bloke

Didn't he bail the industry out by the tune of about $75M?

Yes the then Minister, Nathan Guy decided to appoint one of his National Party hacks, Glenda Hughes as Chair of The Racing Board. What a legacy.

I have heard that Gary Vile has been given a stay of execution. Can anyone confirm that this is the case?

My understanding is that Masterton chose this day to run the 150 Jubilee Cup. They could have run it at the Tauherenikau New Year's meeting in front of a massive crowd and attracted a good field while there were plenty of stayers racing.

The English are the greatest supporters. Try going to an English Football Game. The first time I went to Elland Road to see my beloved Leeds United my wife summed up the atmosphere. She said that if she wanted to talk to me during the first 10 minutes of the game I would not have been able to hear her due to the crowd singing and chanting. When we got back to London we went to a West End show, Muma Mia and the audience (90% women) went crazy right from the opening curtain. I am not an Abba fan but what an amazing experience. If you go to an All Blacks game it takes about 70 minutes

I used to back the "old firm" Baker & Harris. My best collect was Sir Vigilant when he won The St Ledger and paid over $80 to win.

National are experts in scoring own goals

I ran into Mark and Graeme Sanders as well as John Wheeler when I was on business trip to the Chatham's about 10 years ago. What a great bunch of guys, we were up drinking in The Hotel Chatham's until around 2.30am with many a great yarn told.

Mike Sellar's brother, Tony also had a share and there was one other owner (a hard doer) from the Waikato. Rogie bought the horse at the sales on behalf of Lloyd Williams and when Rogie phoned Lloyd and told him Lloyd as not too pleased because the horse was grey. Quick thinking Rogie than offered the vendors a 25% share to smooth things over with Lloyd. I seem to recall that the mare was gifted to Mike because of the good work he did (Mike was a property valuer) for the original owner (also named Williams) who built The Williams Car park Building in Wellington.

Back in the 70s The Telegraph was run on the first day of the Cup Meeting, as was the Cup. In 1970 Il Tempo won the Wellington Cup with a brilliant performance coming from last 3 furlongs out to be in front just inside the furlong and winning with ease. Then Grizzly won The Telegraph later in the day, The George Tattersalls was run on the last day of the meeting and in 1970 it was won by Honey Belle.

Well I just looked at a Poll today and she is miles ahead as the preferred PM.

Politicians have all sorts of crap made up about them. The "John Key & Hekia hoax" did the rounds in Wellington some years ago after he resigned.

It's just part of shambles that is Wellington Racing Club. I doubt if any of the Club Committee would have noticed this cock up as they would have been done up in their suits (with their badges on of course which shows that they must be important) and probably spending most of the time at The Committee Room Bar.

Wonderful story Nerula. Tauherenikau has always been one of my favourite places. To sit out the back under the giant Totaras enjoying a picnic and few Martinborough Pinot Noirs is one of life's true pleasures. At the new years meeting they start arriving shortly after 6am.

Here we go again come in the Maori haters. The first Race meeting held in NZ was at Petone beach enjoyed by the Maoris and settlers. In 1855 the local Iwi gifted to the crown under a deed of gift Hutt Park to the purpose of horse racing. The Maori has played a significant part in our industry, Eric Ropiha, Noel Harris, Michael Walker and many others come to mind. But then I guess bashing Maori is a Baby Boomer thing.