Treat

The Sacred Falls are really firing now! How typical after a stallion dies!

Winston sold the majority of voters down the drain last time! A number of racing supporters are still farmers, Winston going with Labour and the Green's has created a nightmare for farming. I gave him my party vote last time. He's had 3 years to "save" racing, did nothing for the first 2, but let the government put the boot into farming. If Labour get back in we'll be going broke paying shiney arse consultant's for consents, when they have no practical idea about our land, there won't be any spare dollars to race horses!!

RIP Rip Van Winkle, another stallion lost from the ranks, it's been a lousy 12 months for the stallion list.

Just wondering if anyone knows if there's going to be a Waikato stallion walk this year?

Super Seth at $35,000 !! Seems pretty high for these times!

Some of the comments on here are rather akin to our poxy government, regard "farming" as being all about dairy. Believe it or not there's actually still a hell of a lot of hill country sheep and beef farmers out there! I know lots of sheep and beef farmers with shares in horses, including friends that are in Jennifer Eccles. I am in several syndicates myself, plus 3 mares, 2 yearlings, 2 weanlings. If we could get a government that doesn't tar everyone with the same brush, had that rare thing called common sense, and stopped giving "subsidies" to all these overseas outfits to turn good sheep and beef breeding land into pine trees we would be going great!! What worries all us farmers is who the hell do you vote for??? Jacinda is a do gooder, Bridges has nothing appealing, Winston is an ineffective sellout, the Greens will put us all down the drain (after we've spent a fortune fencing hill country gullies off and end up with bugger all farm) Act........?? on more consideration, we probably are all stuffed!!

In all the doom and gloom, all the moaning and whingeing, how about a bright spot, Saturday afternoon's racing was great for Kiwi's! Although I missed that Trackside 2 had better coverage of Rosehill. I'm a Verry Ellegant fan all the way, so just loved that win, and people raving about the leaders bias..... really!! She was no where near the lead till she changed gear in the straight! Quick Thinker, Night's Watch (no where near the lead either!) , Probabeel, Chris Waller, JMac, it was a great day for kiwi connection's!

From a farmer, jumps mad racing enthusiast, shareholder in a wet tracker, who I would love to see over fences, it's been such a dry summer and autumn, we're hoping like hell for a wet winter / spring to lift water levels before next summer! May the wet trackers still be running in October!!

went pretty good!! Quite amazed to see looking through the field pre race, that there were 11 stallions in the cup!

Every Aussie and Kiwi battler will have something to yell for now Surprise Baby is in!! $5500 buy, that's a Melbourne Cup story!! Imagine if he wins it, the dream will be alive again for thousands of potential owners!

Great to see for the team involved, and to show a bargain buy (in Te Akau terms), from a good family, bred by a lovely lady, can give people a lot of fun and success! But no comparison to the "glory" days of the likes of StarCraft! It would have had a lot more meaning if Te Akau Shark had raced in the first or second leg, there really wasn't anything else in the field yesterday that I would be punting on in a group 1 in Aus. A show of the really sad side of NZ racing, if they're good, they're gone! Some great racing to watch in Aussie yesterday, imagine if some of the "Kiwi's" racing over there yesterday had raced at HB, wouldn't that be so much more exciting in NZ, the way things are looking, something we won't get to see again, multi million dollar spring group 1's in NZ would have to be a very foggy dream!

I really hope they can get things sorted. It's a vicious circle, right through. A lack of staying races for young horses, right through to jumps races, means no encouragement to breed stayers, which the South Island and New Zealand were famous for, and solid stayers make good jumpers, and jumps give another career for stayers to go on to. I love jumps races, and staying races. Also have a couple of broodmares, hoping to breed some miler / stayers / which could go on to jumpers. I have shares in several syndicates, one of which is with social racing, which I came across on facebook. Social media can be used very effectively to bring "middle aged" and younger people in. People love following regular updates, even if it's just random photos, White Robe Lodge do a good job, and Isola Racing have a fantastic page. Pam Robson, you write very well, you could do a great page. Go outside the old school, maybe try to get a "jumps" page going. The CEO's obviously are going to be as much use as the proverbial Tits on a Bull. There's a lot of the jumps jockey's now who are well spoken and switched on, get them involved. It's amazing how many likes and followers a video of a jumper out having a hoon round their paddock will get, or a jockey, track work rider, trainer giving the horse a pat or cuddle, most of the people who would be interested in a share in a syndicate are horse lovers, many of them would love to have been directly involved but have never had the opportunity to, they love to see the behind the scenes stuff, not just the actual races. You need to pull their heart strings! If you want help with a facebook page Pam, I'm no computer wizz but I could help with something like that. Best of luck!

That's good to hear Ruby, I have a mare due to Sweynesse this season. Saw a yearling, now 2yr, filly by him a while ago that I really liked too. Thank you Jeepers, I do think it's certainly helpful, and less injuries, to horses and people, if they're nice and sane at weaning! Big trip for an unbroken horse!

As a small time owner breeder, breeding to race. Just wondering if people have progeny of some of the younger stallions, in the under $10,000 service fees, eg. Sweynesse, Rageese, Vanbrugh, Complacent, Telperion, Vespa, Wrote...... people with yearlings/ 2 year olds by any of these, are you happy with their temperaments, types, are you breeding back to these stallions? There's a lot of options this season???

I noticed yesterday that the lovely jumper, Raisafuasho, who won his first steeple, exactly 9 years to the day from when he had his first trial as a 2 yr old. This is a great racing story, he's had a fair amount of success in between too.

Love the jumpers, the only race meeting I actually attend is a jumps day! Programming seems to be a big part, does it also follow on from poor programming for stayers, and loss of interest in breeding stayers. I have shares in several horses and there are often comments from the trainers of issues with where the stayers are going next because of programming. The Aussie system appears to be working, seems to be plenty of Kiwi horses head over there for jumping now too, along with the stayers, which depletes the ranks. Hope, like all else racing, something is done to keep the wheels rolling!

Actually I think Nick Bishara didn't receive anywhere near enough credit, she went to Weir going great! Weir was too busy fighting her and throwing more gear on her, just made her worse. Best thing that could happen going to Chris Waller, he's worked "with" her instead of fighting her!

Does anyone know if the Karaka sales are going to be televised again this year?

Didn't settle. The more the pace slowed the more she fought, then got 3 wide. Do they need to take a leaf out of the Might and Power story? Not fight her and let her roll more?

She stepped up!

Very Ellegant good win in Aus. pretty exciting filly for Zed.

Took the risk last year and ended up with a decent vet bill and a dead foal ! Haven't found a chrystal ball which tells if a breeding's going to be a good one either, isn't that why we breed, hoping for a good one!

Just wanting some opinions on foal insurance, which companies people are happy dealing with? I'm breeding to race. Lower budget ($5000) stallion fee. What insurance packages do people find best and approx. costs? Thank you.

Gina Lee Schick does a great job with her reschooling and rehoming of OTT horses, many of them going on to be high class eventers, showjumpers, and showhacks, including horses coming back from Hong Kong. They range from unraced through to the very successful.

If the stallion returns aren't filed, what does that mean for people with mares in foal to these stallions? Does it mean the foals won't be able to be registered?