Shad

Certainly not progress, but when you look at what most are turning over these days, it not to bad.

Hit the road today and visited the Wyndham ,gore then winton and invercargill tracks, shame that two of them will not be having thoroughbred racing anymore, winton looked a very nice surface, thought i better have a look while down this way, turnover at riverton on Saturday was 185k on course, the other meeting up north was 148k, looked like everyone wanted to go to riverton.

Great days racing, first time visitor to the meeting, pleased to get on sterling lady, nice win.

Agree, cup noms very strong to, given the 100k cup race at riccarton, last Saturday didn't have an overly big field, 17 noms for riverton cup, Tommy tucker leading the charge, fields out later today, be a very good days racing. Hope to get there, then will be able to tick that meeting off my list.

Is timaru now staying put, was talk of that being axed.

Just looked up the stipes report for the race, sure enough the horse was lame in off front, certainly looked like it pre race.

Real shame to see waimate club has to move, especially after all the hard work that went into the rebuilding of the grandstand, great little venue, and have been to the track some years ago, when they had some jumping races. Very sad for the other clubs to lose there identity, some which I haven't been to, hope to get to the riverton meeting, as I thought this may be its last year.

Regardless, there was no way I would have put anything on, just the way he galloped down to the start, never really stretched out, and to my untrained eye looked quite short in his action, and to be fair have picked out the odd one over the last few months, that have had poor prelims, one was scratched at the barrier, the other was a favourite that never galloped a yard, tailed off, vetted after the race, and was said to be lame. I base most of my bets on a good strong preliminary.

Thought the Sydney cup favourite yesterday looked average in his preliminary yesterday, didn't hit out at all well, and raced accordingly.

Good days racing racing, thought I was home with miroslava, thought it was a good bet on its last run, with new stable, pipped on the post, then coccee 4th at 40s plus, abbey kaye down the track, but did get a good run for my money, all the same, roll on riverton, hope they get a few more numbers for the cup, than the Canterbury one on Saturday. 100k and 10 runners, mind you the ranks are fairly thin all round.

What a real shame to lose monarch chimes, been a sad time all around, with the loss of boots 'n' all as well, condolences to all connections.

Remember those days, was a novelty getting up the top to see the feature races, who would have thought all the years later, and it's just ordinment, bloody shame, I have no idea what they will do with it, but I guess there will be only one option, given all the safety rules.

The good old days, remembering some of those horses and a few the old school trainers, tex kenalley, Ray Harris, Jim Lalor and Hellen Preston to name a few of my favorites, be many more I have forgotten, certainly enjoyed those days.

Have to ask where you can find some of that old horse info from many years ago, I know some can be found on racing website, but that only goes back so far, or maybe you have an impeccable memory.

Cheers, was a few years ago, the old memory not as good as it once was, but this horse stuck in my head, as we waited sometime for his race day debut, after seeing his trials. The div was worth waiting for, back then we never missed a trials meeting, no TV coverage of trials back then, surprising who many winners you would see.