Pam Robson

Chris is a very good trainer, and is also smart enough to refrain from commenting upon the decisions of another trainer.

Bloody good.

Yes, agree, thought he was very comfortable in his job.

I'm not a trots fan to the extent that I would go to Addington....but, as a parochial Cantabrian, take some pride in the positive feedback given to that venue - and equally, want to hear good things about Riccarton. It's my home track, the premier club in the South Island, and of course I want it to be the best. I am told I have been derogatory and negative, perhaps that may seem so, but if one can't proffer opinions in the hope that good may come from them, what is the point in caring?

I'm told the catering - esp. on the big nights - is outstanding.

Have you attended Addington recently?

so NSW continues to forge ahead.....

A 3 year old filly, full sister to the promising Nathan Detroit, has shares available for a racing lease. Broken in and has had a short educational prep, now ready to go on a bit more. Any interested parties, P.M. me, or phone 0274 502 878 Cheers Pam

I may have been a bit hard on our CEO, he has just forwarded an email of Paul Claridge's open letter, and wants interested parties to copy him in to replies. So, at least he is taking the time to be involved, in what shape or form time will tell.

Thanks, I'll P M you later. The thing I would struggle with, is the ethics of getting people on board to race a jumper or two only to have NZTR scrap the remaining ones....which is very likely to happen. We've only got a year or two at best to try and make some progress....and as well there are those who mutter darkly about 'wasting' races and funding on jumps races instead of putting on more flat races.

I,was at that meeting, which was very well attended, and put my hand up to do whatever I could to help. Jo Gordon was co-opted as the captain, she's a livewire and a good choice I feel....but it wont be an easy fix whatever course is taken. It's a chicken-and-egg situation, the reduction in races is a reaction to falling numbers, but those numbers cannot increase when the races disappear ; added to that is the uncertainty of closing venues, two of those on NZTR'S silly plan are jumping venues which, if implemented , leaves Dunedin and Riccarton only. Riccarton smugly sits on the Grand National and does nothing for the rest of the year: despite promising both more races, and assistance with forming/running syndicates to race jumpers it would be unlikely if anything changes there. I rang the CEO next morning to ask if something could be started wrt to a syndicate or group as I had just been offered a potential jumper, nah in the too-hard basket straight away. The NZTR idea is that there is no more money for extra races, fair enough, the outfit is strapped for money, we all know that - but for the four extra races that had been discussed, the funding should be easily found from abandoned racemeetings....far more than would be needed. A challenge indeed.

Yes, it was a good week and both Nationals were outstanding...management need to shake off complacency and show a bit of support for jumps racing however, otherwise their cash cow may depart elsewhere. Many visitors were not overly happy with the conditions of stabling by all accounts and comments about 'shabby' and 'run down ' were heard. Thanks too, yes Nathan tried hard, however he has been up a long time, has learned heaps and will have a well deserved holiday now.

To be fair, the problem with the old stand ( damage to foundations) was not discovered until fairly recently. I agree that the lack of information about the availability of the stand was inexcusable, as was the attitude that ' only a few people were concerned ' which had to be a crock of b/s.

....and yet Oranga Tamariki is vilified....remind me why they exist again..? ( and yes, I know their systems do leave a lot to be desired)

BGP seem to generate interest...its still do-able with the right approach.

The plan was [ I believe ] to run weekly or fortnightly races on the allweather to 'mop up ' races from those tracks that have been 'closed' . Whether that would actually work I can't say, but one thing is sure, nobody would be turning up to watch a borefest, no one comes now apart from Cup meeting. Oh, and National - but if jumping is dispensed with down here, that won't exist either. From what I can gather, only a handful of trainers are keen on an allweather....most don't want a bar of it. A part of that reasoning is the reality that to install an allweather, Riccarton would probably have to lose the plough training track. This is our lifesaver in the summer months, in the dry Canterbury climate training without the plough at Riccarton would be very difficult, the grass tracks are like concrete. Your points make good sense, why nothing is done about the programming astounds me.

Racing folk here seem to be allergic to them.

Bloody hell, ask me something easy. As the grandstand is unusable as a result of earthquake damage to the foundations, repair is out of the question for such a large building at this point. I understand that negotiations are underway with the insurance company for demolition. The allweather? First there has to be the money to pay for it...dunno where that is/was supposed to come from. I reckon that once that old stand goes, any sense of history will go with it ...and they may as well cash the whole bloody joint and develop a purpose built facility elsewhere. JMO.

I think you are quite right - apart from the fact that the Riccarton management are still VERY hopeful that it will materialise. Where from is not so clear.

Buckets of rain on a Gd 2....probably not a big surprise.

Where in the bejesus could you expect to find the funding for that? Seriously?

I've had my say on some matters on the TB forum, I'm a very small player too, so I wouldn't imagine too many would bother with my thoughts on the Trainers' section....if some of the bigger trainers posted it might help a bit.

I think some use the general forum as well, as far more people would read it and take opinion on board.

That didn't come across very well....Tanya has ridden a winner for me, and I have always wished her well...but she has had difficulty settling in to the regime of a 'training' stable environment. Her last place of employment gave her every opportunity, put her on the stable's best, but she struggled with the discipline required and left. This 'situation' that was engineered to allow her to remain in the industry [ otherwise, she was going to be lost, a stipe told me ] has certainly worked well for her but she is lacking quality tuition and is strong-minded enough to be a challenge in that respect.

She's a special case and doesn't listen.