chiknsmack

Nothing stopping Ellerslie from trying to make the Rich Hill or the Easter a Gr. 1. If Otaki can do it so can they (though, judging by how the Easter has lost its lustre of late, maybe they can't). You're right that the pattern needs an overhaul with top-class racing spread across the whole country, carnivals which don't overlap and step on each others' toes, and a logical flow up in grade and up in trip.

My bad. I always think the Alexanders train in Hawkes Bay for some reason; maybe it's the similarity with the Guy Lowry colours. Lets use her as an example of Northern horses who aren't afraid of travelling to the CD instead .

Run it Otaki and you might get CD horses like La Crique and Ladies Man (both rated 110, quinella'd the Captain Cook). You'd make it easier for any Southerners (Lightning Jack?) who want to have a crack too.

I don't think anyone's outraged that a 3yo stayer had had 10 starts by the middle of his 3yo year. I don't think anyone should be outraged that a 3yo sprinter-miler has had 15 at the same point. I think people are "outraged" that while Sharp N Smart looked like he could be the next Verry Elleegant, he had a viral infection which seems to have permanently impaired his racing ability and yet his trainer is sending him around as though he's still the superstar he could've been, leading to him being well beaten more often than not. They further think that's he's being harmed by continuing to race when he "doesn't want to", though if he's actually unfit to race there's room for the authorities to step in and declare him as so (and it's probably not the case, given that he's still putting more money in the bank than most horses could ever dream of).

This should be our "Champions Day". The third leg of the sprinters Triple Crown after the Railway on Jan 1 and the Telegraph three weeks later. The NZB Kiwi at 1600m or 2000m so there's a chance for horses to go Kiwi into Derby. The Herbie Dyke as the third leg of a Classic Triple Crown after the Zabeel on Boxing Day and Otaki-Maori WFA Classic at Trentham three weeks later. The 3200m Auckland Cup moved back to New Years' Day with the New Zealand Stakes changed to 2400m on Derby day (so you have the 3yos at 2400m in the Derby and the older horses at 2400m on the same day). You could even have the races in the Classic Triple Crown increase in distance (2000m Zabeel, 2100m Otaki, 2200m Herbie Dyke) as a better lead-in to the 2400m NZ Stakes. Not sure what you do with the Waikato Guineas in this scenario. I'd scrap the Kiwi, or make it a 2400m older horses race on Derby day alongside a race (NZ Stakes? You probably don't want a Gr. 1 up against the Kiwi, though we have the Derby up against the Kiwi currently so who knows?) at 2000m+ for non-Kiwi-eligible horses and backups in case of scratchings from the Kiwi (like The Everest has the Sydney Stakes, or the Kiwi has the Windsor Park Trophy). The old City of Auckland Cup/Queen Elizabeth that's run on NYD instead of the Auckland Cup currently? You could extend the Triple Crowns into Quadruple Crowns and include the South Island by juicing a couple of races at Riccarton. Give the Stewards and Spring Classic Gr. 1 prizemoney on the final day of Cup week.

Wagering down 10% YOY in Oz. Wagering up 8% YOY in NZ. Some of the Ladbrokes horses being sent to NZ. TAB Racing Club buying seven horses at Karaka last week. And Dean Shannon saying that the TAB Racing Club won't be affected. I'm not going to worry about the TAB Racing Club.

Ellerslie is always a Soft 5 now. A month of drought? Soft 5. 8 inches of rain in five minutes? Soft 5. It wasn't initially because the idiots chose to use their own mix of grasses and ended up with a mat of knitted roots growing sideways instead of downwards, but they're on top of that now. That's the idea behind Strathayr. It doesn't bake hard and it doesn't turn to mud. It's a safe, consistent track you can run on once a week for nine months a year. It'll never suit Grey Way, but NZTR don't want tracks that'd suit Grey Way anymore.

When horses move inwards down the straight they look like they're going faster than they are, and vice versa. Billy Bunter was drifting in as Vermelho was drifting out, so I can understand that at pace it could look like Vermelho was maintaining his speed and Billy was flying at the 70m mark. Then, having thought Billy Bunter was flying late but not keeping an eye on it to the line, he called it closer in the finish than it was. But yeah, 5/10. Taking an extra tick or two to spit out the winner's name doesn't help the score either.

I can't find the details (I found the horse but can't find any info about "RNZ Frac Club"), but $128k might be a touch light if meant to cover everything so your maths could be right. You'd hope the bulk of the $1.28m would go into the horses bank account (or a TD, with the interest paying the bills), never be spent, and returned at the end. Like you I think the model could be a winner, but the devil is in the detail.

Pete was also among those who found Storm Front, who would've gotten a run if his connections had wanted it.

$50 for a general admission ticket in advance, $60 at the gate.

There's a difference between giving a 2yo enough work to encourage bone remodelling and "You have to push a 2yr old to the point where they experience some soreness".

She's looking a little mopey and moving gingerly, but she's eating and drinking and her vitals are good. She was confined to a box for a few weeks after running on that matted Ellerslie highway in the Karaka Million and handled that well, so hopefully she can be equally chill this time and get through this alright.

He doesn't seem like a horse racing fan either as he clearly hasn't heard of 2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo.

It had the field of a Group and Listed trial, the tempo of a Group and Listed Trial, and the prizemoney of four R65s which would've attracted a dozen runners each while spreading the money to more connections and garnering more turnover. WOFTAM.

So the next question is who won the Cups in between, and are their colours the ones in Auckland Museum's storage? 1940 Clinch C J Wells 7.1 N Vaughan 2.7.8 1941 Rakanui R J Jeffares 8.12 J W Winder 2.11.6 1942 Regal Fox W Cleary 8.4 H E Goldfinch 2.16 1943 Representative W S Goosman 8.4 H N Wiggins 2.12.6 1944 Abbey Fox A D Hall 7.4 E V Dye 2.24 1945 Our Gold A E & J A Kemp 7.6 S Tremain 2.50 1946 Chung Chong E Montgomery 7.12 G F Hughes 2.24 1947 Valley Boy D & R Douglas 9.0 N R McKenzie 2.29.6 1948 Double Chance J Clothier 8.4 W R Hooten 2.32 1949 Wonder Boy C D D Phelan 7.4 T Reynolds 2.22.8 1950 Florida D H Blackie 7.2 M A Martinovich 2.23.4 1951 Crover H H Chapman 7.4 M J Jennings 2.24.2 1952 Niblick J H Lindsay & S O Skelton 7.8 J I Moore 2.19.2 1953 Dixie D H Blackie 8.9 M A Martinovich 2.30.4 1954 Gendarme Hon W S Goosman 9.9 W R Hooten 2.20.6 1955 Emphatic R J Koberstein 8.7 I R Tucker 2.20.4 1956 Takatu Sir Ernest Davis 9.9 G F Hughes 2.23.8 1957 James Fox A Duncan 7.10 W C Cotter 2.28.6 1958 Fettle C R & Mrs Ablie 8.9 M F Moore 2.26.6 1959 Fair Filou L D Dell 8.2 A G Walsh 2.23.2 1960 Indian Mars J C Revell & E N Robinson 8.2 N B Holland 2.24 1961 Even Stevens J Wattie 7.0 B F Andrews 2.22.4 Two winners for D H Blackie (1950 and 1953) and no other silks in the collection are double-ups, so probably not.

So knowing two of them are Goosman colours, and thinking they're mid-century and related to Avondale JC, is there a connection we can find? Did he own two Avondale Cup winners, or two runners in a Cup field?

Probably nothing. I can't imagine either of the Kiwi horses who win the series' here will want to go to the US at the start of our spring. MAYBE once in a blue moon a US horse (or third-rate European) will win one of the two races in late January up there and decide to go to Sydney in the autumn via Ellerslie, but with six weeks between Pegasus Day and "Champions Day" (AKA Derby Day, except the Derby is now the second most important 3yo race on the card) is there enough time to sort quarantine?

If you only consider horses picked by multiple people ("Wisdom of the Crowd"), you get 18 horses with five in the top 20.

It's potentially worse than pointless if the big money attracts Aussie raiders.

There were three winners who were further back than 6th at the 1000: Real Class, Bourbon Empress, and Son of Sun. The official sectionals say Real Class was 6th but off the tape she was clearly 7th at the 1000. Even if it was only one winner from off the pace, that's pretty normal. In Melbourne only 10-15% of winners are 7th or worse in running. Besides that, you don't exactly have volume on your side. 102 horses went around, so ~60% were in the first six at the 1000. How many races should 40% of the horses win when they're giving the other 60% a head start?

You keep saying this, and you're technically correct in a "the government won't filter the internet to block Kiwis from accessing offshore betting sites" way. But Kiwi punters not being able to bet with offshore providers is blocking them based on geography. Potayto Potahto.

For competitive purposes you need to keep a decent spread in handicap races. If the minimum goes up, the maximum must too. Otherwise you get the situation we get all too often above R75 where the top few horses in a race are within the handicap and the others are on the minimum and running outside the handicap. I'm cool with a 55kg minimum if it comes with a 65kg maximum to allow even racing. I'm cool with all our jockeys being Asian, or women, or Asian women. I'm cool with a lack of Tongan representation in the riding ranks. I'm not that cool with someone whose frame says they should be 65kgs taking years off their life to try to walk around at 55kgs, but that's their choice. And the interests of the horses and the wider industry should come before the interests of those people who want to be a jockey but who are almost-but-not-quite small enough. Especially since there will always be some number of those people regardless of the minimum weight.

You're right that the bill will almost certainly pass in some form, and that form will almost certainly include geoblocking, for 100m reasons. But there's still the opportunity for change around the edges; a law that say "Kiwis can't bet offshore", "only the TAB can accept bets domestically", and "the TAB can ban anyone for any reason at any time" is a bad law. The first looks a fait accompli, the second is 1000/1 to change (I can't see Entain and the polis wanting NZ to have 106 licensed corporate bookies like Oz and the corresponding increase in gambling advertising in NZ), but changes around the third are possible and, IMO, necessary.

You're not. I'm working on a submission to the select committee from the POV of punters and consumer protections (focusing on minimum bet limits, preventing punters from being banned from betting entirely if geoblocking blocks offshore providers and the TAB ban them for "commercial reasons", and the new monopoly offering poor prices due to the lack of competition). Here's where and how anyone can make a submission: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/54SCGOA_SCF_5B1E49CE-798C-4466-E6FF-08DD18052784/racing-industry-amendment-bill Here's the transcript of the first reading of the bill, to see what the different parties said about it: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20241210_20241210_56