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After the weightlifter guy/girl I can see a day where we can run geldings in fillies races.

Apparently he came back to NZ for a 'freshen up' as he was starting to lose his 'drive' over in Sydney.But i read earlier then he headed back to Sydney on Sunday and is ready to get stuck back into it and he has rides on Wednesday at Warwick Farm.

Good point Gordy, it is a double edge sword. One lot are calling for all the old fogeys from the 'old boys club' to go as they have had their day and stuffed it up while the rest are saying anyone who has not won a silver collar and an Auckland cup has no right to comment. The truth as usual is somewhere between. Anyone has the right to comment though and often it takes a new approach to see the obvious. Slim is an example, though hardly inexperienced his idea of two wins in class0, if there has to be two wins is brilliant and would immediately improve the class 1 backlog yet it is so obvious why hasn't somone thought of it before. I do agree with you about about not downgrading below c1. At the moment in NZ you can have a young one with little experience win one race and at its next start come up against a dog who has won over $100,000 and had 80 starts, not good. Mind you surely we would have the bottlenck just up a grade. Alltheway your comment about a dog who fails to run in the money 4 times needs retiring was not well thought out. What say is a wide runner or railer getting adverse box's surely it should get the chance to have things in its favour before it is written off.. What about a dog that has had bad luck and lost it's confidence surely it should be given a chance at rehabilitation. Brave Mike Martin

There is one simple answer to all this, make it all absolutely equal;. tennis, rugby, golf, weighlifting, boxing, cage fighting even the Derby and Oaks. One game for all. If Serena is so sure women should be playing for the same money as men, let her play in the mens for the same money and see what happens.

not eating cant be much fun I think I would need a freshen up- after 3 hours

PJ, Sharne and Graeme - Mrs. vS has offered to take Sharne's place this week if you like. Her comment was something along the lines of - "can't do much worse than you ah vS!" bloody women trainers

i don,t disagree with you midge but if the vet says the withholding period is 72 hours but by some misfortune he quoted the wrong period and it was actually 86 hours does the trainer actually get off Scott free because the horse still loses the race and lets say its a group race worth 300000 plus the owners would be livid and in cts case if the horse was a $ 1.60 you would possibly have to have over 500000 large ones to win that no ryhme no reason

The world is dead set fooked, and yes I know this is not strictly a racing matter but surely this is taking sexual equality and gender equivalence a bit far. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/new-zealand-school-abolishes-gendered-uniforms-offering-same-clothes-to-all

Chevy small technical detail but Montjeu did unfortunately die in March 2012. Bit difficult to shuttle him after that ................

Best pronunciation I have heard was on Australian Tv in a Pubtab. Wanganui races were on in N.Z. and the announcer said they would be crossing to New Zealand where the races are at Wan Gan You Eye! Priceless.

Half the problem the way i see it is, this stupid downgrading rule. We had a system that was working well, 4 misses then downgrade, and then comes along some vested interests that want it changed to 3, now we have problems. Reminds me of when they decided to make 3 classes of distance dogs. Ever since that happened, distance racing went into decline. We have so many staff now employed at the NZGRA that they are all looking to change things, make their mark as it were. The old adage stands true, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I posted the below comment here in October last year: "Of the NZRB leadership board Gary Woodham, John Allen and Stephen Henry are all ex NZ POST. Plus there are many more employees in the NZRB that are ex NZ POST employees. An acronym used in NZRB now is that you must be a FROG to get a job there, "Friend or Relation Of Garys"." LinkedIn and type "nz racing board" into the description and you will see the Strategy Manager, Test Lead, Head of Industry and Relationships (great titles) and many more are ex NZ Post. Many more.

we qualified one today - big crop and look to be very sensible types.

Yes. I agree it was not well thought out. Maybe give them one or two strikes before being retired. I was referencing the US system with that one. Probably too complicated for the staff at the NZGRA though. I agree slims idea is a great idea re two wins as a maiden. What I do wonder however is why they made a heat and final in c1 count as one win. This surely doesn't help. The issues with too many c1 dogs is affecting high grade races around the country, especially up north. This Sunday will be the third meeting at Auckland in a row without a c5 sprint and there are only two or three races graded c3 or above. Like I said, this can't be good for turnover. Maybe the bottleneck would be better of in c2-3 races so more dogs can get through the grades (but than this does nothing to help young dogs). I also would not mind seeing FFA races put on around the country. Increase the stakes to say 4-5k and have one or two a week at different tracks. Put different restrictions on the races. This would surely help with getting High grade races and maybe protecting young dogs from racing the best I don't expect them to come up with a perfect grading system that keeps everyone happy but surely they could find ways to improve the current system, starting by taking ideas from the trainers into account

Thanks Von.We would love to have Mrs. Von.

Christian Cullen has made absolutely no impact as a sire of sires.

And that is why so many horses in States can race until they 9 or 10.They look after them so much better than anywhere else in the world.

Should we be calling for Mr Foskett, Casper - where is he while we are having theses abandonments and why is he still employed, isn't it his job to make sure our tracks are up to scratch and what of all these reports that have been called for?

Once again the reducing the tracks crowd crow on about this like its the silver bullet that will save nz racing? How exactly does reducing the number of tracks in this country make racing any better? Unless you mean sell up assets that are owned by communities , run ,operated and paid for by communities and then give those powers that be the sales proceeds to build a flash new track ? Is that what you mean? Why would anyone in their right mind trust those that are running nz racing with sales proceeds to be able to do an effective job of this anyway? If thats what you mean? You'll have less racing in this country that there currently is if you reduce the number of tracks, what needs to happen imho in NZ is there needs to be better more effective use of existing assets like the tracks and not the total bias that has existed here for the past 30 years in favoring certain tracks/clubs, that's where someone needs to stand up and make the tough calls on!

He's more than a good jockey, he will actually talk to average punters behind the ropes love the guy

Who knows you are obviously a lot smarter than me probably should have taken the three grand. If you go back and listen to the radio interview with jess you will notice the guy on the radio before me was trying to sell tickets for the jewels. Not wanting to let a chance of promoting harness racing go by I took this opportunity to talk up his sales pitch, if that makes me a fool fear enough.As for tuapeka trick in the last week he has decided to be a colt and in the next couple of days we will make a decision on gelding him, I'm sure I can get a two for the price of one deal if you are available. John does rate our fella pretty high and if that means sitting out a few months that's what we will do. Any time you want to debate Wether I'm a tool or not come find me ill be at every harness meeting in Canterbury or driving out at Diamond stables on Saturday mornings. Cheers from the fool,tool and half cock.