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So they obviously didnt try and re-register as Pharr Cough then...

If you are referring to HRNZ its the Phil and Ken show. the latter is well out of his depth and has been a for quite some time. His support of McGrath showed poor judgement and his handling of this matter terrible IMHO. How anyone could take him seriously in future is nearing beyond belief. Greg

Shades of Sovereign in last year's Irish Derby , out on the lead at big odds and good enough to stick on . Did lead all the way in maiden win but won't get that rope again . Went out well down the betting order on debut , Persia the stable mate who won it looks no world beater , Serpentine's seasonal debut just OK. Doubt any of that field would see what way the first three in betting tonight in Eclipse went .

And then they fucked it all up. Time for the whole board to resign. They are an embarrassment to the industry.

The cost of travel to places like Blenheim and Palmerston North is a negative, but the main attraction to owners and trainers is the chance to take their lesser performing horses to a place where they have a chance of getting some prize money. It is bloody hard to win a race at Addington unless you've got a very good horse.

Pharr Canal I stayed up for nothing!

I rarely bet these days but went into the local pub on Friday to use their betting machine. Couldn’t help but think I was using technology Software that seemed right out of the 80,s that hasn’t been updated since. If they are going to replace tote operators with these machines they need to bring them up to date. They should be able to accept eftpos for one thing. Also to speed things up they should Be able to accept bet slips so people can place numerous bets without spending 2 or 3 minutes at the terminal. Also , what happens when you win because these machines only take investments, they don’t pay out on them.

Start at the top . HRNZ board and senior management are amateurs trying to run a multi million dollar business with lots of competition. None of them have proven to be up the the job especially at board level. No innovation and almost a jobs for life attitude which exists no where these days in private sector. Greg

(name JUST ONE of cindys main priority policies that has succeeded .) Hes waiting for them to succeed at something , it will be a long wait but I supose they did manage to pass a law under urgency that allowed criminals/prisoners to vote or to make it possible for police to invade our homes without a warrant and I think any one who has a gun licence has also lost legal protections . But road blocks up north and mass protests during lockdown are ok .

Eljay, if as you say that punters have lost interest in Harness Racing in the Hawkes Bay and trainers in the district were non existent, how can any allocation of dates to this region be justified

Hey 100 1. All of these things you say are going to happen "soon", although recently you've moved it until "after the election". What happens when Trump doesn't win? You'll have to wait for Tucker Carlson 2024? Or does the great Awakening get cancelled before Season 1 even airs?

Gets a bit boring when O'Brien has a monopoly on the racing over there.

Your not comparing a maiden staying race at The Curragh with a Te Rapa maiden are you Barry?Surely not!

Soon, soon.......

The HB has hardly ever been a hotbed of harness racing. Didn't they once used to set up a temporary track at the Showgrounds? Possibly back in the 80s or 90s.

Certainly strange decisions. Does HRNZ have any explanation for their decisions? Where do they expect the savings and efficiencies to come from? Bizarre trying to force a club to move to Winton when the Winton gallops have been forced to move elsewhere. It will certainly be interesting at the end of the season to see how much better off the industry is by these decisions. As Flash mentioned above, I don't think much thought has been given to local sponsorships that will be lost. A lot of licences, in both codes, are being moved to tracks that have a very poor record in attracting sponsorship.

Dear Phil Apparently you and the HRNZ Board had a "considered and focused discussion" as regards Forbury You then had a "review, discussion and deliberation" about Timaru This was followed by a "lively and considered discussion" about Gore and Wyndham You weren't finished, you then had a "solid review and discussion" about Roxburgh Roxburgh were lucky, they then joined Tuapeka and this time you had a "thorough review and discussion" In the same vein, you had a "detailed discussion" about Geraldine You then "deliberated and discussed" Westport and Reefton Another "lively discussion" was then held about Nelson and Marlborough For Manawatu you "reflected', you "had thoughts" and you again "reviewed and discussed things" and finally you signalled you would have more "rigouress thoughts" Once you finally finished your "lively, solid, detailed and deliberative discussions" you then summarised with "a longer term", a supportive stance", an "accelerated pace', a "catalyst" was factored in, you had "overviewed initiatives", a "regeneration journey" and a "future footprint" FFS, you might win the "JA" Award for the many different descriptions of the way that you had discussions but is there any need to say it? Yours and the Board's job is to have discussions and make determinations, just do it without having to describe them as different in each case. It is PC rubbish Mikie

hrnz appears to have been almost working against its own stakeholders. Which is bizarre at best. What is wrong with them. The agm should have a motion from a lot of clubs which could read along t he lines ,of a vote of no confidence in the current board

The way he won carrying such a big weight indicates above average ability. He’ll get his chance.

Cherry Tortoni is very good Trumpy. Payne will be looking at Guineas and maybe the Derby down the track. Could be anything. A Shin Rook at least beat your one home.... thought it was a bit unlucky getting shut out around the 200 mark. Will follow on better ground. My roughie Pauls Regret steamed into third at $5 a place that helped the day. Billie Egan is riding well and certainly helped this one.

Are you sure you were watching FLEMINGTON yesterday BB? I watched most of the races and had a look at replays just in case I missed something. Winners were coming from everywhere. 4 races were won by horses coming from well back at the 800m peg. Others were won from being handy near the lead. The most dominant wins were by Cherry Tortoni, the top weight coming from back in the field and swamping them, and, Sircconi dominating from up front and sprinting away. I thought the racing was fair and there were no excuses. I backed Romancer who was 4th most of the journey but couldn’t sprint in the straight. Had its chance. Moss N Dale I also had an ew lick but also not good enough. 7 of the winners were also at single figure odds, so in the market. think you are being unfair in your comments and you can keep your Awapuni bog.

It just shows how amateur the Harness code hierarchy is O.man. How much longer can Spicer survive. Greg

Why is he surprised ?? If they do not follow the correct protocol in meeting with Clubs, then make arbitrary decisions based on largely regional bias, what did they expect ? Any Club worth it’s salt won’t roll over just to suit HRNZ.

So when is the North Island gunna get a long course if it's so important?

Just my opinion Davey, however I am looking at Ocean Park and Reliable Man with both Per Incanto and Redwood starting to produce good winners over there as well. I do like Rip Van Winkle and even though Jennifer Eccles hasn't raced in Aus I wouldn't mind breeding one half as good as her. Te Akau Shark isn't bad either. What a sad loss Tavistock has been, as he appears to get winners every day over there.

What nonsense. There is no movement or consideration for that to happen in either party.

It might be Edward Rennell ..... and that wouldn't be a bad thing!

The Wyndham and Gore decisions are the hard ones to understand. Gore a dual coded course and Wyndham the highest turnover per race meeting by a long way. Incidentally Gore is second. They have kept the two poorest preforming clubs and tried to get Gore and Wyndham to go race at them to boast their profitability. Good on them for refusing to. I think more is to come on this. It smells of insider trading to me.

Or an old favourite of mine”led into straight...stopped as if shot”

This guy will tell you where it will take us. He is on the mark....buckle up

Never heard of one re-rated above 64. Shouldn't happen. Certainly not out of R65 band.

A fucking lot of Democratic high flyers and your mate Bill Clinton will be shitting them selves if she is looking for a deal.

Sometimes I really struggle with your posts mikenz What do you mean "do you keep a track open for 2 days a year"? (my emphasis) If the local Committee and Community are bearing the costs of keeping the Track open what is the detriment to the wider racing industry? The old acorrn about travel doesn't really apply now does it, as with so many race days at Addington those that travel don't have to , they like to Mikie

Could somebody please advise the name of the recruitment firm that hired John Allen. It is essential that Wellingtonians become aware of name of those charlatans.

Done a bit of digging , Pharr Canal , out of mare called La Fontaine . La Fontaine (La Fonteine) is a County in Louisiana , in that County is a township called New Iberia where in 1872 Henry Newton Pharr was born . You've guessed it Henry Newton Pharr grew up to head the Louisiana -Rio Grande Canal Company . He built a canal near New Iberia called Pharr Canal where now it's pretty good for fishing by all accounts . Straight up legit name in honour of Mr Pharr .

Wow what memories come back with this horse! Spanked our best 3yos in the 1989 John Brandon Derby series. And they weren’t a bad lot - Inky Lord and Neroship went on to win NZ Cups. Westburn Grant raced against arguabably one of the greatest free for all eras in harness racing. When he won his Interdom Grand Final the likes of Blossom Lady, Master Musician, Christopher and Mark Hanover couldn’t get within cooee. A true champ and champion people associated with him.

Which bit of that don't you understand?

No it's probably the other way around depending how you measure it. And sport and pokies and the taxpayer are subsidising all three.

The Race days are a community hands on social event that everyone in the sport loves. It would be no different for passionate Trackside presenters. They do not look happy stuck in a studio away from game they love! I'd be pissed off too.... not able to be oncourse raceday

To be fair it is only 10.45pm , I am normally in bed with a hot chocolate in my PJs reading " Noddy and Big Ears go the Races and spank a load of money up the wall " by then but I will put it off and ava watch myself . By the tote looks like Baz has lumped on .

You kind of get the impression sometimes those presenters ,ain't all that excited about being there,I spose they have to be seen to be doing their job.

Well from my perspective, viewing today's offering., I would go further and cut Trackside further. Why do we need Popperwell AND Rodley sitting in a studio together talking in the usual cliches, repeating ad nauseam what we have already seen in a race, and cutting away from post-race comment in Australia where Radley and Dufficy are streets ahead. Then to add insult to injury the mumbling Sweeney continues with repetitive narrative on the massive ( 10K) Pick-6 being gone, favoured track position at Riccarton ( we've seen it for ourselves all day) and general trivia. Perfectly adequate coverage during Level 2,( apart from those kindergarten teacher voices) so why not continue, and as for me, so irritated by these dullards, never had a bet today.( Means I can pay my trainers!)

I hope your dream that the owners are going to increase TAB revenue substantially comes to fruition .

I still don't think that the powers that be get this. The evidence is global. It doesn't matter how many ways you take it but punters will still only lose pretty much the same amount. You can have more or less events, more bet types, lotto style bets, in play or in running bets, point of consumption taxes, whatever. You are only collecting the same punter losses in different ways and possibly at a greater cost.

The figure quoted was turnover not amount lost. Gambling outlets whatever they are work on the principle that money turned over many times is eventually lost, How many times have you heard punters say that I am betting there money?. They find shitloads more bets all of a sudden during the day in the hope of turning a small win into a big one, to in the vast majority of cases end up losing by days end. Pokies work really well by players starting small, get a nice win and they up bet size to eventually lose most of the winning if not the lot. Racing is no different, just takes longer to happen.

The dream is over , Pharr Canal in honour of Henry Pharr has been done over by the fun police and is in at Kenilworth Tuesday night , now he's called Pharr Out though .

Six venues with no racing - three of them from Taranaki. You would think these closures would be spread over the country - but no, someone said lets hit the Naki. First it was Hawkes Bay, then Wellington city, then Northland and now another region is committed to the scrap heap. Let's hope Ken gets the humpty this year and the new board can see the folly of the present administration and set it right without delay. p.s. you will note all of these are North Island centres!!

From the Barry Lichter files When Forbury CEO Della Henderson took the club’s case to Parliament last week and met with numerous MPs, it was universally accepted there was a lack of due process and transparency with the way HRNZ had acted. It is understood HRNZ never met with club officials and came to its decision after only two phone calls. In a statement, acting CEO Phil Holden expressed his surprise that RITA had over-ruled its recommendations on Forbury and Timaru, which also was granted three meetings. Greg