Toblerone

It seems silly that a small (harness racing wise) area like Otago would have 27 awards.

I should clarify for the three that didn’t post, the kiss of death horse can only serve to get you eliminated. It can’t earn you points.

Well, business picked up big time today. Mystic Journey got rolled and that took competition leader Talk to 250 points. You know what that means, anyone below zero is eliminated under the new mercy rule declared by the sponsor. So, as well as two people who selected a second straight winner, nine others got the chop because they picked a winner either today or last week. It was an otherwise very prosperous day with Dalasan the only one to do any real damage. If nothing else, today should tell you not to chicken out and take something paying longer than about $5, especially in a race without bonus points. See you next week, Toblerone (eliminated) 250.00 Talk (150.00) 207.14 Turny Tom (150.00) 207.14 ivanthegreat (150.00) 183.33 CommonSensical (83.33) 175.00 bryce waters (75.00) 169.69 arjay (150.00) 140.47 MiDeBo Racing (83.33) 135.71 Tauhei Notts (35.71) 132.14 Mikie (75.00) 116.66 scooby3051 (75.00) 108.97 Hacko (83.33) 105.92 Houlahan’s Dream (48.78) 101.54 Koriokaramea (44.44) 100.00 Kloppite (150.00) * 100.00 Peter Jenkins (150.00) * 98.49 High Sparrow (44.44) 97.61 Trump (83.33) 97.52 L.J.Shannon (54.05) 96.60 Chestnut (42.55) 96.15 Ponderosa8 (83.33) 95.71 RacingJimmy (54.05) 95.71 orphan pete (54.05) 95.00 Catalano (75.00) 94.80 rdytdy (75.00) 94.61 Right first time (43.47) 94.61 mrzim (43.47) 89.18 Davey1 (75.00) 89.18 moz1047 (75.00) 85.13 insider (43.47) 76.69 crustyngrizzly (44.44) 63.10 Drewandjo (35.71) 60.41 Cyril Rioli (43.47) 55.91 Wrinkles (35.08) 55.51 poundforpound (35.71) 52.70 jack (25.31) 42.78 We’re Doomed (17.14) 41.85 Sayer (27.77) 35.83 dock leaf (17.14) 33.33 Richie (83.33) * 31.32 Stoyd (17.14) 28.50 Plovdiv (17.14) 27.39 Thepaw (0.00) 25.07 Cubes (18.18) 25.00 Memphis (75.00) * 23.80 Camacho (0.00) 19.26 Archer (12.34) ELIMINATED -6.53 Warren (-50) * MERCY RULE -7.45 Seddon (-50) * MERCY RULE -12.97 Toberlone (-50) * MERCY RULE -24.36 Peter R S (-50) * MERCY RULE -24.68 Beecee (25.31) * MERCY RULE -26.20 lynzim (-50) * MERCY RULE -30.00 Sighted (-50) * MERCY RULE -31.81 1PresidentG (18.18) * MERCY RULE -50.00 Hall (0.00) * MERCY RULE -100 Ohokaman (-50) ** -100 Southland (-50) **

Summary of selections with bookie odds for a guide (note we take tote odds for points). Flemington R2 (single points) 1 - Athiri ($7) R5 (double points) 6 - Dalasan ($2.40) 4 - Super Seth ($4.20) R6 (double points) 3 - Fidelia ($3.70) 2 - My Pendant ($5.50) 1 - Fundalmentalist ($5) R7 (triple points) 9 - Mystic Journey ($2.20) 8 - Scales of Justice ($4.20) 4 - Yucatan ($12) R8 (double points) 3 - Demerara ($4.80) 2 - Usain Bowler ($7.50) Rosehill R5 (single points) 2 - Superium ($8) 1 - True Detective ($3) R6 (double points) 6 - Exceedance ($2.20) 1 - Bivouac ($3.90) 1 - Dawn Passage ($6) R7 (double points) 1 - Arcadia Queen ($1.95) 1 - Trope ($4.80) R8 (double points) 1 - Champagne Cuddles ($3.80)

I mean, yeah there are five winners there but they paid $1.40, $1.15, $1.20, $1.15 and $1.40. We want VALUE!

Entries closed. Thepaw, Camacho and Hall - you three have been allocated Mystic Journey.

Flemington, R5 No. 5 Dalasan

Cut off time is 2.35pm this Saturday. The 'kiss of death' horse, selected by Chris, is Mystic Journey in the Makybe Diva. You will be given this horse if you fail to post or if your horse is late scratched after 2.35pm. The Makybe Diva brings about the first opportunity for triple points, while there are six opportunities for double points (G2) sprinkled between Flemington and Rosehill. ELIGIBLE RACES Ruakaka R7 $70,000 Northland Breeders Stakes (G3) Awapuni R7 $75,000 Metric Mile (G3) Flemington R2 A$152,000 Cap D’Antibes Stakes (Listed) R3 A$152,000 Exford Plate (Listed) R4 A$152,000 The Sofitel (Listed) R5 A$217,000 Danehill Stakes (G2) R6 A$217,000 Let’s Elope Stakes (G2) R7 A$815,000 Makybe Diva Stakes (G1) R8 A$217,000 Bobbie Lewis Quality (G2) Rosehill R5 A$150,000 Dulcify Stakes (Listed) R6 A$200,000 Run To The Rose (G2) R7 A$200,000 Theo Marks Stakes (G2) R8 A$200,000 Sheraco Stakes (G2)

Many drivers refuse interviews now. Mitchell, Ferguson, all the Butchers and Dunn to name just a few.... you won't have seen any of them on tv for quite a while. It's not like their livelihoods come from punting turnover or anything. Oh wait it does.

An intriguing day 1... Kloppite went very close to recording 166-odd points with Libertini, which would have put today's nine 'losers' with 34 points of elimination straight off the bat. But she got the job done, albeit narrowly, and in the process gave the handful of people who took Villami at 14.10 some room to breathe. It very nearly stole the race. See you all next week. 100.00 Talk 100.00 bryce waters 100.00 Tauhei Notts 100.00 CommonSensical 57.14 MiDeBo Racing 57.14 MIkie 57.14 Turny Tom 57.14 Koriokaramea 57.14 Right first time 57.14 mrzim 57.14 Houlahan's Dream 57.14 ivanthegreat 54.05 Chestnut 54.05 High Sparrow 43.47 Warren 43.47 L.J.Shannon 42.55 Seddon 41.66 RacingJImmy 41.66 scooby3051 41.66 orphan pete 41.66 insider 37.03 Toblerone 32.25 crustyngrizzly 27.39 jack 27.39 Thepaw 27.39 drewandjo 25.64 Peter R S 25.64 Hacko 25.64 We're Doomed 23.80 Camacho 23.80 lynzim 20.83 Wrinkles 20.00 Sighted 20.00 Catalano 19.80 rdytdy 19.80 poundforpound 18.69 arjay 18.69 dock leaf 16.94 Cyril Rioli 14.28 Trump 14.18 Davey1 14.18 Stoyd 14.18 moz1047 14.08 Sayer 12.82 Ponderosa8 11.36 Plovdiv 6.92 Archer 6.89 Cubes _______________ -50.00 1PresidentG -50.00 Ohokaman -50.00 Hall -50.00 Southland -50.00 Memphis2 -50.00 Peter Jenkins -50.00 Richie -50.00 Kloppite -50.00 Beecee

First of two updates. Plenty of nice returns early, the best being those who potted Avilius at evens in a double points race. The Kiss Of Death horse came in to play with the late scratching of Con Te Partiro, but thankfully for Sayer, she could only manage second. The upcoming Te Akau Shark is by far the most popular lay of the day with 8 of the 57 entrants prepared to pot him. 100 talk 100 bryce waters 100 Tauhei notts 100 CommonSensical 41.66 RacingJimmy 41.66 scooby3051 41.66 orphan pete 41.66 Insider 37.03 Toblerone 32.25 crustyngrizzly 23.8 Camacho 23.8 Lynzim 20.83 Wrinkles 20.00 Catalano 20.00 Sighted 16.94 Cyril Rioli 14.28 Trump 14.18 Davey1 14.18 Stoyd 14.18 moz1047 14.08 Sayer 12.82 Ponderosa8 11.36 Plovdiv 6.92 Archer 6.89 Cubes -50 Richie -50 Kloppite -50 Beecee

Congratuations on being the first person to make me waste time having to look up your selection.

Ellerslie, R8 #7 Lacustre

Please note a change in rules, per the comp sponsor. 2/ Selection semantics. Selections must be posted by the declared cut off time each day, which will be half an hour before the jump of the first eligible race. Those who fail to post from week 2 onwards will be allocated the 'Kiss of Death' horse nominated by Poundforpound. Scratchings can be replaced up until close-off time. If your selection is late-scratched after close-off time, you also get the 'Kiss of Death' horse. Note you can only post a replacement pick if your original selection is scratched. Please do this by quoting your original selection, not editing it.

WEEK 1 This week’s eligible races are below. CUT OFF TIME is 1.34pm. Please post picks in the following format: MEETING, RACE, HORSE NUMBER, HORSE NAME Ellerslie R6 $125,000 Great Northern Hurdle (Prestige Jumping) R8 $125,000 Great Northern Steeplechase (Prestige Jumping) Wanganui R4 $50,000 The O’Leary’s Fillies Stakes (Listed) R8 $50,000 HS Dyke Whanganui Guineas (Listed) Randwick R5 A$200,000 Furious Stakes (G2) R6 A$160,000 Concord Stakes (G3) R7 A$250,000 Chelmsford Stakes (G2) R8 A$200,000 Tramway Stakes (G2) The Valley R5 A$152,000 Atlantic Jewel Stakes (Listed) R6 A$152,000 Bendigo Bank Stakes (Listed) R7 A$217,000 McEwen Stakes (G2) R8 A$272,000 Feehan Stakes (G2)

It’s back! After four years in purgatory, Racecafe’s most revered comp is back for another round. Welcome to Losers Get Laid 14, kindly sponsored by HQ and Poundforpound. Most will be familiar with the general rules which of course reward tipsters for picking favoured horses to get beaten. You can read the full and updated rules below and might I suggest it is best to re-familiarise yourself with them as there have been a few adaptions. Competition starts this Saturday (Great Northern Day, September 7) and finishes New Zealand Cup at Riccarton (November 16). That gives us a total of 11 Saturdays plus three extra dates – Melbourne Cup Day, New Zealand Trotting Cup Day and Coupland’s Mile Day. Importantly this year it is ONLY on Group, Listed and Prestige Jumping Races. It has been decreed that if you fall 250 points behind the tour leader, you will be eliminated. YOU MUST ENTER THIS WEEK NO LATE ENTRIES ACCEPTED. 1/ The skinny. Each selector will post one "lay" each Saturday. This can be on any New Zealand, Victoria or New South Wales BLACK TYPE race thoroughbred race run that day. I will post a selection thread each week. The only exception to this will be NZ Trotting Cup Day when a harness selection must be made. 2/ Selection semantics. Selections must be posted by the declared cut off time each day, which will be half an hour before the jump of the first eligible race. Those who fail to post will be allocated the favourite in the day’s richest race on either side of the Tasman. Scratchings can be replaced up until close-off time. If your selection is late-scratched after close-off time, you get a pass for that week. Note you can only post a replacement pick if your original selection is scratched. 3/ Scoring. To formulate how many points your selection will earn, we simply divide $100 by it’s closing tote price with the NZ TAB. Ie a $2 will earn 50 points. You will be strongly incentized to go for the most prestigious races of the day as below. Group 1 – triple points Group 2 – double points Group 3, Listed and Prestige Jumping Races – single points 4/ Lifelines. Now, you get a life in this competition, but it will cost you 50 points. If and when you pick a second winner, you are goooone. 5/ Prizes are as follows. 1st - $500 Bar TAB at HQ (expires Jan 31, 2020) 2nd - $250 Bar TAB at HQ (expires Jan 31, 2020) 3rd – A warm fuzzy feeling and a hearty ‘well done’.

I've called in there between 6 and 7 on a Friday night recently and there was lucky to be two people in there. It's in a shocking position. No foot traffic at all.

That is literally what I said in the other thread

You would be hard pressed to find a case against a dozen people going to court any earlier than that. Just off the top of my head, the case of the methamphetamine shipment seized on 90 mile beach was heard in June. The Arrests were made in June of 2016. And I am fairly certain in the case of Inca, at least a couple of the delays thus far were from the legal teams of those charged, not the Police. On a side note, Judge Raoul Neave is hearing this case. If you do some research in to him you will find he is deemed a defendant sympathizer that hates media and hands out light sentences. One that springs to mind was the merchant banker that ran over the chinese grocer in Parnell and then drove away. There was a public outcry at Neave's pro-defendant comments at sentencing. At one point there was even a satirical 'diary of Judge Raoul Neave' being written by Steve Braunias taking the mickey. More recently he let out on bail one of the men involved in the police chase that led to the New Brighton pedestrian hit and run last week. Just this morning I read that Neace has let the man out again! So, even if they are found guilty, which I am not suggesting for a second they will, the Inca defendants can look forward to, at worst, a slap with a wet bus ticket.

Didn't realise Isherwood had left but Blakemore is back this weekend and has a job lined up already. Whittaker probably will end up back in Canterbury eventually but for now he's got a gf in Cambridge? I'm not making excuses - more are needed, but as has been pointed out, the operations are scant, compounded heavily by lack of horses and/or races.

There's 12 isn't there? And I don't think any of them are losing their licence at the end of the week. Ferguson, Butcher, Schumacher, Whittaker, Smith, Hanara, Blakemore, Isherwood, Iremonger, Harrison, Drake, Delany. Not ideal, but short of injuries and holidays it shouldn't pose any majors. Kaleb Bublitz is also graduating to race night as well.

Gazza, I can see where your son got his good comedy skills!

Neither, I'd rather see an extra junior driver's penalty-free race at every meeting. Get these kids out there as much as we can. That's not sayin the others don't have upside. BUt if we don't incentivise these juniors they will be off driving driving trucks or diggers soon enough and lost to the game.

He's the CEO of Alexandra Park now.

Have you not noticed how he has been having major issues mid-race for well over a year now? His recent commentary of the Wingatui gallops was horrible and the club was inundated with complaints. That being said, I agree that when he's happy and healthy, he's an excellent harness caller.