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Racing resumed fully here today after a two-day pause in England due to heat - temperatures above 40c in much of southern and eastern England yesterday. A decent card at Leopardstown tomorrow featuring two juvenile races which are often good guides o future classic prospects. The Silver Flash for the fillies over 1400m has the Aidan O'Brien trained NEVERENDINGSTORY as the 5/4 favourite. She's by Dubawi and the first foal of Athena, who won the Belmont Oaks and was a close fourth in the Irish Champion to the much missed Roaring Lion. The Tyros is the colts' equivalent and O'Brien saddles Coventry seventh AGE OF KINGS but I'm much more interested in PROUD AND REGAL, trained by his son Donnacha. The horse is by Galielo out of a Danehill mare, Simply Perfect and that makes him a full to MEKONG RIVER and to the staying mare SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL so decent without being earth shattering. PROUD AND REGAL won a maiden at the Irish Derby meeting which often turns up a good one. Finally, a reminder next week is the Glorious Goodwood Festival - five days of good action and the entries are in for next Tuesday's opening card. The Group 1 Goodwood Cup has nine entries and the market suggests a match between Ascot Gold Cup winner KYPRIOS and third placed STRADIVARIUS (with Andrea Atzeni replacing Frankie Dettori). TRUESHAN has been declared but seems an unlikely runner on the prevailing fast ground. The supporting Group 2 races on the opening day are the Lennox over 1400m - 14 have been entered and two I backed at Ascot, SACRED and LUSAIL are in opposition. 14 also in the Group 2 Vintage for the juvenile colts over 1400m.

Didnt the positives for meth at New Plymouth never came to anything as the owners were high profile. How can you charge this guy. Doesnt it look like RIB are incompetent or maybe there are rules for one and not the other.

He is a bit intellectually compromised I think LOL.

The RIU have not been proactive - which everyone thought was going to happen with the restructure - to investigate some sensible thresholds to be considered and implemented. We have a ridiculous nil/low caffeine count which is far far lower than an Olympic athletic (horse mass versus human) , meths/p ridiculous - even healthy homes have reviewed when a house needs a deep clean etc, cobalt continual saga and many others. Surely sensible people with balance in their life can sit around a table and set some logical levels - they did it for bi-carb and even increased Harness level as at one silly stage thoroughbred had a permitted higher reading than harness . Last two positives have been a caffeine positive in galloper as trainer pissed in the same spot after 3 cups of coffee a day so seepage under wall to bedding - agreed as cause by RIU - but lost race and $6k fine then this admitted not trainers fault P case. Makes RIU look a vindictive group who are doing the sport a lot of harm. They should report the amount found , advise its spread with Olympic rules and then review all levels as this is damaged the sport and their reputation .

Please read this first note very carefully. Beginning this week and for the remaining weeks of this comp we will have a 6pm cut-off on races that are eligible for selecting lays. That means that for this week the last two races at Randwick and the last two races at Caulfield will not be included among the eligible races.

PS, if I were to breed a horse this season I would call it "TWILIGHT ZONE '

Not the only track used for motor sport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aintree_Motor_Racing_Circuit

I attended the first Grand Prix at Pukekohe in 1963 (as a young child I might add), and even did a lap of the track prior to it officially opening rolling around in the back of my dad's painter's van. Safety was certainly not an issue in the early sixties. So after 60 years the arses are going to close down the motor racing side of things, despite in recent decades the motor racing being the only thing that the pubic in general have been interested in. April 2nd 2023 will be a sad day for many.

An interesting thing about the Buckland end is that it is in the Waikato Region. So if Auckland got another Covid-19 lock down trainers from the Buckland end could still attend Waikato race meetings.

You are being wayyyyyy too polite Scooby.

Your ref to "Billy" Pinn is interesting. Reading the hearing report on the case it transpired that rather than hit the horse twice on the head with the whip it was amended to once on the neck. The mare was cranky that day. Missed the start and then started to hang in the straight which was when the alleged offence occurred. Certainly looks RIU is after Pinn and want to impose on him

If spots still remain open, I'll play.

Not wrong there N. Had a lovely list in no time before re reading the rules…most of those likely winners of the main races over there…. Makes it interesting though.

Its not the $20 its thinking about the selections. I can think of 2 NZ ones but to think of Non group 1 Aus not so easy. I think 5 goog Aus is the key

Not sure about that- like most teachers they all have one or three pets

According to the report Her father assisted her. The 4 day suspension is way over the top. If drivers are no longer allowed to drive for luck on an outsider is that giving the horse the best possible chance of placing?

Yep I've got you with two lives lost, and a cumulative score over three weeks of just over 1 point. In week 1 you lost 33 points, in week 2 you earned 102 points and this week you lost 68 points. My latest post was the Week 3 scores only - the post before that one showed cumulative scores.

Suppose they will park the floats next to the tie up stalls. But essentially they are offering land that carries a large rate impost. The catch is when you re-zone you need to develop or sell to mitigate the holding costs

When i seen Hawera was off i was so pissed my wife , not a real racing person , asked "what did they do years ago ?" , i said to her i used to go to Trentham in July , all 3 days , amazing eh 3 days , unheard of , and that by the 3rd day the track was such a bog you could hardly see a green blade of grass , never seen them called off , never seen the jocks sooking , just got on with the fucken job , sometimes you couldn't make out the jockey colours . I told her about the day the track was so heavy that they ran a mile in 2mins and the day D Walsh rode a horse in a mile race and raced on the outside rail the whole way and won . Those were the days racing was GREAT .

Wouldn't you have loved to be in the room if NZTR had said to Bill Freeman and Jack Bennet that they were going to spend $15m on an AWT.

I used to go to virtually every meeting at Awapuni during the 80s. It was always a great track with great racing. There were never any complaints about the track. Got the Margaret Bull trifecta in a big race one day, Magnitude and a couple of others. You do wonder how it all went so wrong. The club was so well run, Bill Freeman and several other good administrators. I know things have changed a lot, but you do wonder if some of those adninistrators where still about now whether the industry would have crashed so much.

I have been told the local paper has advertised a special members meeting to be held this Sunday to vote on a proposal that the committee has put forward .

Seem to remember that when ARC and Counties were doing their courtship Club Members were seduced by the proposition that Counties were going to "Lease" their surplus land for a regular return. Guess that was before Ardern and her queer mates drove the impending exodus to Australia and commercial development hit the wall.