gubellini

Cubes Phil Bayly raced Blue Denim. His son Andrew is the MP for Port Waikato. A very effective local MP with an impressive CV and financially savvy. He has a thorough knowledge of the rural sector and racing industry.

Thanks Ted!

Ageism is rampant in all media. Freshly minted Communication graduates with no life experience are being slotted in and experienced hands like Peter Williams are being given the heave ho.

I have always found Brian de Lore's articles to be well researched and generally on the button.

crustyngrizzly Norm trained a lot of winners for Hugh and Peter McCarvill but Slaney was trained at Hawera by Harry Mills for them. You would know of course that Des Riordan trained Mannix for them at Te Awamutu.

Norm was a great family man and mentor to many racing people in Matamata. His first winner was Brerlyn at Rotorua on the 14/8/54 ridden by Des Wyatt. Remarkably his Willow Stables have produced winners every season since then. His first big win was Aligarh in the 1955 Wellington Steeplechase ridden by Jock Harris.So Modest won the 1983 Telegraph for him when he trained in partnership with his son Kevin and daughter Karen. He turned out a host of other good horses such as Lavish Countess, Hasty Queen, Rare Commodity, Kahu, Beach Tango etc and jumpers like French Echo, Te Peta, John Rose, Timbro

NZTR are intent on building up cash reserves rather than ploughing back money into stakes. No doubt earmarking some of these reserves for when they can resume soirees overseas for their senior staffers when International flights get back to normality.

Moira Murdoch is training at Waiuku in partnership with her daughter Kieran.

Suliman like most Redwoods is strictly a Heavy 11 track horse. He simply hasn’t got the speed to go with them on better tracks. I had a share in him when he won his first five races. I was thrilled for Paul Nelson and the owners. Great jumping prospect in the new season.

Caroline great post. You obviously know more about horses than Pole!

Carey Hobbs. Introduced the 3210m race at New Plymouth. NZ's longest flat race.

He (Big Mike) must have a bit of Maori in him. Sometimes he doesn't try. Presumably in today's PC world you won't be able to incorporate the word Maori in a horses name.

Warren NSW today Maiden Races $26,100. Ballarat Synthetic Maiden Races $25,000. Rotorua Maidens tomorrow $10,000. Puts things in perspective.

We have gone PC mad. The most recent NZ Stud Book I have is the 2000 edition. In it 94 horses have the prefix black. Are these names to be expunged?

I have a small share in El Noir going around at the moment. What next? Will she have to have a name change?