RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.

Hollywood Baz

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  1. Gee, I hope she can be saved!
  2. The old saying goes: One white foot buy him, two white feet try him, three white feet be on the sly, four white feet, pass him by. Probably reasonable advice, as white feet likely mean white hooves which are more brittle, and can lead to issues with the more re-shoeing race horses need.
  3. I Totally agree. This won't fix all the ills of the industry, which have been creeping up insidiously for 30 years and more, but to attract new punters and followers who want to return and not just go for a Christmas piss up, requires better facilities than 90% of our tracks can offer. Unfortunately most of our tracks have capital investment requirements which cannot simply be funded. Also, gone are the days that race-courses need large grandstands which have become dinosaurs and money sinks. Travel up to an hour to go shopping or get to work is now the norm for many people, so the need for many racecourses built when we were a country of small farming communities is long gone. Racing clubs are also saddled (pardon the pun!) with the issue confronting golf clubs and bowling clubs throughout the country, ie falling membership, and those that are members are working hard to pay the mortgage so can't give volunteer time. We have a total country population similar to Melbourne, and less that Sydney. If all current clubs want to stay in existence because they have good local support, then that's great, let them run picnic meetings such as Pirongia do, but if our goal is to get the younger generation(s) interested and regenerate interest in racing, we can't send them to a 1960s venue with brown carpet, formica tables with chrome legs, warm pies, and a cold windy concrete grandstand to watch the races.
  4. Sure was a great buy, so good luck to the lucky chap from New Plymouth. She was unraced, and has had 4-5 foals since going to stud, none of which had even raced (a couple had trials), and New Zealand's 'best' studmaster thought she wasn't worth persevering with. Also interesting is that a number of other mares were also sold by Sir Patrick at this sale, some by Zabeel, and this one looks like the cheapest by far, so as you say, you never know! - You don't have to buy a lotto ticket to win lotto!.
  5. Sorry to hear that. Condolences to all the wider family.
  6. Grew up in Hawera near to the racecourse and used to watch the races from Turuturu School. Earliest memories of race horses were having that grand standardbred Johnny Globe stabled across the road from our house while travelling through Hawera, and watching the horses in the birdcage from my classroom at Turuturu Primary School (before the area was all built out). Spent 8 years and all my spare time (outside my 40 hour a week job) helping Fred Meynell, and was lucky enough to be able to keep my own horse there. Great trainers based in Hawera, and some super horses trained in Hawera in the 70's and 80's, eg Wally McEwan, "Deeks", Herb Bergesen, Fred, "Ginnah Hart", Wiz Moseley, owner trainers Brian Hayter, Tom Mathieson etc. Great horses I was priveleged to see being trained in Hawera - Fury's Order, Copper Belt, Simon de Montfort, Kythera, Kia Maia, Kia Marea, Cubacade, Regal Band, Kerry Lane, Rich Return, Kartika, Stylish Pal, - the list goes on. Still very interested in horses and their breeding, just a shame racing has been in a slow downward spiral for thirty years.
  7. Also a good read in this morning Sunday Times - Michael Pitman promoting his "$1 a day" syndicates. Michael seems to have endless energy and enthusiasm and this comes out in the article - good on him!. One very interesting comment he makes - "I'm very anti people being ripped off in syndicates charging too much". I totally agree. Without naming names, there are regular ads being placed encouraging people to join syndicates where the monthly cost for 10 syndicates members is around $300 per month, making the total annual amount being paid out $36,000 a year. I would love to see a detailed breakdown of where this money goes!. How about one of these syndicate organizers fronting here and providing this detailed breakdown! This cost is of course also additional to the 10% share of the horses purchase price you initially pay.
  8. Just received my "North and South" for April. Very well written article of 10 pages with a lot of photos as well. These syndicates are not my "scene" but you have to admire their success rate. Also includes some interesting and pointed comments by Albert Bosma re the stakes in NZ, the excessive number of race courses, the need for bookies etc. Great advertising for them, but also for the industry.
  9. It's great to see some philosophical people on this post who clearly love horses as animals, and horse racing as a spectacle. Fitzy's comments about the relative returns from the early 1980s compared to today are interesting. I recall winning my first race as an owner trainer in 1977 and receiving a net $900. However, as an owner trainer this amount covered most of my costs for 12 months (not my hundreds of hours labour of course). I think that in addition to what Fitzy says, other big changes meaning there is little demand at the 'bottom' end; are syndication (where horses come from select or premier to ensure there is a demand for them), far fewer people (% and numbers) being interested in racing due to a multitude of other activities around (and due to the terrible state of most of our far too many race-courses). Also, I recall in the 1960s and 1970s, there were many hundreds of farmers who either bred, owned, or trained a horse or two as a hobby, who helped with demand at sales time. Because of the fact farming has become more of a big business than a lifestyle in recent years, there has been a dramatic fall off in these owner trainers. Therefore I see it being a combination of factors alongside the breeding from animals with no pedigree, race history, and bad conformation, which has contributed to little demand at the bottom end sale. I don't believe changing its name will have any effect.
  10. These results are to be expected when you are racing here for peanuts and very high costs. The festival sale will wind itself up, as who can or would want to breed a horse, which comes up for auction and gets bids well under the service fee, let alone all other costs to get it to the sales. A median of $8k!!! this is a joke! (except if you had a horse for sale - commiserations to those who did)- I haven't gone through each lot, but it would be an interesting exercise to take the entered horses stud fees, add on the cost to keep them and prepare for the sales etc etc, and see what % would have actually even managed to break even for their (literally), poor breeders.
  11. Agree that this seems a very good price. Unless you have a very good mare, best to wait for three years I think, when none have started winning and you can buy one for half the service fee!!!!!
  12. Before you buy anything, you MUST be prepared to be happy to part with all your money and see no return. This is clearly the worst case, but quite common scenario. If you are comfortable with that, then go for it and have some fun. Clearly, previous posts indicate that we do not know what you intend to do with a horse you breed and what your budget is, but if you have the passion to breed thoroughbreds life is too short to not have a go. As well as Berri's advice re conformation, temperament is very important, especially if you are going to be hands on - ie you want to enjoy it and not have to deal with a 'bitch' of a mare who is likely to pass bad temperament onto her foals.
  13. Agree that he is a stunning looking animal. I could (almost!) be persuaded to want to start breeding again if he was at stud here! Although I would need to convince my bank manager that breeding horses is an investment, when clearly it is not, but it is a bit of fun if you don't mind losing thousands!!!!!!
  14. Cant' agree more - we need the younger generation to be involved. And it's good there are some keen young trainers out there. But we are beset with larger issues (unfortunately), ie what percentage of the young (unde4r 30 say) generation are interested in horse racing? - I would venture to say "very few". How do we get them interested? - we need (to start with!), first class facilities. Seeing a good crowd at Ellerslie for Derby Day does not mean there is much interest in NZ racing from our younger people. You also point out about the positive tax change "whinny" made a few years ago, and yes, it was good. But how many new owners, punters, horse lovers has this created? I would venture to suggest very few. Stakes are now 7k for maiden races - woopdy doo!! - training fees are now 25k plus per year, so, although it is fair to say most people do not enter the racing game with a view to making their fortune!, there is a difference between losing a bit of money at a pastime you enjoy, to frankly feeling like you are flushing money down the toilet. So good luck to all the young hard working trainers around. It just concerns me there won't be any owners around for them!. As an "oldie" you might think some of the posts on this forum are negative, but life experience, particularly having the insight of following with passion, racing from the early 1970s (when most "younger" people were not born!), gives more "experienced" people the vision and capability of seeing the big changes necessary to ensure we survive as an industry.
  15. Originally Posted by Hollywood Baz A necessary decision. Unfortunately, although we all have it, sentiment is killing the industry. The sooner all the other Waikato tracks are closed for racing (keep whatever tracks trainers want to pay to keep for training) , resources pooled, and a brand new facility, including all weather track, facilities for other equestrian events, fantastic entertainment venue etc, is built from scratch, the better for the long term survival of the racing industry in New Zealand. What sort of evidence do you have for this assertion? It is a very popular argument I know, but the logic and the cost benefit analysis behind it is pretty shaky. I have absolutely no cost benefit analysis, but clearly racing has been on a downhill slide for the thirty five years I have been involved. We are a country of just four million people, with only a small % of the populace now interested in racing. I am not picking on racing, as it is not just a racing issue. Ask all the outdoor bowlers and golfers how difficult it is with membership numbers. There are too many other activities available, and the rural roots of horse racing have gone with most farmers now involved in multi million dollar farming operations, and no time or desire to be involved either as club volunteers or as owners. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that most clubs are in a precarious financial position - how many can afford the massive capital expenditure needed on buildings etc? Previous posts on this thread have commented on the appalling facilities at Paeroa and this is common at most clubs, eg 1960s style pinex rooms painted yellow, brown stained carpet, smelly toilet facilities which don't work, tables and chairs like the ones we had when I was at High School - do I need to go on. The only way to recapture the younger generation is to start with amazing facilities and a great all-round experience. Tell me what clubs can deliver this? Answer - very few. There are far too many courses, and resources are spread far too thinly, and until the local parochialism is put aside for the benefit of the whole industry, I can see no long term future for racing in NZ.