essential that there is a northern training facility for

Thank goodness common sense has prevailed. Chris has nine rides at Ashburton tomorrow.

What about Michael Walker? Wins last nite at The Valley and now wins Ballarat Cup on $20 shot. He’s a freak in a kind way! I wish he got the rides Oliver and co got.

Made a good debut on Show Day IMHO. Can't have been easy for him given the dramas suroundling the sacking.of Lamb

Very poor calling on Christchurch dogs biggest night. Won't go into specifics it was plain to hear and see.

Just watched TV One news and not one bit surprised by coverage of this story. Yesterday after overlooking completely racing story of the year, tonight they focus on the Cullens taking over the lease of the Rolleston training establishment. No disrespect to these young achievers but that story is for a later date. The STORY is Purdon and Rasmussen pulling the pin on an unmatched training conglomerate in NZ. Imagine Bart, Tommy Smith or Chris Waller pulling the pin at the height of their careers! Imagine Steve Hansen calling it quits a week after a World Cup win, Edmund Hill

Got that a couple of times back in my teens Even had a window sticker on the back "No stiletto''s in the back seat - you might rip the hood lining!'

Well I guess we should be happy they had a camera at the Taupo trials today as they certainly forgot to organise a commentator for the event!

Blossom Lady you are a complete tosser, this is a health and safety issue, there should be full camera coverage of all races. It also assists the punter they can have a good look at the replay, but once again the TAB is quite happy to let us down again. I wonder how they would react if Jockeys and Trainers decided to boycott meetings for health and safety reasons

Like Waverley yesterday, gosh it was the most lovely surface I have walked on.

FYI, I am Neil Miller. I edit the New Zealand Thoroughbred Owners Bulletin and am unpaid for that. I am an Honorary Member of Counties Racing Club. I was born on Pukekohe hill and have many relatives there. My forebears are in the cemetery and I see their graves. A paternal forebear was a founding Committeeman on The Franklin Racing Club and the Franklin Electric Power Board, also President of the Growers Assn. I have a fond association with Ellerslie as I was first chippy (apprentice) to work on the Ascot Stand. Can you please tell us who you are and we could try to see how w

What a complete cop out by Ydgren. Do these arrogant idiots not realize the damage they're doing to our industry. Hundreds of young people on course enjoying themselves today and the start of the countries biggest race becomes harness racings biggest shame. I wonder how many of these young people will stick to Riccarton from now on? Time for some unity against these know all's with their obvious conflicts of interest. I know there's people in our industry that are capable of making changes to the top, so lets get to it... come on people!!!

Everyone attached and involved with purchasing this $50,000,000 piece of (at the Industry's expense!) should be sued and dumped in the Tasman! YOU HEAR that John Allen, Glenda Hughes and you board full of useless corporate suits!

This is fantastic news! Best I've heard in 20+ years if not more! Congratulations Counties RC & Auckland RC coming together with a very positive future plan. I'm hopeful and confident Avondale JC will jump on board with this great initiative and business plan for Auckland Racing INC. I don't think Avondale is asking too much to continue while the awesome StrathAyr surface is being installed at Ellerslie. (Good faith arrangement from Auckland & Counties) Lets spend this wisely though team....do not do what the clowns at headquarters have down previously! Spend within your me

Good on him. Sounds like an older guy whose been going to the same TAB for 25 years. I'm bloody stoked for him. Biggest ever result in NZ TAB history. Hope he enjoys every cent.

Glad you enjoyed it. They’ll be telling their story in the pub until the day they die! Making memories is what life’s about.

Interesting that point is made in Acts racing policy too: "ACT does not believe New Zealand needs a Minister of Racing and we would abolish the role. The Racing Minister’s responsibilities would transfer to the Minister of Internal Affairs, as was the case pre-1991. The role of government in racing should be minimised, with its primary responsibility to issue the betting license to TAB NZ through the Department of Internal Affairs." Might help a bit with the very govt like structure at the Tab too. It certainly used to be far too top heavy with admin type roles imo. Essentially

It will depend on (1) draws and (2) what Lamb considers to be a stand on the day.

No meetings on Labour day in NI or other holidays because of the cost of staff possibly, no thought of offering meetings to some of the smaller clubs that would make something of them and actually promote the sport in a digestible manner. Most clubs have sold their souls to the booze up crowd at the expense of rewarding race horse owners with a good race day experience, most meetings you go to youre lucky to see your horse come up the straight , let alone parading because the club have sold a section to a sponsor or a party or built/put a structure in the way, but this is all important to

Disqualified from what exactly ? I can still act as an expert witness in the courts I can’t race horses for a year .. big fucking deal I can’t go racing ( I only went four times a year anyway ) I can’t sponsor races, $42,000 saved right there I get to spend summer on super yachts doing America’s Cup shit, drinking and eating to my hearts content All for what ? For telling the truth as an expert witness for two defendants in the catastrophic failure Operation Inca, because the scum and their advisers had lied to The Police I sleep easy, my conscience is c

Sadly, it has pretty much been amateur hour for many years now as far as race dates and programming is concerned, and it is only getting worse. I often wonder what NZTR was busy doing during lock down; they had so much time to sit down and think about how to improve the whole pattern of racing, but pretty obviously they just aren't up to it. I can't think of a single creative idea they have come up with so far this season.

Yet another example of how our TAB is out of control. Race 2 at Remington Park today. Where is Remington Park? I don't know and I don't care. Total turnover figures were win $4, place $4, quinella $2 and trifecta $3. Why, oh why, oh why, do those clowns continue to offer betting on an outfit that any illegal pub bookie would consider to be uneconomic to handle; that is a $13 bet. I am beginning to understand now just why the taxpayer had to bail out to the tune of $73mil an industry run by imbeciles. There is material here for a cartoon in Ripley's "Believe it or Not

With the recent sad news of the passing of respected racing journalist Wally O'Hearn I thought I'd pass on funeral details below for race cafe members wishing to attend his service. A top bloke who will be sadly missed by his peers. My sincere condolences to all of the O'Hearn family and Wally's loved ones. Rest in peace Wally. O'HEARN, Wally Robert: Peacefully on 14 November aged 61, dearly loved husband of Vanessa, father of David & Karl, Loved father-in-law of Mel and loved Grandfather of Taylah, Charlee and Max. Resting now with all the great memories he created and cele

See thats what makes you a champion bloke, you are a realist . You can admit it when your beaten by better horses but yet still instill excitement in your syndicate members. Also, success is not only about winning. Its reaching a horses peak potential in the biggest harness week in the country. Spellbound did that.

Nice gesture, Gruff. Congrats to both you and Trump...

Sorry everyone we had a software hiccup today one of the joys of the internet...so lets scrap today to be fair to everyone...we will pick it up on Saturday...once again so sorry for the outage we had no control over it.leigh

I've only just been able to get on myself. Going to make a quick Executive Decision without any prior consultation with Scooby. Race 2 is Null and Void. Race 8 and Race 9 are still on, and new CLOSING time is 7.00pm. For those who posted their selections prior to the website issue, in fairness to you you can re-submit new picks by 7.00pm (PLEASE SUBMIT A WHOLE NEW ENTRY). For those who dont see this post and dont post new picks I will take your initial selections. Hope that is fair on everyone.

Leggy...as long as I run the place they will be where the most traffic is...I am not sure why they cause you so much issue??? You dont post every day... so not really sure what your issue is with them...cheers.

CWJ is still one of the best balanced jockeys in the game

It’s an extraordinary appointment and very hard to fathom why He’s undoubtedly a talented and effective poly, and loves sports, but racing ??...... something doesn’t fit this jigsaw puzzle