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Palliser I have said for years they don't know what their market wants as they never ask them. Marketing 101 how can you deliver if you don't know what they want, like serving a meat lovers pizza to a vegan. About 10 years ago ago marketing guru came to my local TAB one Saturday morning to do a survey. The poor lass didn't know what a Trifecta or quinella was. I wrote to the TAB and have yet to receive reply. Within 3 weeks I had 2 betting agency accounts in Oz, haven't bothered locally since

Excellent response Turny Tom, its not rocket science .. but like you have pointed out apparently for TAB and Trackside it is. It starts at the top, and obviously those at the top have no bloody idea .. like a butcher pretending to be a jeweler.

Well done Cubes, I'm sure Mrs Cubes (RIP) was cheering her former filly on. A nice win in her memory

Nice tough win by the Kevin & Pam Hughes trained Russian Fable for our very own cafe member Cube's in the first at Riccarton today ! русская басня

Zacinto won first at riccarton and the last race to I think, I like the raise the flag stock, the Australian progeny have done especially well, and can jump well two, ablaze left nz with six wins and 90k in stakes, now won 12 or so and 800k, more staying races for them over there, I am a tad biased as we have a rising 7yr old by rtf, had plenty of issues with him but we live in hope.

Great stuff Cubes

Congrats Rusty good punting...thanks Ponderosa for all the tireless work again...and thanks to everyone who took part again you all make the comps the successes they are...thanks alot.

A Grp 3 race at Menangle last night . Race reduced to 4 starters due to Covid lockdown but she was way too good on the night. Well done to Nigel and all its NZ owners . Well prepared as you would expect by N Purdon

Who remembers The Wheat Corner scandal in America? Note the same names pop up who are pushing for Plant based eating and Veganism in 2020 era Another Wheat Corner - headed by Schwab https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19050218.2.12.3 query=Wheat+Corner

Did you do the Matt Hancock sponsored coincidence bet at Newcastle Stodge, Dubious Affair , plodded home sadly .

Great stuff Cubes,you deserve all the success you get

Watched a few races today from the Meadowlands and Timaru. Big differences in many ways but DD was on fire and RM got 1 closer to 3000. Pretty sure he has 2 to go to reach a fantastic milestone

I coached junior cricket in the days before cellphones Eljay and even then it was difficult to find kids who wanted to be committed boundary riders for a day.They mostly resorted to studying/destroying the surrounding flora. Wicketkeeping was where the action was. Different world today as cricket, tennis, swim, rugby clubs are finding. Sad.

Not as long as mobile phones, i pads & the like are around, Tassie!

Let's not forget the breeders, big congratulations to them to, from timaru I think.

It is interesting to read that Incentivise is a half brother to Ardrossan who stands at Waikato Stud.

Trump pushed for the Vaccine, hes not the answer regardless of How piss poor Biden and Harris are proving to be. Fair amount of obvious truth to 100s post here Hokesy and if your not concerned you will be soon enough

Yesterday Incredible! Half a million people marching through London rejecting the totalitarian reach of government seeking to force vaccinate its citizens. One sign reads “The only thing mutating are the lies”. The people are awake. Covid isn’t the threat. Propaganda & Big Pharma are

For gods sake .. you are completely missing the point. There are paid employees there to do that job, anything would be an improvement on what we are subjected to now, I don't have the time or strength to waffle on here about what could be better, but maybe they could do a survey asking the customers, that way they will get a big picture, rather than 3 or 4 opinions from this thread.

Five wins in UK and Ireland last night for Frankel , including Irish Derby , got three timer at Newmarket . Other Juddmonte bred stallions on scoresheet , Rail Link got the " Pitmans Derby " winner aka The Northumberland Plate , ex Sir Henry Cecil trained Camacho got a winner as well . In Australia Trade Fair got winner of Strickland Stakes in WA .

The problem is that you're not thinking laterally enough, not are you all addressing the core issues for failure. At the moment the equation is "let's not fix too much because we don't like risk. We don't want to lose what we've currently got". This destroys innovation. It comes back to the old adage of "why would things change when you don't change anything?" I won't start racing any new horses in NZ unless I'm pre-training them for other country racing. Shane's example (bad racing stakes) is one of the reasons why but the rest of it is just as important. Bad racing surfaces, lack of good jockeys, average facilities, bad racing calendar, bad hospo service, bad media coverage, average historic data, no value in betting ....and it goes on. Nothing has changed in 25 years. Seen the latest foal crop data?...and to think in 1993 Dave O'Sullivan, Patrick Hogan and I debated whether to include one of the slides we presented to the RIB predicting that the foal crop would reduce to less that 4000 (it was about 7500 at that time). We were worried that we would lose credibility predicting this figure. Just remember, if you don't have foals, you don't have racehorses. At the latest figures if we shut 10 race courses and got rid of their race meetings, we'd still have an average of only 7.4 horses per race. That's catastrophic!!! That's guaranteed to happen within 3 years because the size of the current foal crop proves it happens. Why can't people see this? If races go to these numbers, then betting drops through the floor. It's guaranteed. It can't be debated. It is a lay down misère. For fucks sake....people wake up!!! I see nothing being discussed to address this any where. The problem as I see it is that we have no one fighting the right fight...no radical change or risk taking...just the same ol same ol. Anyone interested in creating a Horseman's Club, which is an independent voice of reason...a lobbying group for want of a better expression? I helped fund this web site back in the day when Dave and Angie were thinking about starting the Race Cafe. The reason I did it was that the industry didn't have a portal. It didn't have a voice. I saw it as being absolutely required. That voice has subsequently been hijacked somewhat over the years by the radicals. Doesn't help that the reason and structure for this site has been metamorphically changed so it has lost its reason for being. All of the bad things I have listed above....I have answers (I know arrogant). The tricky part is being listened to...

Final thoughts on Royal Ascot 2021: 12.000 people a day made the place look open and inviting - I know Ascot took a big financial hit on the meeting but there's an argument for perhaps capping off attendances at 30,000 rather than 60,000 but they won't go for that. The "Royal" aspect matters not a jot these days - it's always nice to see the Queen but she won't be around for ever and while Camilla loves horses, Charles is more ambivalent and there's little sign of William showing any interest at this time. William Shakespeare penned about the Merry Wives of Windsor but it was more A Tale of Two Ascots this week - pre-deluge and post-deluge. The first two days were old-fashioned Ascot at its best. PALACE PIER and POETIC FLARE won the mile championship races to set up an intriguing clash at Goodwood at the end of next month. OXTED returned to form with a vengeance in a King's Stand where the speedballs cut their own throats. Wednesday saw the triumphant return of LOVE with a courageous win in the Prince of Wales. I wonder how much of a mark that race will leave and AUDARYA ran a blinder in defeat. LORD NORTH will be waiting if the ground softens as will the 3-y-o such as the brilliant SNOWFALL so this story has a lot of twists and turns ahead. As the storm clouds gathered on Thursday, there was a changing of the guard in the staying division as a combination of SUBJECTIVIST and a tactically inept ride by Dettori dethroned STRADIVARIUS. That said, SUBJECTIVIST will get better and looks a big chance in the 2022 running. The heavens opened Thursday night into Friday and the meeting hung in doubt for a few minutes - the wet ground on Friday led to a spate of withdrawals but the times suggested, at least on the straight course, they were getting through it. The Commonwealth Cup ended in controversy with DRAGON SYMBOL losing the race in the stewards' room - Oisin Murphy can't have any complaints once he saw the head-on. However, redemption was swift with ALCOHOL FREE splashing through the ground for an emphatic success but only serving to confuse the picture among the 3-y-o filly milers whereas POETIC FLARE dominates among the colts. Saturday had seen the rain really get in and WONDERFUL TONIGHT reminded us what a class act she is when the ground is soft when winning the Hardwicke. Perhaps the best finish of the week was reserved for the Diamond Jubilee with DREAM OF DREAMS finally getting his head in front just beating GLEN SHIEL in a desperate finish. With OXTED and DRAGON SYMBOL likely to be in the mix, the July Cup is also looking to be a wonderful contest in just three weeks. That's the thing about Ascot - you can dwell on the past and reflect on the present but the anticipation for the future is what the meeting delivers - it sets the agenda for the rest of the season and creates the possibilities and the narrative that will build through the July Meeting, Glorious Goodwood and the York August Meeting right through to Leger and Irish Champions Weekend and finally to the Arc in Paris.

Congratulations to cubes and team, nice win after a few unlucky runs.

Thanks Scooby and Ponderosa. A fluke win for this standardbred specialist!

Well done Cubes hope you had a collect.

Was going to happen some time. Well rated, well ridden, good win.

Sunday's final declarations are through. Eight go in the Pretty Polly over 2000m at The Curragh where the ground has eased further to Good. Five older fillies and mares take on three 3-y-o. Among the former, the clear top rated is CAYENNE PEPPER but she was disappointing in her seasonal return, albeit on very slow turf. A reproduction if her second in this last year to MAGICAL would be enough as there's nothing of that champion's calibre in this line-up. THUNDERING NIGHTS chased home BROOME in the Alleged and the latter ran perfectly well in defeat at Ascot last weekend - from there, THUNDERING NIGHTS went to Belmont and just failed in a Grade 2. That was another good effort but there's just a suspicion another 400m wouldn't go amiss. EPONA PLAYS could be very interesting - a convincing winner of the Lanwades last time on slow ground, she now steps up 400m on better ground. Breeding suggests 2000m will be ideal and she could just be the best of the older horses. The problem is the older horses have to concede 12 lbs to the 3-y-o and that's not going to be easy. SHALE was disappointing at Ascot and holds OODNADATTA on juvenile form which leaves SANTA BARBARA. After a glowing report from Aidan O'Brien, she was propelled into favouritism for the 1000 Guineas only to finish fourth which was a fair effort on what was only her second racecourse run. In the Oaks, she was a disappointing fifth to stablemate SNOWFALL so this is her day and there are no more excuses. I can't have her at 5/2 as she's bee a real talking horse so far. She might win half the track but I can't see it. I fancy EPONA PLAYS and have played each way at 6s. Just five go in the Airlie Stud over 1200m for the juvenile fillies. CHEERUPSLEEPYJEAN was third in the Queen Mary (YET well behind) but may have it to do against VELOCIDAD who looked a nice sort on her debut at Fairyhouse.

I love terms like "hoops", "birdcage" and "strapper" - two countries separated by a common language (as someone once said).

Race 2 at Eagle Farm tomorrow in honour of fellow cafer Trump. RIP

Yes the poor bloke never lived to see our greatest triumph Gary. That’s a pity eh

?? Uriah Heep From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Uriah Heep is a fictional character created by Charles Dickens in his 1850 novel David Copperfield. Heep is one of the main antagonists of the novel. His character is notable for his cloying humility, unctuousness, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own "'umbleness". His name has become synonymous with sycophancy.[1][2]

these days they like calling trainers conditioners for some reason.