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My wife and I have decided we don’t want children either. It will be a tough conversation but we will tell them tonight.

Just to let everyone know I have bought Pete Lane onboard as part of the RC team in a partnership. Pete will become an Admin, along with John, and will be taking a bigger role here going forward. Pete has been involved in forums for a long while and I am happy to have him as part of the RC team.

New Punting comp running over 10 weeks starting 21st June. Free entry and all you need to do is pick 1 horse racing in New Zealand or Metropolitan Australia on the Saturday. You will have an imaginary $10.00 each way on the horse. To stop any dead heats the first to post the horse will be used in the comp, so get those selections in early. I am sure we can find enough horses on all those meetings not to have the same choice. The top earner each week will get a $50.00, that I will put up, to bet the following Saturday to be used as they wish on a single horse. ALL monies raised will go to charity and the RC team will choose a different charity whenever there is a winning amount, lets hope there is plenty. I will put up 10 x $50.00 bets so the comp will run for 10 weeks and at the end of it we will have our BIG KAHUNA punting champ here at Racecafe, the person who has the highest total from their bets over the 10 week period, bragging rights for sure!!!!. Just a bit of fun and hopefully some good banter amongst the competitors. There will be a $100 prize for the overall Racecafe Big Kahuna after the 10 weeks too.

And where is Bruce Sherwin ? He's Not on the list ???? He's Out there filling in for Georgey and has grass route connections. People in the wash down bays and loading floats talk with him. He doesn't talk "at" people. Rather "with" people. He's never been shy of explaining why a particular course of action would have negative consequences. ( as I well know !) Rev

Bill Birnie was a director of "Investment Bankers" Fay Richwhite. As such he was also a senior advisor to the Lange Douglas Govt on the divestment of many of the most valuable of NZ's Crown assets. I wont expand further than that, but some research will show what hands many of these assets ended up in and at what price they were sold. He was also a director along with Fay and Richwhite of Capital Markets. The shell company JV between Brierly Investments and Fay Richwhite & Co. Capital Markets, sought to acquire a controlling stake in the BNZ through a series of complex financial transactions including the sale of preference shares to the crown, and the acquisition of a substantial number of BNZ shares. The transactions surrounding the BNZ acquisition and the subsequent sale to NAB were highly criticised and led to the public inquiry, colloquially known as the "Winebox Inquiry". because of Council's habit of carrying their significant number of documents to court in wine boxes. Court summary of enquiry on Impact on Shareholders: The transactions resulted in gains for Fay Richwhite and Brierley Investments, while minority shareholders experienced significant losses. Further reading here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/editors-picks/8056958/Birnies-Bergdorf-folds-owing-11m It fills me with dread on the medium/long term future of NZ Racing and I question whether in fact it has a long term future at all, given these recent developments and the appointments being made. We have not learned from the American disaster of selling horse racings valuable land assets to developers and to casino operators, the latter who use the track only to attract custom to their casinos. Consequently Horse racing in America is experiencing a slow but sure death. Or maybe those appointed to the welfare and future of the sport here have learned, and what we are experiencing now is the beginning of the long game that will end in NZ becoming an elite equine breeding country only. Maybe we will only have one or two racecourses. Ellerslie to hold elite only race meetings, and maybe a couple of feeder clubs to cater for low class or feeder meetings. I see two things that I vehemently disagree with: The sale of NZB's world class sale facilities at Karaka makes no sense to me at all except from a short term financial windfall perspective. And two: The sale of the WTR s racecourse at Te Rapa. If anyone thinks that the residential creep that is impacting the values of our race venues and Stud farms and sales complex, and being used as the yardstick for divestment, will go away by moving them to " new Greenfields venues" at a cost of billions is a solution. It isn't, because our immigration settings will ensure the demand for commercial, industrial and residential property will continue. What is Greenfields today will be intense suburban creep tomorrow. Mark my words on that. Viz Ellerslie, not that long ago a suburb full of training stables and houses and a vibrant racing and training hub, Gone: Move training to Greenfields country to Takanini, Gone to intense suburban development. Move to Greenfields country Karaka. Quickly changing from Greenfields to intense suburban development. You can't keep running away. If the industry is serious about building a strong, robust, secure and successful racing industry, it needs to put a stake in the ground. To respect our existing and valuable assets and zone them accordingly in perpetuity. I take my hat off to the members who successfully voted not to sell Rosehill to developers and their various financially vested interests. I will expand on these musings further, but this piece at least will be fuel for thought and debate.

Have to say that I'm surprised at small numbers of jumpers that have shown up so far this season , I wonder if many owners who might have had one have thought the same as you and don't want to develop one just to see that time and money wasted . As usual the powers try to sort this out when it's too far down the drain . Once again I am so grateful that I got to see so many generational top class jumpers from the 70s to the early 2000s . Like many my age group I think I lived through possibly the best period of NZ racing .

Quick Update Race Café’s had a massive year and our database has grown 130%. It’s been slowing the site down, you might have noticed slower page loads. We kicked off a major upgrade last night to fix it. Stage One is complete. It took longer than expected – sorry to be offline this morning. The real speed boost comes with Stage Two, which is set for Sunday night from 10pm. This is a serious backend upgrade to handle the ongoing growth. Thanks for your patience - I appreciate it more than you know.

Our hosting service had a major outage for about 10hrs in Singapore so it caused a major technical issue throughout the South Pacific and caused us to be involved too. So sorry for any inconvenience caused and glad to be back up and running again...unfortunately it was totally out of our hands....so once again sorry for that.

Congratulations to Catriona Williams, MNZM. Well done and a very deserving person to be awarded such an honor in King Charles 3 Birthday weekend honours 2025. The King shall have to bow to you Catriona, so we hope you have we a cheeky comment at the ready as Charlie's known to have inherited his father's quick wit and we all know you have a great sense of humour too. So who else within our fraternity is as deserving of KC honours for the next round? Make sure any nominations are put forth as soon as possible because close off dates are not that distant anymore, quite strange really however perhaps if people wrote with pen and paper and popped a Postage Stamp on they may get opened sooner and be easier to retrieve...

I'm indebted to you - thanks for allowing me to post my musings and I hope they are enjoyed by most. Given I spent three months of the English winter enjoying a New Zealand summer, as you say, I don't think the jumping stuff would be missed. Perhaps next season I'll just concentrate on the Grade 1 races and the big festivals such as Cheltenham and Aintree. The Flat racing coverage continues and I know many appreciate it - after all, it's interesting to know where the Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate winners are coming from and the odd "new" jockey for the summer.

We have not updated it for a while just deciding whether to keep it or not...I might put up a poll to see. Trying to make the site look a bit refreshed, sorry NM didn't mean to scare you.

Some off you might know that Matt Hill will be at Trentham on Saturday to call the Wellington Steeplechase and a couple of other races. What you probably don’t know, is that the idea was instigated by Justin Evans and paid for by Justin himself. When I asked, why is Justin doing it, I was told so that he could learn from Matt. For the record Entain have also come to the party and why shouldn’t they? Also for the record, there will be a meet with Matt Hill on Friday evening at Trentham involving questions and answers. Liz

Some people get involved in horse racing without ever working with/handling horses. To many of these people horses and horseracing are a vehicle to promote their ego's, to tell their mates that they own one or a share in one. The horse is secondary to them. Watch what happens when horses that are syndicated finish competing. Unless it is a mare with some residual value many of these once 'big noting 'owners forget the horse. They don't care what happens to it, never ask, just wait for the next opportunity to be an 'owner'. Guarantee that these types are in the pro-whip brigade who wouldnt know that a horse twitches when a fly lands on it..because they have very sensitive skin. They'll be the ones in the crowd screaming ' hit the fucking thing ' when ' their 'horse looks like getting beaten. Probably never thought at all about limiting whipping. On the other hand many of us love and respect our horses. We know that not all of them will be successful. We consider their well being to be paramount in or out of competition. The 'slow ' ones are still sensitive animals who rely on humans for their wellbeing. They weren't born in the wild. And they should be protected from abusers either jockeys, trainers, stable staff..whoever. Horses have been the mainstay of human transport for thousands of years. They deserve our protection. Whipping in racing? Done its time. Right now there is a group working to stop horses being whipped. As a half-way point they are open to jockeys carrying whips as a safety issue, but on the basis that both a riders hands remain on the reins with the whip only used to 'tap ' the horse to correct it. As is the case in the Harness code ( in NZ ). Somehow some harness drivers still dont get it but that might come down to their intellect more than anything. We cannot rely on racing industry participants to properly control whip use. If we could there would already have been a right to disqualify placegetters who have been subjected to abuse by riders. It's a no brainer.

Great guy from a great family, one of THE BEST judges in the industry 100 winners for a season with his budget and selections is a huge achievement...congrats Paul.

Not quite right, you need to back horses that are paying above there true chance of winning. Most punters make the mistake of trying to back the winner, that is flawed unless they are overs, you will lose regardless of how many winners you find as you wont be able to beat the TAB margin. Value (True Chance) is subjective of course as there is no one real way to determine this, the Starting Price is the most accurate the market can be & there can be many factors determining weight of money which can be red herrings. To win you need to find runners more often than not that are above there true chance of winning (using your method that is proven at finding good value), there are countless ways to assess this. No one way is better than the other, however it is other punters you must beat not the TAB, as it is other punters that create or destroy value, following what the majority are doing is the quickest way to lose. You must find value before other punters, winners will take care of themsleves, have a bank that is able to sustain long losses.

Ross is retiring from his role as Clerk of the Course. He will be greatly missed. A fabulous all around contributor and ambassador to our Equine sector who many have had the pleasure of been introduced to patting a horse and the equine world who are all the more enriched as a result. We hope all those who meet him over his 60 years plus contributions have either encouraged others, or taken up a career in the wider sector as participants. Enjoy your retirement with family and friends and acquaintances Ross Thank you for your service is the last race at Ellerslie Racecourse on Saturday https://img.nzracing.co.nz/RaceInfo/53355/Meeting-Overview.aspx Enjoy a couple of reflective articles on him from days gone by https://img.nzracing.co.nz/News/47756/RossColes-EllerslieClerkOfTheCourse.aspx Twelve Questions: Ross Coles NZ Herald 4 Mar, 2014 05:30 AM6 mins to read https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/racing/twelve-questions-ross-coles/LQMIDHH7NK55JVQ546YLU5AR6Y/

Some newer punters might not know what some of the abbreviations mean in the new AI comments in the PDF files. I couldn’t find what they meant on the PDF files so here are some of them. OP On Pace ROS Ran on straight WNC Wide No Cover MF Midfield Otr Outer

We have five kids. We were utterly committed and kept going until we got one we liked.

Thanks and luckily some of our threads never disappeared into thin air after our technical outage.

Just happened to flick the TV across at the wrong time and saw Popplewell & Innes Had flashes of Big Ted & Little Ted

Give me a break! McGrath is a serial offender. If he had offended once yes, give him a chance, but that's not the case. He had his chance and blew it. He, Kerr and Anderson should never be allowed back.

Great ambassador for New Zealand...superstar.

The site looks great Scooby! I'm still popping in occasionally and was pleasantly surprised by the fresh new look - well done All the best to you and the Racecafe regulars. I might find the time and energy to join in again soon. Cheers Phil

Wonderful days indeed, The QB weekend and the following Saturday with the McGregor Grant steeples. 8 races each day, 4 hurdles, four flat races including a highweight. My memory goes back to the 50s as a kid with my dad. Back then the Ellerslie straight public viewing areas were separated by huge fencing into the Leger for the plebs like us, down on the bend into the straight with the old single tier grandstand, the Derby for the more well heeled, with the majestic double tiered, open top grandstand with the cupolas at each end, and finally the Members area. Entrance to the Leger was free, the Derby cost was affordable for most, whilst the Members area was exclusively for members and club officialdom. Entry to each area was closely and often officiously guarded by white coated staff who both patrolled the fences and also removed your admission fee with relish. My dad would always arrive early before the staff and I was instructed to climb and jump the fence to join him in the Derby area. All right for him I used to think after carefully My earliest memories were of the great golden chestnut jumper Golden Defaulter, the grey Cretan trained by Merv Ritchie on the track and stablemate of the flying Yahabeebe, by imported derby winner Mid Day Sun. I remember seeing him set the national 7f record of 1.22. Later on who can forget the mighty Smoke Ring, winner of the GN Hurdles Steeples double on the same weekend in 65. Patrick Molloy, a majestic jumper, winner in 61 and 62, the immortal Eiffel Tower in 67 who, after being checked at the stand double, turned around, jumped the fence he missed and, from being left 5o+ lengths last, got up to win. The mighty Ringloch, and the other Southern grey marvel Kumai. Loch Linnhe winner in 75 and 76, Brockton in 71 and 72. Hit Parade, Knights star and Irish Ace were other winners of that golden era of jumping. I also remember Central District raiders, in particular the late great Eric Ropiha, in particular how is horse Arakhan loved Ellerslie. In ending, one matter that has changed forever, the ability to get a seat in any of the packed stands by at least 10 minutes before the start of the GN Hurdles on Saturday and the Steeples on Monday.

Thank you, RJR. Well thought out and makes absolute sense to me [ for what that's worth! ]

Thanks Scooby. I never realised how much I would miss Race Cafe until the outage. Even at 4:20 am (now) I was still checking to see if you were back up. Yahoo!

I've had an open mind for a couple of decades but it's all but shutdown now by repeated lazy and unimaginative management . I don't see how only having wealthy , and big breeders , gives the industry a realistic perspective on just how bloody hard it is for the non stars of the sport . They want to increase the foal crop , how many small breeders that have abandoned it are they going to talk to , to get a realist understanding of the costs to those breeders whose pockets aren't endless . Is it just going to be another report into the issues of the racing industry that disappears into the ether .

You're on your final warning... Oh the power

Nigel…. Blue Magic…. Raceday drench…. Repeat…. M kerr…. Repeat…. Same…Same….

In fact - here's a pic of the last NZTR AGM

Unlikely it will bother them ...

Max has tries to do a quick mid-arvo spreadsheet here so participants can follow progress, but I fear there may be an entry or two missing. Whoever they are will be suree to advise Scoobs accordingly! Foxmerts leads with a very tidy Tauranga collect to accentuate his legendary cleverness Big Kahunas W1 MEETING RACE # HORSE TIPSTER RESULT DIVIDEND TOTAL Tauranga 1 Bradley gubellini 3rd $1.10 $11.00 Tauranga 2 Macallan Winner69 3rd NTD Tauranga 2 The Honey Badger Al Feilding 1st $1.80/$1.30 $31.00 Tauranga 3 Blackpink Jennie Ponderosa8 Tauranga 3 Akimoto Kilcoyne Tauranga 3 Accentuate Foxmerts 1st $8.80/$2.30 $111.00 Tauranga 3 Thee Auld Trick Manfield Tauranga 4 Digger Stoyd Tauranga 6 Solidify AaronTheAnchor Tauranga 6 Solidify DoubleR Tauranga 7 Tristar Pottsie Tauranga 7 Grande Gallo Baz NZ Tauranga 7 Lux Libertas Seakem 2nd $1.40 $1.40 Tauranga 8 takeachance Shad Tauranga 8 Prudentia mr gee Riccarton 1 Captain Oumuamua barryb Riccarton 1 Cant Kach Me Pheroz 3rd $1.50 $15.00 Riccarton 4 Chlobon rdytdy 2nd $1.70 $17.00 Riccarton 5 Zacat nomates Riccarton 8 Shakin Stevens Blue Duck Riccarton 8 Schedar Pete Lane Flemington 2 American Wolf littletramp Flemington 2 Prochester Seddon Flemington 3 Recommendation Fredd002 Flemington 3 Cleo Cat Catalona 2nd $1.10 $11.00 Flemington 3 Mrs Chrissie Richie Flemington 3 Losesomewinmore Kloppite Flemington 4 Kiss My Rock Ohokaman Flemington 5 Freak of Nature Insider Flemington 6 Virtuous Circle Goodison Flemington 6 Through Irish Eyes Majestic Flemington 7 Avebury Lucasduke Flemington 7 Avebury Pak Star Flemington 8 Pounding Houlahan's Dream Flemington 8 St Lawrence Idolmite Flemington 8 Jimmy The Bear scooby3051 Flemington 8 Relentless Voyager The Lone Stranger Flemington 9 Bridal Waltz KiwiGnome Flemington 9 Bridal Waltz Blaird Randwick 2 Cumnock Toddy Randwick 2 NoExitFee Montydrum Randwick 3 Bengal sunlineboy Randwick 3 Pretty Powerful Pegasus9 Randwick 4 She's Unusual Insider 1st $4.40/$1.50 $59.00 Randwick 4 Piggyback jack Randwick 5 Rotagilla RacingJackReacher 1st $6.80/$2.70 $95.00 Randwick 5 Stallone Koriokaramea Randwick 6 WalkingPainting Dogzstar1 Randwick 7 Noble Soldier We're Doomed Randwick 8 Defining Lucasduke Randwick 9 Iknowastar jayar Randwick 9 Hammering Away Sayer Randwick 10 Pereille Alf Riston Randwick 10 Battleton Maximus Ipswich 3 Zaynudin Peter R S Ipswich 5 Premise Floyd Pink Ipswich 6 Lutetia Black Kirrama Ipswich 6 Tuned saynomore Ipswich 7 Philipsburg Pure Steel Ipswich 7 Brookhaven Basil brush Ipswich 9 Hermanita ChittyChitty BangBang

Looks good. Especially pleasing to be able to see notifications on my mobile.

It was good to see Jason Teaz get his first Thoroughbred winner too with the horse in his Dads colors who he says he will now retire and frame them to hang on the wall...well done Jason it was a very good win.

The win can never replace losing a son but lets hope it can improve a disastourus week a little for the Wallaces...maybe had a little help from above today. Great for Mike Moroneys family too...a little Devine intervention.

Hi Phil I wish you well I hope your health improves and we can see you back in here I miss your humor here...take care and I wish you nothing but the best.

All completed...hope you all like the new speed of the platform now...enjoy and thanks for everyone's continued support.

Dont forget everyone we will be offline for a little while late tomorrow night when most probably are sleeping to finish the migration and give us a new super fast site with many good things to come...not only will we have the best looking racing site on the net but also the fastest ad free site available. Hope you all enjoy it and the new things we are thinking of trying.

I've just looked at the calendar and I see the Waikato Hurdles and Steeples are next week , WHY ??? On what planet do you have todays big jumps races and one week later have another set of big jumps races . I honestly can't believe how fucken dumb our management are , we have limited numbers of jumpers and they program these races a week apart , it simply doesn't make any sense . Why should I not be surprised . Dumb , dumb , dumb .

It is a shame that a well managed Club wth great facilities including magnificent new lighting has to virtually be put into recess for 6 months of the year (now to November) then have a compressed season when it would be good for trainers to get some of the 18 dates spread into say October and November .It does not seem logical or indeed fair to owners,trainers or supporters to force this situation to have no harness racing in the area Wellington to Cambridge for 6 months !!!

Good luck I would always be worried with what happened previously but I would love the great mare to leave a superstar.

Brendan Lindsay is now Sir Brendan.

Hi Iraklis, Natalie is great she is in the throes of moving from Rolleston to Prebbleton not likely to train or drive again because old injuries and still working out 25 hour's a day enjoying life.

Well he's not far wrong , the large majority in racing already feel completely disenfranchised , all this does is reinforce that narrative . Perhaps whenever Peters says I have my experts informing me this has been his go to team all along .

He has amazing knowledge of the industry not only here but internationally too...agree would be a huge asset in this type of role.I think everyone in the industry likes him too...a good guy.

I hope so to , but this doesn't do anything to dispel the "myth" that big breeders have too much say over our racing .

Friggen hell , I've just woken up and I thought I'd entered the 5th dimension . You can't be chucking this at people first thing in the morning without warning . I thought my time was up . I hate change , might have to go back to the enemy .

Really nice run for third at Doomben coming from second last on the turn. The connections have had to patient with him after a number of setbacks so nice to see him showing something like his best.

Yes looked a big chance to win 200 out and just peaked...has ability for sure.