Jag1

I was there today Pickle and was not surprised by the turnout for a guy who had so much respect within the racing fraternity. RIP Russell

Just been notified that Bruce passed away recently. Trained in Kumeu during the time when it was one of the bigger training centres. Bruce trained That Fella who was a handy horse and ran third to Trident in the 1985 NZ Sires Stakes Final. He also part-owned Single Cash who was trained by Peter Wolfenden and won two Rowe Cups (1968 and 1969).

Yep Eljay. Down in the ‘tea hut’

Some great names there. Dane Alexander still training. A bit later when we were in Kumeu the Sunday workouts were huge. Mid-80s Dave Gibbons, Tom Knowles, Peter Young, Gary Hillier, Mike and Owen Nicholas, Don and Shane Hayes all had big teams in work. Many more, but this certainly brings back memories

Yep, handicap in 2007 and free for all in 2008 (Changeover).

I thought it was great and now can't wait to see the next episode. I also enjoy Sheldon's work, he is very passionate about the industry.

Great to see Colin get to the 2,000 wins on Friday night. Well done Colin. Who will be the next to get to 2,000? Peter Ferguson is the next on the list, but the way Blair Orange is going it could be him? Would love Fergy to get there.

Starting at the top Lyell Creek & Take A Moment 3 each Tim Butt 7 Luxury Liner Roy Purdon Stent (not 100% sure about this) Tony Herlihy Courage Under Fire, Christian Cullen Lyell Creek, Idle Scott 6 Mark 33, Barry 16, Cran 9 & Tim 15

After the Tea Hut some would then venture over to Tommy Knowles' place for a BBQ with fresh paua fritters and a few more beers. Then help him feed up.

I knew Max reasonably well and did drive a few for him in junior drivers races. Unfortunately I was driving in the race he fell in and he seemed fine afterwards and I was talking to him in the old drivers room down in the stable area at Cambridge. I remember Ken Webber was also talking to him when he had the heart attack and he alerted the medical people on course. Tim, back then Kumeu was huge. A couple of hundred horses worked on the track and then there were the stables around Boord Cres that had their own tracks. The workouts on a Sunday were pretty big to with a heap of horses each week and I remember big crowds on a Sunday as well. It was a good place for a young driver to learn a few things on the track from the likes of Tommy Knowles, Peter Young, Gary Hillier, Frank Cooney, Mike Nicholas etc, etc (the list goes on). But not only were there plenty of full time professional trainers, there were a heap of owner trainers as well and the track seemed to be in used all day, every day with people working their horses in the evening (after they had finished their 'day jobs')

That was something that went through my mind as well, maybe it does need to be looked at. If there had been a crash then the race could/would have been called off. Maybe it is because of when it happened in the race??

Just watched the replay of race 7 from Cambridge and that was an excellent piece of horsemanship by Andre in avoiding a dangerous situation and ensuring the safety of the field and in particular Jay.

It does seem to be the case with minor sports - there is a guy called Peter Michael who has won the world speed skating champs 7 times and I can't remember seeing anything on the mainstream sports news about him. Although it is possible that I missed it. There have been times when leading horses have made the mainstream news - remember the time the town of Morrinsville had a parade for their adopted racing superstar Courage Under Fire? That made the news. But they are few and far between. The Waikato Times used to have quite a good racing section and when Anthony Corban was racing editor there it also had quite good harness racing articles.

http://www.riu.org.nz/announcements/riustatement-postraceirregularities-harnessracing

A group or feature race takes precedence so a reserve in a feature has to start in the feature if it gets in. Just can't find the exact rule at the moment, but looking.

Do you know if the list of candidates has been published anywhere? I can't see it on the website, maybe in the mag (which I don't get)

I'm pretty sure that Tim Butt said that Field Marshal was "doubtful" to start in the cup. But things can change.

You are right there harewood - very long bow to draw considering Cran Dalgety trains the winner and Dexter has already won the drivers premiership.

Yep, there are plenty of examples of fathers giving up drives to aid their sons/daughters driving careers. So agree with you there eljay

Tim, tend to agree with you. Peter still gets plenty of drives on the circuits but not at Auckland and could well be down to what you are saying re the field sizes. Definitely still one of the best drivers in the country (incidentally the last driver to win the premiership prior to Dexter's reign)

Alex Townley in 1970.

Another standardbred that has had a lot of starts in recent years is Destreos almost 400 starts mainly in Aussie, but some here

Well done HRNZ.

Not only is he a great dog, but the effort of Jean and Dave to get him back to this sort of form is an outstanding training effort.

A few years ago there was an instance of a dog being disqualified after a number of months (the hearing etc moved very slowly). At the time I remember having discussion with the racing manager and racing administrator and it was decided that due to the number of starts that both the winning (subsequently d/q dog) and the second dog had had in the meantime that the disqualified dog would stay the same grade and so would the dog that got promoted. I'm pretty sure it went to the Racing Committee at the time for confirmation. I can't remember whether it went into the rule book or was developed as a regulation.