PC

Small note of interest, in Clone Your Own's race tonight, the 2 dog, Sapporo, is out of top former chaser in NZ Tricky Shelley and the 5 dog, Ride the Rails, is a half brother to Northern Sprinters Cosmic Mack and Cosmic Pearl.

Thrilling Brat's mother Thrilling Faith won by 22.25 lengths on debut at Wanganui, Igor Monelli won by 20.5 lengths at Cannington last Wednesday, and Little Collector, the mother of former Schofield runner Savage (Shep) Conquest won by 24 lengths at Richmond at its 5th race start. As an interesting note, the biggest margin I can recall over a sprint trip was Sumability Bale at Auckland 318m by 13.75 lengths.

Osti's Wish

Bookmaking, or "Making Book" an answer or three. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_of_bookmaking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-odds_betting

If thats the way you feel WideBoy (stakeholder, not employer), please ignore the CV I sent you in the mail:) Seems I have been blacklisted from yet another Billion dollar business. Other codes have betting weeks/months in advance as horses are nominated weeks/months in advance. I admit that I don't possess psychic powers, so difficult to create a futures market from thin air, unless you have come upon a magic wand in your auctioneering. Obviously if I price a Fahey, Ahern or Schofield runner short and they have no ability then they will not win, and the winner will most likely be paying overs, no? Something astute punters tend to cotton onto. Have no concern, I am not "trainerist" if Joe and Julie Tapiki had Little Mother and Hifi Allegro in their kennels they would start just as short as they do now.

In response to one of the more colourful and passionate posts I have seen on here for a while, "futures" for the Auckland Cup and Railway will open on Thursday morning. Due to a computer system error the options have not been able to be inputed, opened and therefore unable to be released. P.S. WideBoy, "disgusted customer"??? I thought you refused to bet with this "useless git"? Also unable to understand sausage roll and Tab corporate function outings spiel, more like a protein shake for lunch and a couple of beers at home in front of the rugby as an outing

Here is a rough calculation ReillyM: Hifi Allegro and Little Mother have raced at the same meeting on 37 occasions. How many times have both dogs won? 19 How many times has 1 dog won and the other run second? 8 How many times have both dogs failed to win? 5 How many times have both dogs failed to place? 1 Pretty incredible record. Hats off to connections as those are un-emulatable (heads-up Oxford, new word alert) feats

Ahane The baby girl name Ahane comes from the Irish word which means, "From the little ford." It also stands for Arabian Horse Association of New England. I guess the best way to determine the pronounciation would be to watch a video of the dog racing and see what the local race broadcasters call the dog. I would love to do this, but can't watch videos at work, all blocked, not really a network, more a netblock:)

Congratulations Dennis, I hear Mel had a bellyfull:) Any for sale, that is a very nice line you have there. PC

So sad to hear about my old mate Nipper, Smokin' Prince passing. He has been like a great old piece of furniture at the Schofield household since before I had even seen my first dog race. 68 Starts 44 wins 12 seconds 3 thirds, and this at a time when Overtime was a kennel star, so he helped forge a very strong attack for the Schofields. A pat of condolence to his sister Mocca (Lady Belair) as well as my thoughts for the Schofield family. R.I.P Nipper. Paul Cook

Depends on the quality of dog. There is plenty of opportunities for short course dogs with ability, but always beneficial to bring in dogs that are "well graded" over here, i.e., dogs that have missed a few placings and start in the lower grades in NZ, such as Fancy Step. Without being too nosey, can you give us the names of the types of dogs you plan to send over, or what times they run on what tracks in Oz? It is not too difficult to guestimate how far they will go over here with that info. PC

I thought to compete in the Sister City race you have to be domecilled in either Christchurch or Auckland to be eligible to contest.

It has been some time since Cecilia Lloyd was included in the initial invitations for the Topgun in Australia. I am completely unsure of the process of how the Topgun in Australia is now selected, however, if ever there is a dog to compete and potentially beat the Oz dogs, then Little Mother is it. Any ideas out there as to the likelihood of A) getting an invite and going over to compete.

Ha ha, good luck Wayne. Safe to say that after the League and AFL on Friday night I quickly declared it Cricket Season and will refrain from watching any more of those aforementioned codes as I am an extremely sour loser, but good luck, and make sure you are well balanced to counter the ColliWobbles:)

Completely agree Dustydreamnz, we all have our preferences. Personally, I prefer sires that appear to throw dominant traits into their offspring. For example, Awesome Assassin threw size, and strength, (it was rare to find an Awesome Assassin sprinter), Token Prince threw strength and ability, but some of the more "erratic" (inconsistent) dogs going around. Hotshot threw speed and the unwanted ability of cramping and plenty of dogs with horrible kennel manners (Hugo Agogo nice runner, but not the nicest in the kennels). I think if you can see traits in a sires offspring that you see missing in your broodbitch, then that is the preferable way to go, try and breed those traits into your "line." However, this is coming from a guy who is still waiting for his little "darling" to come in season so that I can have an interest in breeding for the first time, so take from my opinion what you dare:)