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Heaven Rocks does look a very exciting type. All things being equal I believe only bad luck beats him but as you rightly say there are also a couple of factors that make you a bit nervous regardless of price. Very interesting comparison you make to Hands Down. http://www.harnesslink.com/News/Hands-Down-s-memorable-1980-NZ-Cup-win-68306 I can see why you'd make the comparison but I believe we are in the process of revolutionary change in harness racing. Things are evolving faster than ever before. Some of the times horses run just leave you scratching your head. Our greatest ever Cardigan Bay won the NZ Cup in 4.11 back in 1963. The mare Adore Me won the 2014 Cup in 3.54 some 17 seconds faster than Cardy. When you see just how much ground a cup class pacer covers at high speed in 17 seconds it makes Cardy look very average which he so obviously wasn't. Cardy would just have entered the home straight in Adore Me's cup as she hit the finish line based on their comparative times in the same race. When I think of your traditional NZ Cup winner I think of a five,six or seven year old horse. Question has to be asked if any Juvenile All Star fillies or colts will still be racing at that age. Follow The Stars and Fight For Glory two typical examples. They have been in a pressure cooker from an early age because of the ridiculous money in juvenile racing and it's rare to see that and race career longevity going hand in hand. Have Faith In Me is the exception to that. He's being very carefully managed to ensure longevity. Deliberately bypassing The Jewels further evidence of that. I'm sure him not being a stallion or filly is the key there. Same backdrop applies with Heaven Rocks. You have to wonder what the NZ Cup will look like in another twenty years. Will we see the first ever 3 year old win the cup? Will they break 3.50? Ten years ago I would get certified for asking those questions. Maybe I will get certified asking now

Ignore the experts and back your own judgment. Many people will be tuning into The Box Seat tonight. Some looking to be pointed and influenced in a certain direction. Don't. The Jewels are nine group one races where everything is stacked in the punters favour like no other harness meeting of the year. NZ Cup day is big but lets face it,there are numerous supporting races with just so so stakes for such a big day and many connections won't be targeting those races with high priority. Not so Jewels day. Every horse in every race is there ready to perform to the best of their ability on the day. We've all seen these horses go around numerous times previously so have a very good line on their actual ability. We know their form so can weigh up where they rank alongside their opposition. To paraphrase,we know how good they are and that they are on the job. What else do you need? I respect the knowledge of Craig Thompson and Michael Guerin but there are limits to that. They have steered punters in the right direction many times previously but they have also been so wrong you have to wonder about their eye. Craig obviously chats often with the Butcher boys and that is invariably reflected in his perspective just as Michael communicates long and often with his good friend Mark Purdon. This is also reflected in a bias. I watched The Box Seat several times and witnessed Guerin give huge pushes to one All Star over another to the point you'd have to be extremely determined to stay with your original choice if that was the All Star Micheal Guerin was strongly advocating would not beat the stablemate. He has been completely wrong numerous times. I enjoy opinionated judges that put their judgment on the line but it's important on days like the Jewels that we don't let them talk us out of our picks. Craig Thompson has a good eye and spends a lot of time doing his homework. I respect him as a form analyst but he also gets it wrong often. I've seen many of his strong pushes do zero in races and wondered what the hell he was thinking. At the end of April the three year old superstar Marcoola headed to Auckland. This horse beat up it's opposition big time in Christchurch in a way that left no excuses whatsoever for them. Very rare to see such a dominant performance that was not an All Star or The Orange Agent. Did more work than anything else in the race on a good pace and then had the audacity to bolt away from the opposition and leave them gasping. You don't do that by accident. To my eye it was just a matter of times and margins for the Auckland trip. I backed him with supreme confidence. Only bad luck could beat him based on everything I'd seen. I tuned into The Box Seat and Craig Thompson gave a big push for High Gait and repeatedly stated Marcoola represented no value at the price the accountants had put up etc etc. We all know that will invariably be the case anyway so no rocket science there but I feel certain he talked a lot of people out of Marcoola by repeatedly stating the accountants had got it wrong. There is no value backing the beaten brigade and sometimes the pursuit of value can steer us away from what is a very very good thing. I will record tonight's The Box Seat and watch it after The Jewels. If you think Sunny Ruby can out-sprint Monbet in the home straight then bet accordingly regardless of what the experts say. If you think Monbet would need to fall over to get beaten then don't let anyone sway you against that thinking. Most judges feel Dream About Me has virtually no hope from her draw in the 3 yr old Diamond. As a result she is now at 2.20. Personally I'm laughing at that. If she was from a different stable I wouldn't be interested but in my opinion she is way better than her opposition. I'm extremely confident she will get off the fence early simply because of who's sitting in the cart. She can work harder than all the others and still beat them. When she comes calling, do you think a stablemate will fight her if she wants the front? Extremely rare for Mark Purdon to suffer bad luck in a race...especially a Group One. 2.20 is money for old rope in my opinion and I will totally ignore the draw. I may get burnt for that but it will be my burn that nobody else had any part in. Weather forecast for Saturday looks very good so no slushy winter track to deal with. Biggest uncertainty for me is the length of time since many runners last raced. How big a factor will this be? I can see some races that look all over red rover but I can see others that look dead set traps. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see a couple of long priced winners. Back yourself as much as you back the horses in Saturday's Jewels.

I appreciate you don't agree with my post but why would you ridicule what I put forward for discussion? Is your goal to discourage people from starting threads? I don't believe I'm even slightly uptight about the topic I've raised and feel you've outdone yourself to suggest I not work on Saturday's. I often time my breaks around a race I want to watch midweek. A two minute delay to the start is ok but waiting nine minutes for a single horse to be reshod is unreasonable in my opinion and frustrating . Should be late scratched if it's going to hold up the start for that long. Yes owners deserve to see their horse go round but the same logic applies to horses that are reluctant to enter the starting stalls yet we wouldn't expect starters assistants to spend nine minutes loading a single horse into the stalls. It wasn't the owners fault their horse wouldn't enter the stalls. It's not the owners fault when a driver or rider is slightly injured when tipped out just prior to the start. The horse gets late scratched. I'm all in favour of giving the runners every opportunity to take their place in the field but there needs to be a line in the sand especially when TV broadcasts are involved. There was about $35,000 punted on this race via multiple pools so clearly there was a bit of interest from punters in the race. Maybe none of that was from Australian punters because it was a maiden trot early on Saturday morning but you miss the point. My Saturday afternoon has gone well so far thank you. How has yours gone? With other commitments on your radar,how long are you happy to wait for a race to start due to an issue with a single horse? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 30 minutes because the owner deserves to see their horse go round? Last time I looked horse racing was not about one horse and one owner. I've been a keen jumps fan for many years. Very hard to get excited about the present crop of Australian jumpers. Nice stake of A125k for a field of five hurdlers in the Australian hurdles is a sad reflection of what was once a great race. This is the same race JJ Houlahan trained the winner of eight times. No sign of another Black and Bent. Would settle for one half as good. I spoke with Steve Pateman about his favourite hurdler at Casterton four years ago and he just loved the horse. The Australian Steeplechase today is the worst field I've ever seen go round in the time honoured event. Angelology is a decent jumper for the Payne's but the rest are hardly a vintage crop. Thanks for your input.

First race at Winton was about to start. I take a break at work for a few minutes to watch the race on my phone. Then a runner throws a shoe. Farrier called to the start. Race is delayed for a diabolical nine minutes. That's nine minutes for people on both sides of the Tasman to stand around twiddling their thumbs etc. People on course just standing around. Rivals that were ready to go now just waiting for the farrier to complete his work. Busy broadcasting schedules getting messed up. I've seen other venues late scratch horses that take more than 60 seconds to load yet they hold up tens of thousands of people etc for nine minutes while one horse is reshod. Is that reasonable? I would feel bad about keeping a handful of people waiting for 2 minutes let alone thousands of TV viewers etc. Is it unreasonable to create a rule where we late scratch any runner that will delay the start by longer than 60-90 seconds regardless of runner and regardless of race? We already have some gallops people resenting harness racing on Saturdays due to "start issue delays" and then we go and begin today with that farce. Confidence rushes down the plug hole. She'll be right mate.

Lonergan and Hosking together. Throw Auckland Mayor Len Brown into that mix along with Cameron Slater and you have four much loved and highly respected New Zealanders I would much rather pay $50 pay per view to watch those guys all in the ring together. Last man standing. The losers never allowed to be seen in public again. The winner gets a two year all expenses paid holiday to Syria.

I enjoy mile racing Lamour but the results are so often dependent on the draw. Many starters are already virtually out of their sought after Jewel the moment the draws come out. That is especially so at certain tracks. Running over a mile and a half at least negates the luck of the draw to some degree. Happy to concede I'm wrong. Holly. Yes the Jewels are being held the same time this year as last year. I've been to Ashburton at this time of the year and felt like I was in an igloo. Cambridge in June can also be no picnic. Fingers crossed for a nice day but chances are at this time of year the weather will likely detract from the day. Why risk having wet and cold Jewels?

Brodie. Jewels day and NZ cup day are our best two days of the year. Yes I'd rather see the big prize money split among more stables but our top horses racing for good money is very appealing. Having said that,not everyone believes the Jewels are heading in the right direction. What would you do to improve the format? I'd like to see a few changes. Top of the list is location. Why race at the same venues? Harness racing is popular everywhere yet we are stuck at Cambridge or Ashburton. I'd love to see venues like Nelson and Winton etc used. Get more of NZ into it and excited about it. If you had the Olympic games at the same venue each time it would soon become the same old same old. I'd also like to see a race for the older cup type horses at the Jewels. Why exclude the very horses we once rated above all others? The Golden Slipper is a beaut race but we'd never dream of dumping the Melbourne Cup. As for race distance. I always enjoy mile and a half racing. The barrier draws are not so critical at that distance either. Having mile races at a track were draws are so important detracts from the concept in my opinion. As stated previously I also believe the day should be a month earlier.

Another one? Remember when he got knocked into a different galaxy in a head clash against the Kangaroos in 91. Just watched the clip again. Some big names in both sides. The game just carried on as if nothing had happened while Lonergan was out cold,arms outstretched like a victim of Pompeii and legs shaking like the Christchurch earthquake. In this user pays society it's unfair to have some paying while others don't but it's well over the top calling those who watched it via Facebook as cowards. Boxing is responsible for some of the biggest rorts in sport so it's a bit rich to point fingers at cowards who almost certainly wouldn't have paid to watch the fight anyway. Most of us have listened to music or watched movies that others have paid a premium to watch. Turn the page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-NQq611x8k

Not sure they have it right. The Oaks and Sires run at Addington on Saturday push the Jewels back and I feel the Jewels loses badly as a result. I don't think The Oaks it's self is helped by the timing either. Was wet on Saturday and it was slush when Fight For Glory won the year before. How does a slushy track enhance that age group classic for the fillies? Early June is often wet and or cold. A wet track often brings the really good horses back to the field. Cold weather often keeps people at home. Neither of those elements are good for The Jewels. Hope it's not pouring down at Cambridge but current weather and forecast not looking good for such an elite day. I feel the Jewels should be in the first week of May,a week after the Auckland Rowe Cup meeting. That would enhance the Rowe Cup meeting and be helpful for connections. At present the date is five weeks after the Rowe Cup meeting which seems to be somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea. What have Field Marshal and My Kiwi Mate been doing since The Messenger a month ago? Monbet etc have gone all the way back to the South Island just to hurry up and wait for five weeks.

Does this charge for all credit card deposits regardless? Some years ago the TAB charged me $2 every time I made a credit card deposit. Then about five years ago when they were telling me I was a preferred customer etc they pulled that $2 charge. I was pleased they did that as I felt it was their role to encourage me to bet not discourage. I have three offshore betting accounts. My NZ TAB account is my least favoured betting account but I still put through decent numbers each month. If they reintroduced the charge on my deposits I would on principal under the circumstances cease ever using my NZ account again on that day. I wouldn't bother closing the account as they just see that as an emotive protest. No transactions over an extended period speaks much louder than anything else especially on an alleged preferred customers account. My feeling is they will flag away this charge in the months ahead. It's false economy and will only backfire. My pick is it was put forward by someone bereft of ideas who's out of touch with his customer base.

Was checking out football results this morning and came across the Danish team "Middlefart" http://www.futbol24.com/team/Denmark/Middelfart-G--BK/ Judging by their results i'd say they are not ass good as first or last farts.

You can't be serious? Some perspective would be helpful. Christen Me is on the slow build up after last years NZ Cup campaign came unstuck when he was the clear early fav. Cran Dalgety spoke of bypassing today's 20k race as he didn't want Christen Me to have a gut buster from 30 meters. He's targeting the Len Smith Mile at Menangle among other features. Titan Banner got a 20 meter start in a race that is only a serious hit out race for Christen Me. As for Titan Banner now being fav for the NZ Cup in November. Can only assume this is a tit pull. Have Faith In Me will be a raging hot fav and I can think of at least two other All Stars that will rate much higher than Titan Banner in the Cup. Smolda and Lazarus. Then you have a nailed down Christen Me to deal with etc etc. As it stands now Titan banner is at least a 15-1 chance in the cup. Personally I wouldn't take 20-1 for Titan Banner at this stage if the NZ TAB accountants put that up. Nice win today but keep it real homey.

Age discrimination. Rewarded for being younger. Penalized for being older. Eleven races today. Most of the high value races will be won by the same stable..possibly even the same owners. Horses that will not be around for races like the NZ Cup and Auckland Cup. 5 x 2 and 3 year old races = 80k 60k 40k 170k 150k Total = 500k Half million dollars. Older horses = 6 races. 20k 20k 20k 20k 20k 20k Total = 120k. Perfunctory tokenism toward the older horses that include Sheemon,Sunny Ruby,Christen Me etc.

Eye opening film / doco. Highly recommended.