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Real shame, I got a wee interest in a couple and a broodmare, that's about my lot, but wouldn't give them up for the world, we are chasing the dream of those elusive wins or that next champion, don't know what I would do without any racing.

In 2012 I wrote: "One of the world's great pedigree researchers, Clive Harper died today aged 80. A retired university lecturer, Clive was known as the 'interpreter' of Harold Hampton, a far-sighted Cockney who, without a computer proposed many theories of 'linebreeding' that still hold good today. Clive Harper was a gentleman with a wicked sense of humour. The author of three books on thoroughbred breeding, he was the first to apply rigorous principles of research to the breeding of thoroughbreds. Over twenty years ago, in an article in NZ Bloodhorse, Clive presented the results of a study where he took a hundred NZ group winners and a hundred 'duffers' - horses who had been well tried, but failed to win a race. Analysing their pedigrees to six generations, he was able to prove conclusively that Group winners has pedigrees containing more intricate linebreeding, including sex balance and a higher number of close relatives. On retirement Clive became a full-time pedigree consultant. He worked worldwide, offering advice to clients on how to find the stallion most suited to their mare. His NZ clients, who probably want to remain anonymous, benefitted from his advice at the yearling sales, and in finding consorts for their mares. There are a number of group-winners today that have been selected by Harper. He would be the first to agree that linebreeding is not a 'silver bullet', merely a way of minimising the risks of breeding failure. As a practical breeder, he bred and raced horses successfully. Sadly he won't see his latest horse with Mike Breslin greet the judge. Amazingly, pedigree research is probably more understood in NZ than anywhere else. Clive Harper, a modest gentleman represented the very best of Kiwi breeding intellectuals. We will miss him greatly." Yesterday, horses bred by Clive Harper won consecutive races at Riccarton. Race 3 was the 1400m R72 race, won by Wafer. Race 4 at Riccarton was the 3200m Maiden steeple, won by The Great Guru. Another Clive Harper horse! Trained by Lisa Latta, ridden by Shaun Fannin, by Gallant Guru from Greyling, he was winning his 4th race. Both horses descend from the same damline that Harper had bred from consistently. His foundation mare was Pieces of Eight, by Brauner who he bought locally for €500 in 1984. The attraction was that she contained Round Table’s ¾ sister and Gainsborough Lass, who traced back to Queen Mary. She went to Bottler, local sire and grandson of Round Table. The resulting filly Corqua was unplaced in five starts. She went to Tristram’s Heritage to produce Fruit Salad who won two races including black type and $20,000. Fruit Salad so named because her pedigree, when coloured-in to show common lines of inheritance ‘looked like a fruit salad’. (lots of close relatives in the 5th, & 6th generations and beyond) This mating acquired another line of Round Table from Sir Tristram. Fruit Salad went to Sandtrap to produce Salada who won 4 times for $19,000, three wins under Robbie Hannam. Sandtrap had Round Table’s daughter Monarchy, which gave Salada 4 lines of Monarchy, a son of Round Table’s ¾ sister and 4 lines of Gainsborough Lass. Salada went to Alamosa, and on Clive’s death passed on to Tineka Balcombe who is listed as the breeder of the resulting filly Wafer. Wafer has won 4 races and $96,000 to date, including the Listed Gore Guineas, and yesterday’s 1400m race at Riccarton. Alamosa brings in another line of Round Table, and Never Bend. Clive consulted for a number of NZ studs, to whom he was loyal. The Great Guru, son of White Robe’s Gallant Guru out of a ¾ sister to Salada, who won three including her first two starts. The mating brings in more Never Bend and Round Table, as well as two closeup lines of Special. To date, The Great Guru has won twice on the flat and two over the sticks. More is expected of him. Clive was an active member of the Levin breeders Forum, which meets monthly. A number of members of the forum have profited from Clive’s generosity and depth of pedigree knowledge, the author included. We fondly remember his obsession with Emma & Maria, Musket & Quiver and the Eulogy family. The examples of breeding to consistently upgrade his fillies is testament to how you can breed group winners from families that have lapsed into obscurity. Putting the best to the best was never Clive’s approach, and the two consecutive results at Riccarton yesterday bear testament. Clive, we remember you fondly. The author confesses he had a big bet ($3 to win) on Wafer yesterday.

Fabulous news. What an amazing horse. A true champion and a legend. Incredible what pure love can achieve sometimes.

We have all seen the complete lack of on course attendance and can understand why this is happening but how about betting turnover ? I believe the TAB are alienating the betting public from the game by making it difficult to understand form , sure if your prepared to look for it its there BUT its far more difficult now than it was 6 - 7 years ago. Trial form seems to be very slow to come through but by far the biggest problem is the newspaper form or lack of it. What we are reduced to now is a list of jockeys , draws and numbers representing past performance. No more Friday Flash , Informant etc and just a general lack of information in written form. Couple this up with handicapping systems for both codes that nobody can understand and its a recipe for disaster for punters. Furthermore ALL information that is available is produced by the TAB or direct and indirect employees of the TAB.............. we are helping you pick winners ..........Yeah Right !! Trackside coverage is exceptionally good but most of those on screen that offer betting advise have a shocking success rate. Even the First Call is a disgrace from a results point of view. I wrote all the suggested bets down for a period of weeks and spent all day drawing a line through the suggested bets, and at the end of the day the piece of paper looked like a map of the London underground.. Day after day we have " Suggested Quaddie , Pick 6 , 4 picks a race 99% of which amount to nothing yet we are talking $36 , $58, $78 . $108 etc a pop hardly a positive promotion yet " they ' bob up day after day totally unaccountable for their incompetence................... YES INCOMPETENCE Saturday morning we have the TAB bookie giving us his report on most races................ as if he is going to help you.............. YEAH RIGHT We need independent sources of information like the old Radio Pacific so we can shove it right up the TAB !! At the moment all you see and hear is generated by someone directly or indirectly working for the TAB , I'd love to see the job descriptions " To assist punters pick winners through sound and informed information " TUI AWARD Dont get me stsrted on the manipulation of odds to mislead punters.

Instead of using the TAB site for form use the NZTR site which is far better. There are videos of all the trials, on the day, shortly after each heat is run. You can't do much better than that.

I must be in a contrary mood today but I suppose what worries the most is that so many posts here demonstrate the lack of willingness of some racing people to embrace change. Newspapers and printed publications are dying in every industry. But it's not just that. Punters have more information than they have every had - it's just that it's not printed. As for the race days, sports entertainment - be it racing or rugby - has take two different paths. A smaller number of "events" attract attendance - in rugby, tests largely sell out but even super rugby is struggling to attract attendance. Conversely, we've never had better access to live sport or racing. And yes Pam - a great point. BGP shows that there is a way ahead … and I bet .01% of BGP complain about the lack of printed info because they are living in the present, not the past.

When oncourse I would often just tell the lovely TAB operators behind the window the option and selection numbers for final field if I was wanting a bet as opposed to the tote. It was easy as it was commonsensical. But what do these muppets in charge do? Drop $50 million on a "new betting platform" and bugger it right up. I'd make whoever was in charge to walk the bloody platform. Walk the plank. Right off the edge. Idiots.

Styx was a chestnut colt bred in 1963 by his owner Eric Davies by Syntax out of the Sajakeda mare Motion who was bred by Ngaruwahia trainer Lloyd Burdett. He raced 40 times for 9 wins. He was trained by George Smith initially at Takanini and then at Te Rapa. He won at his third start at the Paeroa meeting held at Pukekohe on the 18/12/65. At three he won the 1967 Kings Plate. His biggest win was the 1967 Foxbridge Plate beating a top class field ridden by Ron Taylor. Second was Fairfleet ridden by John Riordan and third Tatua and John Grylls with Dee Dee and Gary Edge fourth. Norm Holland won six on him and Brian Andrews, Ron Taylor and Colin Underhill one each.

Raced by te akau or Ngaruawahia farmer Eric Davies. Was also a Waikato committee man.I rode in shows with his kids. I believe his widow still shares ownership in a TA syndicate or two.

I just came across this on Youtube.. it may have been pasted before.. but if not ... thought i'd share it.. classic

I had the pleasure of attending the Randwick autumn carnival with Eric and his wife. Eric Davies was far and away the best racing tour host that I am ever likely to meet. Their room became headquarters. 10 a.m. on race day was assembly for a little tummy wash and organise groups of four to get taxis to the course. 6 p.m. on race days was assembly for more drinks and organise where we are going to eat. Eric was a veteran of the ill fated Crete campaign in 1941. Eric told me that most of the fighting he did in World War Two was against Aussies around the bars and brothels of Cairo. In those days at Easter, Randwick raced Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. One year I had a bundle of travellers' cheques and went to cash them at Dominic Beirne's stand an hour before race one. I went through all the carry on with signatures etc. Then was told that I have AUD1000 in credit; no cash. After the last I went to get my AUD1090 and was given the travellers cheques plus AUD90 cash. The man said about the travellers cheques; "we don't want this shit."

Yep, Quality NZ bred there

Thanks to Thee, Sir Gub: for keeping a full set of NZ Racing Registers. Eric Davies was such a great man for racing. As a committee man at Waikato . In his later years he was in charge of the Winning Owners hospitality room.Right by the Weigh In Stalls. Winning owners loved Eric's boisterous congratulations , knowledge of their horse and excitement for their win. He would stop the free drinks then announce "" Your complimentary Video of your win today is about to be played.Courtesy of Revel Somervell. The Sponsor of your race to day was ( say ) The Waikato Times and Peter Henson ". Eric had a mare by Decies called " PRETTY PRECIOUS.'' . She won at Tauranga for our Dad and Eric with Sir Peter Tims steering.My brother trained her.

Yeah I though WTF. It's the Wild West out there . Grass looked in need of watering , going stick wouldn't go in too far I'd guess.

Wasn't quite sure what you meant so had a look. Bit weird eh. I blinked and they went from dirt to turf. Thought channel had changed. Sounded like they were having a good time over there too.

The bit I don't get is the VAST gulf between the form in the Aussie papers, and ours. It makes me weep with joy to get the full form on a Friday in Melbourne, then the truncated one on the Saturday. We don't go near that level of detail. Even the colour photos and full times etc for each race the day after - mind blowing attention to detail. Nothing in NZ touches it. But yes, the internet and sites like Racenet etc provide a lot of info for sure.

You shouldn't be too harsh on Supreme heights Gruff. Won that first trial easily on a Heavy track then on debut three weeks later ran last on a firm track at Taupo after taking on the speedster Bolt From The Blue. Won a trial at Cambridge in May on a dead 6 and then ran fifth fresh up at Te Teko on a very heavy track. Since come out and won her next two by five and a quarter lengths and six and half lengths respectively at Rotorua. So now won two from four. I don't mind sorting them out from the trials.

Scoob , the one thing we know about Leo he can get as well as he gives

Trial form doesn’t translate to race day all that often as you well know, nothing beats the combination of trials, odds on the day and being there to see the horse in the flesh classic example is supreme heights, I was very vocal after seeing the trial first up only to be left with egg on my face yet again the rest is history

2 Kiwibreds fight out the last at Yonkers in the pourin rain, Bit Of A Legend and Don Domingo whoar she was close whew The Legend just by a nose after leadin all the way.....Christen Me was scratched, Te Kawau 3rd in his, The Faith bombed bugga..... Cheers Iraklis

That's brilliant ! Thank you very much gubellini, blue, and rdytdy. Much appreciated. I thought he must have been a pretty handy horse, or I can't imagine I would have had the interest in him that I did at the time. 9 wins from 40 starts was pretty useful for sure. This makes great reading, gubellini. Cheers.

Two horses I remember with fondness were Jay Ribbon and Glamis Lad, both were well performed southern horses. They both went to Trentham and won the Parliamentary and the White handicap resulting in a huge double giving me one of the best collects in my life

Don’t bother. The difference between you & me short stuff is I’m transparent and you’re not. I post my thoughts and bets win, lose or draw. You don’t. I’m positive and encouraging. You’re negative and critical. I’ll continue to be positive sharing my thoughts and you can continue to be negative and critical. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Life is good and it’s only getting better.

To be fair BB I go local TAB for hour with a mate on a Saturday when we get a free moment from kids sport and shit to deal with at home .There is a decent cross section of society in there and it's a bloody good laugh at times, and yesterday was . It's like the old days in a bookies without the smoke. We done our dough in 45 mins requiring me to do a five furlong dash to cash point to reload and do more dough on a 1200 maiden at Fannie Bay of all places . Rule 1 never chase money bit us on arse.

Great news..... It was the news the racing world had been waiting for - Subzero has returned home. After weeks fighting off a variety of serious health issues, the 1992 Melbourne Cup winner left a Bendigo vet clinic on Saturday bound for home with his best mate Graham Salisbury. The uplifting news came only two days after Subzero celebrated his 31st birthday. At one point last week, there were grave fears Subzero may not survive to celebrate his birthday after struggling with life-threatening health problems. In the last fortnight, Subzero's has fended off colic and then beaten a battle against a kidney problem and also peritonitis. Subzero became Salisbury's clerk of the course's horse on Melbourne's metropolitan tracks before being retired in 2008 and the two have worked tirelessly as racing ambassadors for charity. Salisbury has been facing his own major health battle with cancer in recent years.

just another inherited mess of National proprtions. Former minister Jonathan Coleman stood for the Nats leadership after Key jumped.Such dedication ,now has a cushy number in the private health sector. The waste and outright chicanery in health under the Nats watch is epitomised by this... https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/07/ex-waikato-dhb-board-member-angry-former-ceo-won-t-be-charged.html

I can recall Styx. Gubellini has a set of NZ Turf Registers with all the race results and records of every horse so if he sees this he will be able to post the full details of Styx. Watch this space.

I did the punters club at Te Rapa yesterday and had to keep supplying my TAB account number and pin. In the finish just gave the operator the details and she kept it under her terminal and she used it when and as required. Was using a voucher so any movement ie bet or collect on the voucher which had a balance of over $1000.00 had to be cleared even if the bet or collect itself was under $1000.00.

Was handy horse. Won his way to open company incl Kings Plate at the 1967 Cup meeting.

Looks like the refs done them again against the Raiders

Subbie Update July 28, 2019 by Thoroughbred Racing 0 comments Nikki Salisbury Hi everyone, A little about today’s visit. Once again Subbie lit up when we went in to see him before we even got to his stable. He was again his bright, perky self and was very content. Soon after we arrived a truly lovely couple arrived to pick their pony up and they brought Subbie a bag of treats which was so kind of them and Subbie was very grateful. They gave him a cuddle and a pat and then went to get their pony sorted. Earlier in the morning Dr Sarah opened up the feed bin door for him as she knows that (like at home) he loves to have a full view of everything going on. So this lovely couple had sorted their pony out and had to walk past Subbie’s stable to get him out. Well all 8-9hh (at a guess) of this divine little pony had to meet and greet Subbie. Now, Subbie has never been a huge fan of ponies, we don’t know why, but he would either totally ignore them or get stirred up and very annoyed about them. So to our surprise as soon as he saw little “Neddie” his head was so far out his little “peep hole” and he was soo excited. They were even touching noses and giving kisses at one stage. This pony could have fit well under Subbie and Subbie just loved him. He had a snort/blow first (likely Subbie saying “hey buddy, I am the boss here”). You would not have guessed quite how unwell he has been/was. He had cuddles with Mum, Dad and I again. Tried to sit on dad’s lap nearly . He covered my head to toe in feed but preferred to eat it straight off the blanket on my lap than to eat it out of the bucket . But I got to have cuddles and kisses with him which always makes me feel better when I am not well and in pain. His bloods came in while we were there and some levels were the same as yesterday (which is still good) and one of the other markers that is a sign of the Peritonitis had actually improved. When they scanned him this morning, the infected fluid had not come back to anywhere near what it was the day before. We are so grateful to the whole team from the amazing vets to the vet nurses to the rest of the staff including the wonderful people in the office who have been taking the incredibly kind wishes from people who have dropped in with cards and treats and beautifully kind words and prayers. It’s amazing and we are so grateful to all of you for your support. Subbie loves you all as his extended family and he knows about all your beautiful words and prayers. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have also added at the end two photos of me with Subbie when I was 6 months old. We had already owned him quite a while (just before I was born). I grew up with him in my life to this very day. He knows me better than I know myself in all honesty. He takes such good care of me, always has. Through my journey over the past 4-5+ years I have battled my own serious health issues, and when I became reliant on the Crutches and then the wheelchair, I was able to lead him from the wheelchair and the crutches and he would take tiny baby steps (just like when I was a toddler and learning to walk, he would take baby steps behind me with the front of his face straight down my back as though to support me, shattered we didn’t have the camera with us and sadly camera phones didn’t exist back then ). I have added a couple of other photos of him with me too, just to share. There were a couple of them that as you can see we’re taken back in summer. I am truly so blessed to have had him such a huge part of my life as his owner. Kind Regards, Nikki