TARANTULA

Trentham R1   3, 8
Trentham R2:  5,  7
Trentham R3:  3,  9
Trentham R4:  1,  3
Trentham R5:  14,  15
Trentham R6:  2,  8
Trentham R7:  4,  6
Trentham R8:  1,  8
Trentham R9   3,  11
Thanks to Liz, John and Scooby. Not just for today but for their ongoing contribution to what makes this a wonderful site.

Trentham R1: 7/8
Trentham R2: 1/2
Trentham R3: 2/4
Trentham R4: 3/7
Trentham R5: 10/11
Trentham R6: 2/8
Trentham R7: 5/12
Trentham R8: 3/10
Trentham R9: 10/11
I had to stick with Not Guilty in the Jeff and Noeline Berkett Telegraph as she provided the prize money!
[Jeff and Noeline have been amazing sponsors of this race over many years. This is the only day of all the Trentham meetings held during the year, that you wont find Noeline behind the tote, punching out your ticket!]
Scooby, thank you for allowing me to sponsor this competition, for a cause very close to my heart.
Say No More, as always you are amazing with what you do. Thank you.

Trentham R1:   1   *    2
Trentham R2:   4    *    5    
Trentham R3:   12  *    13
Trentham R4:    1   *    4
Trentham R5:   11 *   15
Trentham R6:    1   *   8
Trentham R7:    7   *   8
Trentham R8:    1   *   7
Trentham R9:    1   *   7
On the road early on Saturday, so here go's 
Thanks to Liz for your generosity and efforts for the cause, Scooby for hosting, and of course John for the amazing scoring.
Happy punting all,
Cheers,
The other Phil

With the quality racing on the first day of Trentham: Telegraph G1 $450K,  Levin Stakes G1 $500K,  Trentham Stakes G3,  Anniversay Hcp G3,  WellWellesly Stakes LR etc and the opening day of the new course at Ellerslie on Sunday, I am sponsoring a quick fire competition over the two days.
1st Prize $200 to bet with. Win or Win and Place. The winnings to go to the Huntington's Association 2nd Prize $100 to bet with. Win or Win and Place. The winnings to to to the Huntington's Association All you have to do is pick two horses in each race each day.
$10.00 E/W will be invested on each. 
Keeping it simple, there will be no Joker or quinellas.
Trentham have 9 races scheduled and Ellerslie 6, making for a total spend of $600.00
As a further incentive, for every person who wins more than $600.00, I will donate an extra $10 to the association. Say No More [John] will put up the Entry Thread on Wednesday, when the fields come out.
Good luck all.
Liz
P.S. The prize money is coming from our winning bet from the Pairs Competition [2/3 Joan and me, 1/3 Scooby]
 

I will donate $300 to Huntingtons so at least if there is no collects they will still get the $300.00 donation.

She was just $633 short of hitting the $1m mark.  Oh well I guess it would be a good target for next season. 

Merry Christmas, Scooby . . . and a big thanks to you and John for all that you have done for Racecafe members through 2023. Outstanding racing entertainment . . . a great site.
Thank you.

Final Results
Just back from the footy.
Congratulations to our winner FLOYD PINK who held out a strong finish from Pegasus who came up just short.
Thank you all for taking part and I hope you all have a very blessed, safe and relaxing Christmas.
Watch out for our next big teams comp starting in mid-January.  Same format as the recent Pairs comp but teams of four this time.
and finally - come on you Phoenix!  We are top of the league, we are top of the league!! 
 

Te Rapa R5 - Churchillian
Trentham R6 - Puntura (joker)
Trentham R 8 - Sinbin
One of these will likely win and then I am done! 
Thanks for a great comp guys. The loser comps are my favourite....
Merry Xmas to all of you and good luck today. 

The 'Janitor' is gunna be over the moon when he see's that. (i'm sure Keneperu quite excited too ) 
What a drive by Sarah O'Reilly . made to work for it every inch of the run home. and got there with a Methven Cup Winner beating a NZ CUp winner. !!! 
Fantastic drive Sarah . co-ordinated with the stable-mate early , made Mark 'work' to the lead , then threw the sink at him , and beat him fair and square.
I've given Sarah a few 11/ out of 10 scores for drives .  Let's go 12 / out of 10 for that one . Spot on perfect !! beating the grand -master MP. 
 

What a great race it ended up being after disappointing initial nominations.  Fantastic drive by Sarah O’Reilly who made Self Assured work for the lead.  Well judged & well deserved success.  Great to see her get her first G1

THANKS TO JOHN AND SCOOBY FOR  A COMPETITION THAT GIVES US PLENTY OF INTEREST OVER 5 WEEKS.THANKS FOR THE SCORING AND COMMENTS THAT HELP TO KEEP SATURDAY RACING ENTERTAINING.
TRENTHAM RACE 2 THATZ DAISY
PUKEKOHE RACE 2  WITH GRACE
PUKEKOHE RACE 4  CASCATELLA
HAPPY PUNTING EVERYONE.
 

Revised Week 1 scores - see previous post.
 

Well done on getting them some real roughies in the minors this year.Thanks Pondy for running this and thanks to all who entered and of course congrats to Pottsie.

We ran the same comp last year and we’re going again this year, and being a normal work day for John I’m on the tools.
All you need to do is Pick 8 horses who you think will finish in the Top 8…. No you don’t need to pick them in the correct finishing order and no, you won’t be winning $10M.
Picks close at 4.30pm Tuesday. (this is assuming the race will be run around 5pm as usual)
Please post your 8 selections by Horse Number in numerical order.
If you have a Scratching, I’m sure you’ll find time to put in a replacement before the 4.30pm closing time (in a new post please).
If you do not post a Scratching replacement, or there is a LATE scratching, you will be allocated saddlecloth #1, but if you already have it in your selections you will get saddlecloth #2 and so on.
The winner will be the person who gets the most of their picks finishing in the Top 8.
Some tie-breaker Rules:
-       In the event that 2 or more people end up getting say 6 of their picks (for eg) in the Top 8, the winner will be decided as follows:
Person 1 gets 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th
Person 2 gets: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, and 8th
Person 1 will be the comp winner as their first different pick finished 5th, while Person 2 will be the runner up as their horse finished 6th.
-       In the event that 2 or more people end up getting say 6 of their picks in the Top 8, and they BOTH have  1st, 2nd,3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th (for eg) then we will look at the 9th placed runner, then the 10th placed runner and so on until we find the comp winner.
-       In the event that 2 or more people pick the same identical 8 horses and win the comp then it’s impossible to have a tie-breaker to decide the result so they will end up sharing the prize.
Scooby has put up a prize of $200 to the winner and $50 to the runner-up. And as usual the bet is on one horse Win, Place or Each Way (tote odds) with half the winnings going back into the future prize pool.
And some punctuation between selections please. If I can’t figure out what your picks are, I will just allocate you Romantic Warrior in the race but if you already have him in your picks I will allocate you horse # 25.
The first 4 runners home will be known and I will be using MySky FWD/REV to try and determine the finishing order of the rest of the runners, however, if its close and the placings cannot be easily determined I will need to wait for the TAB to put up the finishing order and that will mean posting of the result will take a bit longer.
So many possible scenarios could play out so the judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into…remember this is for fun.
Putting the thread up early to give you the extra study time (even though the Final field wont be declared until after Derby Day Saturday).

Thanks Pondy for doing this...its a great race and is always a fun comp...good luck to everyone entering.

I have been overseas for the last month, and the first article related to Harness Racing that I read on my return  yesterday, was your story on the ATC and their $78m loss.   I have absolutely no confidence in their ability to fund a replacement for Franklin, they have failed miserably to attract the Auckland public to Harness Racing and I do not see any evidence that the right people are in power to do so in the future.
The total disregard for Harness Racing  history and the memory of the Great Cardigan Bay is reprehensible, and further illustrates the complete unsuitability of the ATC  Board to be in control of anything to do with Harness Racing.

Pure Steel I thank you personally for all your work today 
 

Brilliant story Scooby, what makes racing great……

Graham and Subbie: Gone but now eternally together
The newly placed Flemington memorial for Subzero and Graham Salisbury   By Bruce Clark 
07:00am • 10 October 2023  5 Comments Loathe to start with a cliche but sometimes you can get blown away at the racetrack.
Imperatriz twice at The Valley already this spring, waiting to see that she can do it big time, that's Amelia's Jewel at Caulfield this Saturday.
And of course, Gold Trip hacking up en route to The Cups at Flemington on Saturday.
If you are going to do it, Flemington is a pretty good place to shine.
While it reeks of ghosts past and those well remembered, Carbine's stall, statues of Phar Lap to greet you, Makybe Diva for a photo-op, Bart's been on the move but is rightly still there, it's sheer size and vista is a stage befitting new heroes.
But such horses can go as quickly as they come.
So let me take you back to Flemington on the Friday before Turnbull Day, the weather, well let's just suggest it was a little subzero.
Befittingly grey, a wind powerful enough to blow froth in your latte without assistance, but with a sense of rightful, if overdue reverence.
It is the unveiling, finally by the Victoria Racing Club, which has a habit of stoic true custodians of what matters in the game, of the (Graham) Salisbury Subzero Memorial Rose Garden.
 
It's been three years since Salisbury, a Clerk Of The Course at Flemington for almost 50 years, passed away, just some two months before his mate, the universally loved 1992 Melbourne Cup winner Subzero.
Covid-19 had denied them a more defining send-off.
Until Friday.
And perhaps there was no-one more relieved than Graham's widow, Anita, who had kept the ashes of both in their family bedroom at Heathcote, until they were interned "together forever" in their rightful home, the Flemington turf.
A special Subzero Rose has been commissioned and now joins the 16,500 rose bushes that Mick Ryan looks after at Flemington, somehow teasing them to bloom before Derby week, as he has been doing for 30 years.
But this rose, bred, yes, they breed them, by Kim Cyrus — he's done an Ian Thorpe, a Sir Cliff Richard, a Sir Donald Bradman, a Michaelangelo, but Ryan who knows a thing about flowers obviously, reckons the Subbie brilliant white with fragrant scent, will be not just much loved, like his namesake, but a top seller.
 
So why is this important? Well, there has never been a duo who have done more for racing in the community over such a period than Salisbury and Subbie.
Everyone has got a Subbie story, but there would never be one without the other. Yes, we all know he won The Cup in ‘92 (they had to let the internationals in a year later to upstage him), even though he was bought to win a Magic Millions (for $100,000).
Salisbury bought him for $1, vowed to make him "the people's horse", and leading in 17 Cup winners after him was only an entree to the "work" he did from schools to aged care homes, from corporate events to pubs and hospices.
So not even the offer of six figures plus in cash and a brash new Mercedes from an Arab Sheikh on an invited trip to appear at a function on a stage in Dubai, yes Dubai, could you think of any other horse that popular, could shake their lifelong bond.

Graham Salisbury with his best mate.
There have been countless or better thoroughbreds on the track, but as Richard Freedman, one-time trainer of Subbie, and nominated him, the horse, for Australian Of The Year, called him our greatest thoroughbred, for the longevity of his presence in public alongside Graham.
Even today, Subbie's Facebook page has global fans buy merchandise of all opportunities, it was only a few years back, a fan in Scotland requested and got some hair from his tail.
There have been songs written about him, children's books penned, number plates, tattoos, countless pieces of artwork commissioned or just impressioned, a statue in Adelaide (but not Melbourne, and why not despite petitions), his name on races at Flemington and the Gold Coast, a strappers award, and even a Riding For The Disabled Arena, courtesy of the VRC.
He was box office Subbie, Hugh Jackman and Kylie Minogue were fans, he opened Olivia Newton John's Cancer Clinic in Melbourne, with ONJ, supermodels, Kylie Bax has ridden him, Jennifer Hawkins with him.

Jennifer Hawkins with Subzero. Picture: Supplied.
He ate Melbourne socialite Lillian Franks' hat and got away with it, met with then Prime Minister John Howard, who was impressed with a little trick Graham taught him and ran via Governor-General of the Day at that's year's Cup, basically suggesting the PM should meet this talking horse.
Many have seen it, when a host or Graham asks Subbie a question, a few banal ones with no response, until "have you got a girlfriend Subbie?" is proposed and it never got boring and always a roaring laugh or giggle when Subbie vigorously nodded yes to Salisbury's tricked and tickling urging.
When Subbie was sick, seriously ill and needed a special product from America that was on the banned importation list, it was straight to then PM Kevin Rudd for assistance with such baffling red tape and Patty "Rice Patty" McPeak's "Super Flex" was flown into Australia to cure some crippling arthritis with Rice Patty herself tagging along for the brilliant PR ride.
But it was the countless trips to visit kids and the elderly that was so natural for Graham and Subbie but that so endeared the pair to all who couldn't have cared less he won a Cup or any race, but that the horse was such a gentle giant with an innate ability to read the room, any room.

Kylie Bax riding Subzero. Picture: Supplied.
At schools, kids dressed as racegoers from years gone by and made scrapbooks as part of school projects, in the care homes, eyes lit up as the mundane of days ticking slowly away were brightened by a horse, they might have remembered via a betting ticket or television, or just a friendly pet they could touch for a few minutes in some awe.
Every trip was meticulously planned in advance by Graham with the horse's welfare coming first. The float played country and western music, his soft fluffy toy, a sheep, always in his eyeline.
There were those visits to The Emerald Hotel and numerous other pubs around the country, Crown Casino, he wasn't a high roller, but a regular in the Palladium, not so that Mahogany Room.
But if there was one place that my memory of Graham and Subbie eternally remains is the Very Special Kids hospice in Hawthorn, a place we visited on numerous occasions as part of our charity work with Pinchapoo, and to raise funds for the centre, that does incredible work with end-of-life care for kids.
Graham was an old school man, tough as bird poo on the car roof if you like (to paraphrase H G Nelson) – but that hospice got him, yet Subbie would seemingly know exactly what to do without a hint as he walked in the doors and found those kids in beds and somehow a nuzzle here and a pat there, made a harrowing day seem so special.
Like Freya, a young girl. Graham tells the story of how Subbie – "he just knew" – went to her.
The next day she was gone, her parents wrote a letter a week later thanking Graham for the last and lasting memory that Subbie gave their daughter. He never forgot it or forgave himself for not knowing he could have taken Subbie to her funeral.

Graham Salisbury and Subzero in 1994. Picture: John Hart
Now Graham and Subbie have gone but thankfully remain eternally together at Flemington. When you go Cup Week, make a little pilgrimage down to the rose garden and say hello or thanks or – as is the modern world, scan the QR code on the plaque to remember their work.
As Graham once said – "there will be a lot of horses who do things just like him in the future, but there will never be one who does things as good as him."
There was only one Subbie, one Graham. Racing, and the VRC, at Flemington, now has given them a fitting forever home.
 
 

Great for Sarah O'Reilly  clocking up 250 today at Timaru. 

Here's my 'go, thanks.
Te Rapa
Race 2   $100 W  # 2
Race 5   $100 W  # 1
Race 6   $  50 W  # 5 & 9
Race 8   $100 W  # 8
Race 9   $100 W  # 2
 
Otaki
Race 1   $100 W  # 11
Race 2   $100 W  # 4
Race 3   $100 W  # 3
Race 7   $100 W  # 6
Race 8   $100 W  # 11

Many thanks Memphis, for sponsoring ; John, for administering and scoring; and Scooby for hosting.
It's gonna be fun ! 🙂

Final Result
Congratulations to our winner Richie who more than tripled his money over the three weeks.   Nomates a very handy second.
Liz (Insider) took week 3 honours - what might have been!?
 

Hastings R1 #2  $500 win