tasman man

So the culprits in NZ have been the administrators in past eras ? Not the current or recent lot that folk on here like to savage ! Then there are the owners and breeders of recent times who escalate the problem by selling and racing most of our top horses to/in Australia. Yet we expect the current lot to be miracle makers and redeem the situation.....the task looks an impossible one !

Well good for you...... You sound a curious sort of guy !

I read where they are closely associated......Trackside is the Broadcasting arm of the TAB ! But that may have come from someone who doesn't watch Trackside , so wouldn't have the foggiest idea !

Maybe bring back Glyn Tucker .....over the years many very knowledgable and talented presenters like Luke and Liz have been criticised freely on here .Several have moved on to greener pastures where they no doubt better appreciated in more interesting roles. Some have got into law careers , training , jockey managers , syndicators etc etc. You Torch should consider a change of career. I'm sure you'd enjoy a bit of travel around NZ , working weekends often cooped up in a padded cell starring at a camera with heavy make up on , dressed in a suit , pissing in a baked beans can while a race from Chile or Korea is on and learning all the hundreds of animal names plus the jockeys and trainers and venues. No Taranaki or South Island bias from you ! Like many on here you would be great and you are young enough to learn fast and appeal to the future punters out there. Give it a go TORCH !

I'm a bit nervous answering your question after reading you telling a sensitive poster to pull their head in ! A bit threatening ! WOW ! But seriously ,I am pissing myself at your comment that you don't watch Trackside so wouldn't have the foggiest idea ! Quite an admission from probably the most prolific poster on NZ racing on this site. How do you gather so much info....in academic books and as a small owner/trainer down at trackwork ? You commented that you came home on Saturday after trackwork and saw horses on the tarmac in Pukekohe birdcage.....were you on zoom to see that or have you moved North from what I assume is a CD base ? Then tonight you ask a question re the connection of the TAB and Trackside , the broadcasting arm of the TAB !!!!!

That admission is classic.....brilliant !

Which makes his thread even more baffling...why would a well heeled ,well qualified ,well known participant show such lack of respect to a young , possibly inexperienced employee who was possibly filling in during the current crisis ! Rude ,unjustified , cruel comments with any sort of excuse are still rude , unjustified and cruel comments . Some Berries just turn sour !

Recently the TAB did a promotion to attract 'new' account holders. They signed up 12,000 in one day. Mustn't have been too hard. On Melbourne Cup day they had 108,000 active accounts ! These days make a modest investment in a 'property syndicate' and the hoops you need to jump through makes you wonder if worth the effort. Outfits you have dealt with for 20 + years need your ID verified many times over , they need to know where the 'wealth' came from and what you having for breakfast. Its a strange old world...a bit different too !

Yeah right ...not a personal attack ??? Shoot the presenter !! Then an attack on her voice , accent etc etc.....totally unreasonable . Just apologise and move on old son , you were having a bad day ! As for MWalker , I never noticed him so his inciteful comments lost on me . What does he know about the Invercargill trots ? Sits around ,employed for 6 hours to think about and make a total of 8 inciteful comments . Meanwhile the Trackside presenters are performing the the crucial job of co-ordinating back to back racing from several countries so the watching audience can bet on the races and help keep the Industry afloat. The coverage is for betting , warm fuzzies can help but the next race is the most pressing ! On top of the comment re the tarmac at Pukekohe , I wondered Berri.....even the greats make mistakes ! Admit it and move on !

What time were you talking about here...I watched Trackside from 12.30pm to about 7pm , had 90 mins break, and never saw any young lady[ not once] Basically saw lead ups into the NZ races ditto the Aussie races , saw them interview a few trainers including big Mike Moroney , and some winning jockeys. Saw Corey Brown who I thought contributed little and the Aussie anchor was speaking over the Aussie stuff with his usual mundane stuff Had my book here, my computer handy for a few bets and thought the NZ female voice who was occasionally co-ordinating the switch from race to race was 'normal ' re accent and intros. I was perfectly content and not looking to 'step on the flowers while pointing out the weeds'. And the lack of Champagne brands never worries me neither ! Great to see Kiwi horses show up in a sprint and I noted a Tavistock win as well !

Seems like a sensible business decision. The Sunday slugs on the grass do a turnover of about a million , while Auckland Cup day would do about 4 x times that plus the extra attention from Aussie punters as its a Group day and also involves horses based in Aussie etc. Without betting turnover NZ racing and stakes suffer.

Hi....its Trentham r7...not r4 !

Picks Pukekohe r1.....7 Pukekohe r3.....2 Trentham r3......6 BB Trentham r7.......5 Flemington r1.....8 Flemington r4.......5 Flemington r5.......9 Flemington r6........2 Flemington r7.......3 Flemington r8.......3 Rosehill r2........6 Rosehill r3........2 Rosehill r5......2 BB Rosehill r6........12 Rosehill r8.......4 Thanks

Your horse could be racing for in a $60k race on Saturday at Ellerslie. The MAAT race. A slow horse racing for good money is still a slow horse ! Halving the stakes of our 'big' races to add a few bucks to the minimum IMO does little . Kiwis who think their horse has good ability and those punters seeking a little better potential will always play in Australia from here. Its very close !

Quite impressed that this Race thing has attracted your attention WD......still some 5 weeks to go before the event. Obviously you have caught some of the 'teasing' publicity that went out before the race was confirmed and they were calling for interest among slot holders. In recent weeks most of the 'big race' winners have been suggested as possible starters ,so the publicity is ongoing.....I think only 3 x horses confirmed as certain as they were waiting to see if any Aussies would come over following the Miracle Mile weekend. Of course that race postponed due to weather so bit of a hitch there but with covid and travel uncertainty the Australian involvement totally unknown in this first year. The timing of the race and its place in the calendar...around Auckland Cup time and after Australian features .....is one of the attractions of the Race , which is designed to help retain the top pacers in NZ....cos currently they leave in droves for the better opportunities in Australia. Thats a no brainer currently. So Year 1 WD can not be expected to be a 'game changer' of significance , which will give the naysayers plenty to whinge about. Doom and gloomers will be on to it...at least most of the stake is paid by the slotholders . Some already are missing the Jewels which received a fair share of flak ,I personally thought it a great day and concept .The bulk of Funding for that day came from pokies ! Keep up the casual punting on Harness WD and the HRNZ website contains regular references to the race thing ,as does Boxseat while the TAB has a market up which should create interest if any Aussies accept. If you found this post interesting mark 'like' OR if 100% dribble mark sad !

A possible suggestion would be you contact him and get him to send you his picks and any other info you require. Agree on a price to pay for this info...Win / win .

I agree advertising and fields for racing not so in your face as it once was , but all that costs money......obviously more money than in a costly 'rolls-royce' exposure would bring in. Hence any deals are done on the internet at a moments notice. eg today at trots a First 4 not struck so in a push of a button the TAB guarantees a $50,000 pool. Money pours in ,especially from the rain sodden Aussies. Its a quick-fire business , now 24/7 all around the world and very competitive. Though sharp young punters [ the new breed] tell me the on-line bookies often one step ahead of TAB. Digital betting..by phone and computer must be over 90% by now ! In the old days with a couple of days a week racing , things moved a lot slower with several days build up to each meeting ! Recently it was stated that 2% of punters produce nearly 60% of turnover...possibly then 10 % close to 90% ! I doubt they rocking up to the local TAB for the afternoon....thats why they closed , rents and wages made them a drain. Gotta pay the Head Office fishheads a princely sum. Form and tral information etc now available at the push of the button. A few years back I used to to a bit for a newspaper...kept a handwritten card on every horse and a pile of Friday Flash and old racebooks under my bed ! Aaaarhh for the good old days.......a lot different ,but I doubt they were better !

Miracle Mile called off .........too much rain. Will be run next week [ I think ! ]

Group 1 Pacers.....$100 k. [ 2400m]...curtain raiser to Miracle mile 1.Zeuss Bromac 2.Stylish Memphis 3.Triple Eight 4 . Like A Wildfire Tri pai +$500 F4 + $1900 Mach Shard also in field. Q...Why would these second tier horses remain in NZ and make up the fields behind our top horses ....less options , extra travel , less stakes.Or race easier horses for poor stakes with Preferential draw or handicap in stand start. And many of our top NZ horses in recent years been owned by overseas folk !

These trotters clashed at Menangle in the Group 1 Mile. Credit Master sat parked and won at 50/1 in 1.53.1 Doff Your Cap was 2nd ,Andoverlov was 3rd ,Temporale 4th. Temporale went out fast from 9 then trailed. Son of Patrick blew the score up. The race certainly had a Kiwi flavour to it !

Picks Ellerslie r4....1 ,4 ,7 Ellerslie r6..... 1 ,2 , 8 Ellerslie r8......1 , 4 , 6 Ellerslie r9......7 , 9 , 13 Randwick r2.....1 , 6 ,7 Randwick r3 .....1 , 3 ,7 Randwick r5......1 , 2 ,6 Randwick r7 .....3 , 6 ,10 BB Randwick r8......1 , 10 ,12 Flemington r4....2 , 3 , 7 Flemington r6.......1 , 4 , 5 Flemington r7..... 2 , 5 , 11 BB Thanks

As suggested I went for help from a Kiwi expert on SCS inflictions ! Seems we able to agree , as we both members of Club so fully adversant in the decision to sell hill......not to survive as their equity very good but rather to build a bigger nest egg to be able to double stakes and future proof the Club . And rebuild the track , the new track not considered desirable for jumps races , which has decreased significantly in horses, jockeys and especially betting. This is one of the main reasons Jumping has now ceased in all but ONE Australian state. ONE Australian state !!!!!!!! And as for destroying Iconic races , we wondered what the Iconic Hotham Hcp will be known as this year ! Will it be the Hotham , the Lexus or the Saab Quality ??? And what about the ELITE Hiskins Steeplechase...known as the Cox Plate of Aussie Jumping. Gone ! How we enjoyed the wins of Crisp , St Stephen [NZ] and Some are Bent. AT Moonee Valley too......not in Australia champ...haha ! What about Flemington's iconic jumps races especially the William Newton on Anzac Day. Gone ! The VRC got uneasy about the apparent lack of horses.......not in Australia champ ...haha ! The biggest laugh came when my therapist asked who sent me to him...I said pogo ! Oh hell he laughed....therapist IS the laughing man ! He asked how anyone from NSW who have not had Jumping for decades and is well known as an anti- Victorian bigot could argue on line that that State is leading the way . He described pogo's infliction as Egomania with serious streak of Narcissism...always needing to have the last word. He also asked if pogo had ever attended a Jumps meeting ......I said maybe once in NZ [ in his dreams ] and maybe twice in Aussie ! 100% dribble......not in Australia champ.

The season starts at Egmont 27 April , then early May to Wanganui and Te Rapa . It runs to 2 October at Wanganui. There appears to be 27 Hurdle and 28 Steeples races over 20 meetings. I guess the only ones set in stone are the big Premier feature races which have $50k stakes and upwards. Other stakes will be maidens @ $20k and Restricted Open @ $30k.......the type of races will depend on Nominations. Only South Island meeting is the Grand National Carnival..... 3 days in August. Check it out on NZTR / Love Racing website. Click on NZTR along to bar....into Racing Info , into Info and coms Click into Racing Progamme Guide.....that the key document. It all there on one page .....trials are somewhere close too !

Part of the 'new' master plan was to space the feature races into 'blocks' in the calendar so all the good horses in NZ will be herded into the one area. Example is at the moment the top 3 x year olds should all be in Auckland ,ditto the Cup class pacers. Trouble is there are only 4 x 3 yr olds and also small number of Cup class pacers around...will there be enough for The Race. The other top horses eg mares , Krug etc are in Australia racing or if second tier been sold ! An open mares race on Friday for $20k got one nom......ONE ! Can this pattern change......unlikely . If the Allstars and Telfer stables get heaps of well bred youngsters to train , they will soon sort out the best few and the others will drift away.....probably sold...as these two stables will soon know the top contenders. A small trainer gets a good horse ,shows a bit of brilliance and the overseas offer is one that cant be turned down ! See Spirit of St Loius ,Stylish Memphis and Spellbound on Saturday night doing their stuff in Aussie !Why would they return ? Trotters seem to be able to pay their way in handicaps and not hit the top opposition after a few wins like Taipo, Kango, etc

A wag informs me that pogo has been on the scs and dribbling theme for many years ! He even had one of his support team , baz, included. And he bagging our jockey James Mc Donald. And the laughing man been in his armoury for some time ! Surprised they let him drag this stuff into his resthome. Wake up before its too late kiwis !