Hunter the punter

My original comments were on the mark with no thought for trainers /owners throughout nz. Only the easy decision not the correct one. . There is only one lLAST comment I will make . (and I don't accept hrnz  poor excuse which was expected as the few movements of tab staff is given preference over dozens of trainers should they want to stay in busness)   The risk to clubs and trainers means  a difficult future for both. An old saying comes to mind That is "THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM" 










               











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It would be bordering on trump level stupidity to close grass tracks like Methven, Motukarara and others that have double the noms of Addington, Invercargill etc

wow what a muck up some allowed photos others doing as instructed not to attend. I agree with those that think HRNZ or RIU or rita or TAB are putting the sulky on the front end. now HRNZ is ordering me (a decrepid 72 year old) to not attend racemeetings or trials cos I may die !!!! Apparently unbeknown to me I havea compromised Immune system that's also 72 so its goodnight nurse if I get near a racecourse... Finally I have travelled through the looking glass with Alice and her mates .I wonder if I will be allowed to purchase a dressing gown and slippers so I can just slip away quietly and not leave the house to go to manawatu or sight my horse and never see the magnificent south island again. Icould also say closing Manawatu down is not solving anything but putting many fine trainers at risk of getting out of the game.(and owners and bettors. }

Spare a thought this family and the coronavirus
Harness Trainer Carmine Fusco dies, days after his sister dies. Then today their mother died and a few hours later Vinny Fusco Jr (also a trainer) dies.  The mother was 73. The two sons were 55 and 53. Sever others remained hospitalized in critical condition.

It will be like Alcatraz.......the Chinese Restaurant at Alex Park is an independent business so needs to 'be open for trade' but it has been stated that Harness followers will be excluded as customers.
I wondered if the regular trotting group that has the front table  there each week would venture out to get a glimpse of the last 50m of race.
Sorry chaps ,no peeky , peeky !
I was thinking of loaning a mates Burkha but a security uniform may be the best bet !
The club should be saving money and have regulars like eljay to perform security and ID checks , voluntarlly of course !

Geez Eljay, 100 horses X 5 owners per horse, that's 500 people on course .... you'd have to go back to the 1990's to remember crowds that big!

Cardigan Bay broke the mile record there and it was resurveyed and was done again when passing lane introduced at some cost all legitimate. In fact Sir Roy Mckenzie . wanted us to add a shute to accommodate flying miles ,but due to cost and perhaps a bit too innovative for the time. (could have worked).!00 years of history thrown away by the industry. IMHO a disgrace for the Capital of NZ to have no harness racing The Plan was for a mega track on the Kapiti Coast inc the 3 codes which if built in the 1990s would have been tremendous and within budget The cost now would be exhorbitant. Idiots have been running the show for many years with no forward planning other than closing courses which they don't own.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whilst $7000 are not great, they are not the problem. They'd be fine if the handicapping system accounted for them at their true value instead of treating them the same as a $20k race. I'd happily win 3 races against relatively similar opposition each time if I only took the same total penalty as the guy that won a $20k race somewhere else.
The total pool for stakemoney is relatively static, so dividing it up more equitably will solve a lot more problems than feeding the fat cats at the top end of the food chain.
It's very apparent from the seemly bottomless pockets of those buying in the elite yearling market, the same market where a disproportionate amount of stakemoney is going - that to them the handicapping system is irrelevant. When all you compete in are age group features and open class races you don't care what rating your horse is, or what $7k scraps the peasants are fighting over!
 

I bet an Amateur Drivers Race would have more than zero/1 nomination. 

Somebody is saying something?   But who is listening? 
 

Are trainers saying "we don't want miles"??

Nina
Best advice I can give you is not to read any posts by anyone on this site
Second best advice is to tell you that Greg aka JJ Flash appears to be an absolute tosser
Mikie

https://youtu.be/b7dYFQlmKVE 
 
He knew how to use the whip 

Sounds like the late great Vin  Knight .  

You have to wonder how a Club that has been going successfully ( for the most part ) since 1890, that has readily accessible, prime real estate in a central Auckland location worth multi millions, has quality infrastructure suited to a variety of applications, and a first rate track, could possibly find itself in the situation it does.
The Board must take criticism for allowing the previous “management” ( term used loosely ) to put the Club and its assets at risk with this flight of fancy real estate development. It was clearly not thought through enough or the likely contingencies allowed for...the decision appears to have been made on a presentation which highlighted how much money they were going to make...and the “saviour of the industry” slogan we heard at the time.
Throw in senior people out of their depth, lax regulatory control/management, lack of commercial experience and marketing nous and ignoring your core business....and here we are.....
 

Word Mikie  I asked my vet and he said the same, there is no one cause, but that dehydration, low electrolytes - sweating up loses vital hydration etc can be a factor, but it can happen to any horse it aint selective, and it doesn't necessarily mean the end of a racing career either.....
Flawed, what makes you think the Princess has been 'red lined' - thrashed (as in car racing thats what the term means) just because she's a very talented filly who knows how to run and win, do you really think Mark and Nat are the type of people who would do that to their precious bloodstock, come on now......
 
Cheers Iraklis

My point being that you can only "red line" a horse for so long before something has to give. It just so happens that fillies tend to hit that wall earlier than colts and gelding do. But they all have a breaking point!

Thought Bettors Heart was huge..had to do all the work only to get nutted by a horse who got the rails run after doing nothing.
Peter will be spitting chips.....

I'm not Tim but its one of the 'criteria' in the PBD book of tricks.
Normally its on winning stakes then on sex , but with no winners in field it reverts to sex. 
The girls get the cosier draws as per the track grid.
Its a real issue juggling horses into fields each week.....often not like v like ,so many have no show .
Unless South horses come up for the group races , many are just making up the numbers as fields have such wide band of ratings /abilities.
Two lowly wins and you racing strong "Intermediate grade pacers " or maybe even an Interdom runner !

I have raced many horses at Alexandra Park, with more  success than average
I'm not agreeing entirely with Stables but the cost of having a horse trained up North is a factor (going the wrong way may be an issue for some, but not all)
Yes, the South has the All Stars who are at the higher end of the scale on a per day basis, but the South also has a huge number of hobby trainers who are 50/50 with mates in a horse
Don't underestimate how many there are, just have a count-up at the next Banks Peninsula meeting 
Those hobby Trainers don't bolster the numbers at Alexandra Park and, yes, for the reasons that Stables has put forward (land cost, training track availability)

They've done funnier things!!

Two big problems - I am not "one of them" but mainly I been around this game for hell knows how long and the callouses on the callouses on my head after so many bangs over time says surely it's time for younger ideas.      

I think it's safe to assume pukekohe will be sold.
 
 
 

Gary you wouldthi k she would get recognition in hrnz awards won the premiership last 4 or 5best udr pays to trek to all these places and works for nothin g the rest of the week.real soul of the game like yourself.im biased of course.

It don't help those screaming for grass track racing