THE TORCH

Listening to John jenkins (trackwork reporter at Hastings) on the radio this afternoon he said the talk of the trainers at the track yesterday morning was that that irrigation should have been done earlier ie: starting the weekend beforehand. Confirmed my opinion on the matter.
We now await the official report due out later this week.  .    

I wouldn't typically take notice of what any commentator or presenter says.  Des Coppins could give out some decent tips and sensible reasoning when he was on and Steve Davis was good on TFC recently, but the rest of them are woeful.  I asked George Simon for a tip once and it got up by a nose paying just over $2 so he's one from one for me.  How Lance O'Sullivan rode all those winners with Stu Laing as his manager is beyond me.
 
I find Sweeney and Rodley both put me off racing and having a bet if they are on and I think part of that is the conflict of interest factor.  It might be okay in some peoples books,but not in mine.  Speaking about books, what about the time Rodley was trying to sell his on Trackside?  It's all very unprofessional.

davy  mack   is   best  in the  bussiniess 

It's clearly a MASSIVE conflict of interested and if anyone at the NZRB/TAB and/or Trackside had a clue presenters would not be allowed to manage jockies.
 
veryone has seen the footage of Rodley cheering Bosson (!! not the horse) home to win the Australian Derby. Does anyone really believe Rodley is 100% objective when discussing any of Opie's rides.
 
Big red flag if any of them are previewing a race and don't mention their jockey's mounts... what are they saying they don't give it a chance??? THEY BOOKED THE RIDE!!!
 
And as for enquiries, well Trackside made a shocking blunder on WEIGH IN earlier this year when they had Butch Castles and Paul Shailer debating the result of the enquiry into the finish of the Breeders Stakes involving Serena Miss (Leith Innes) and Nahema (Michael McNab) without either revealing they managed the jockeys concerned.
 
Sometimes the presenters hang themselves with their own comments, e.g. when Jonathan Parkes won a race by five lengths on a first starter paying $16 a couple of months ago and Sweens first words were "I knew nothing about that". Yeah right.... again.... HE BOOKED THE RIDE!!!!
 
It would never be allowed to happen in any serious racing industry, and one wonders what the fuck the RACING INTEGRITY UNIT is there for if not to stop massive conflicts of interests like this....
 
Fwiw I have no evidence or opinion that any of the jockey managers on Trackside (Rodley, Sweeney, Anderson.. any others??) have done anything unethical, but that's not the point. With turnover continuing to crash every day, it is critical that racing is not only clean but is also seen to be clean by everyone with an interest in the industry, most importantly the PUNTERS whom lest we forget FUND most of it (not the effing BREEDERS). 
 
It's not rocket science, Glenda and Postman Pat aka John Allen. Having supposed objective Trackside presenters moonlight as jockey managers is a massive conflict of interest and just asking for trouble.

So lets see..... To deposit you can go online and pay by card.....anything under a hundred and it will cost you $2.....not sure why, nobody else charges. You can stand behind some fella who has a $1 quin filled out for every race at every meeting that day....or you can try and deposit into one of their pathetic machines...that spits out most notes and is as slow as!!
 
To withdraw you can queue up and hope they have the dosh.....or they can give you a voucher.....a cheque that you can cash 10 miles away....or if your lucky you may have money deposited back into bank acc. But wait.....first it has to be cleared by head office as you can not withdraw that much money.....and now they have a look to make sure you have turned it over!!!  Jesus Christ ....how hard are they making it?
Any Aus agencies charge you nothing extra to deposit, apart from exchange rate.....and withdrawing is quick....shows up in bank acc in a day or so.
 
What am I missing here??

Its Wednesday now and we haven't heard anyone say hey we made a mistake at got it wrong and in the future this is how we will deal with the watering issue.The track would of been firm without water but nothing like a Woodville or Wanganui in the middle of a dry summer.The problem is probably what a lot of the old boys wifes complain about on here....( just a little dribble and far to late to help make a happy playing field).

Porky I am afraid that you are buying into the Butchers spin and he learned it from the best  of them all, Chris Weaver.
 
 
 

The groundhogs all set up to go,” said Castles.All we need to do is put the schedule back by one race and we'd have sufficient daylight to complete the programme.
But Neal stood firm on his decision, citing rider safety and the opinion already aired by jockeys that under the prevailing conditions they felt they could not ride competitively.
 
Why would he suggest the use of this, was he the one who gave the order to irrigate, and he knew this would not work anyway as it had failed in the past... was he trying to cover his..........????

Another thing do you notice the change in the PR from the HB since John McGifford, Kim Treweek and jason Fleming have left... it seems clearly different... don't you agree.

I think you might find the Groundhog would not have saved the day...it I believe was tried on another racetrack many years ago on a big day... and after 1 more race they called the meeting off... I think Mr HB racing needs to admit he made a mistake telling someone to water the track....rather than try to throw someone else under the bus..

And pray tell - what did the hapless walk-up crowd pay to get through the gates and watch the 3 races on the undercard?

you can bet your left one that Butch wanted the meeting to go ahead -
after all the jockey that he is manager for was riding the hot favourite in a Group 1 !
is this just confirmation of the conflicts of interest in NZ racing?

Petone can't build unity 

Has there been any mention of an independent investigation into this whole business ? It would appear given the statements by Castles and Neal that some serious questions need to be addressed about responsibility and the whole decision-making process after the jockey complaints. The availability of the "groundhog" and the inference that jockeys would have likely proceeded if the machine had been used on the track begs an explanation as to why this option was not utilized. While not second guessing the safety of jockeys in any sense the "slippage" did not appear to have been as serious as incidents that have caused previous meetings to be abandoned leading to the assumption that ;'groundhogging" may have been a successful solution. The whole watering procedure needs to be examined independently given that it seems to have been outside the normal practice for track managers in Australasia. Whatever, there is almost a sense of a show of power from the RIU. Some have suggested this is a bitter aftertaste in reaction to the Morton hearing. One would hope this is not true....
The subsequent re-jigging of major races will now impact many owners, trainers and clubs and will have a ripple effect throughout the Spring. In our days as sponsors of the Stoney Bridge Stakes (now Windsor Park Stakes) the HB Club led by John McGifford and his team were exemplary in the way they conducted the entire meeting. Current HB team members should be calling for an independent investigation to to protect their own interests and reputations and perhaps expose those of their colleagues otherwise everyone gets tarred with the same brush.

With these new work safe regulations in my line do work I have to look over the worksite and list all potential hazards and take all reasonable steps to provide a safe word environment. Ironically by watering the track they supplied an unsafe work environment .  Racing  is dangerous enough without having a slippery surface so can understand the meeting being called off. . But that doesn't excuse the surface that was presented on the day. I worked within 5 kms of the track all week and the thur and fri where in the 20 to 22 c range with no rain for approx two weeks apart from some decent frosts.  I can't recall their being problems with a similar issue at Hastings before and I'm sure most participants  look forward racing on the track so why have we had this major balls up? Human error who's the track managers.?  Maybe higher up the food chain those that ask for a dead 4 surface race morning so the track has to be manipulated ? What won't change is the ones that pay and supply the horses, the ones that ride them and those that punt on them are the real losers while all those that make the rules and demands and are stuffing this industry will still  comfortable in the knowledge their wages will still be in the bank come Thursday morning while the rest have another lost opportunity  to earn some much needed money.

I agree Matt it was like Castles had requested that question from Des  pre interview and once asked The Pie  Meister was right in there shifting the blame having previously accepted that he was accountable. Just another case of lack of integrity from him.

Butch seemed like he was just waiting for Des to mention the RIU. As soon as Des did Butch jumped in.... looking to assign blame to anyone else perhaps??
Sorry Butch Issue wasn't what happened on the day, it was the day's leading up to raceday which are under YOUR control. If the groundhog was the solution why didn't Butch get out there before the first race!
Given all the pressure the RIU are under over tracks and jockey safety I think Ross Neal did the right thing by holding firm and calling of the meeting. Imagine the outcry if the groundhog was used and then a jockey and/or horse got injured or killed- the industry would want to lynch him.
The decision to race or not cannot always be made my jockeys- if this was an industry day then I bet none of them would have wanted to ride after the groundhog was used- ie money influences their appetite of risk. Sorry but the track is either safe or its not. G1 day or industry day isn't a determining factor.

Just what has come out over the last forty eight hours highlights to me to what I posted on Saturday is pretty much on the mark. On Tuesday, according to Butch Castles when talking with Des Coppins this morning, was that the track was a Good 3 bordering on a Good 2.
There had been hardly any rain in the three weeks since the first day of the carnival and the ground must have been pretty good on the Saturday, Sunday, Monday prior to the meeting. He stated they didn't water because there was some rainfall forecast on the weekend prior however this rain didn't eventuate. If nothing had arrived by mid afternoon on the Saturday apply some irrigation, ditto Sunday and Monday. That would have ensured a least a dead track on the Tuesday morning with the water at least starting to penetrate deeper and on the Tuesday depending on the reading putting the last amount of water on prior to the Saturday race day. That way all the water is on, with plenty of time to penetrate and letting the track come back to a a Dead 4/Good 3 on race morning. His excuse for not doing the irrigation prior to the Tuesday is at odds for doing it on Thursday with rain in the forecast for Friday.    As I stated above in my opinion they have done things arse about face and I reiterate my opinion of no irrigation of tracks past acceptance time.
Correct me if I am wrong but Butch Castles seems to have opted out of admitting any error re the irrigation and rather pointed the finger at the meeting being abandoned. However that matter comes after the fact as that decision wouldn't have had to been made if there was no problem with the track surface in the first place.
Unfortunately all the damage has been done, everyone has suffered, owners, trainers, punters, the club and the industry as a whole, no one escapes from what eventuated on the day. Over recent years this is not an isolated case however, but  it has been given far greater significance due to the importance of the day, both on the day itself and programming of the horses affected going forward.   
There has to be a comprehensive review of what has occurred both with what happened leading up to the day and what occurred on the day and that review has to be transparent and made public. If this results in any changes made to procedures/actions this needs to be clearly conveyed to all stakeholders and with approval implemented as quickly as possible. Clearly the staus quo is not working and as the saying goes "if you keep doing the same thing you are going to end up with the same results."  
I am clearly no expert on track preparation, but I try to take a commonsense approach combined with my observations over the years to formulate my opinions, but those that are qualified and charged with getting it right need to do so. However, they should realise that everything can't be learnt from the text books, they can learn plenty from experienced farmers and from older former (Retired) people who used to do tracks a few years ago when we didn't experience such problems. One should remember race tracks are for 500-600k animals hitting the ground with some force, the grass roots need going deep into the ground unlike a manicured grass stadium surface for humans running about on it. 
As stated, the damaged has been done, let's hope any remedies going forward can be identified and implemented. If not, as an industry, we are doomed. 
      
       

Listened to Des interviewing Castles who  used the common ploy of waffling on and on. He claimed the track would have been  "Fast" if it was not irrigated. Well,  the Hawkes Bay gets heavy dews at this time of year so moisture would be is kept in the soil. In the unlikely event that it was fast, well its way better than an abandoned meeting. 
The Hawkes Bay Racing Club should be taking a hard look at themselves for appointing this fool.
 
 

Well Spoke To Carlo scratched with no rain to loosen the track, however, as expected Sono Veloce wins giving Lee a remarkable winning return to race riding after 9 years away. $4.20 lovely. Congratulations Lee.

Also well done to Chris Dell getting his first winner since that nasty fall at Ruakaka.

Congratulations to Des. He sure has had his battles to get this changed back to 3200 with a number of fellow committee members in the past wishing to retain the Cup at 2400.
 
A stake of $350k for a Group 3  is very good considering "Race's" dire financial position, so they must have a very good sponsor.
 
Let's also hope that the many race goers who black listed attending Cup Day will now return.

Excellent news, should never have been put back to 2400m. All we need now is the Auckland Cup returned to New Years Day and any horse capable of winning both getting automatic entry into the Melbourne Cup.

Good stuff. Des has done a great job getting this back to 3200m

The 2016 Wellington Cup on January 23 will be run over 3200m. HOORAY!

I mow grass as part of my job on a tractor most weeks during the season. More rain = more juice in the grass = slippage. Its not rocket science. When the grass hardens off due to less rain the mowing is easier as the grass is dry. By irrigating tracks to get these good 4 conditions NZTR demands you create lush moisture filled grass and abandoned meetings. You may be trying to put moisture in the soil but the grass uptakes this and becomes lush. This series of abandonments were unheard of years ago before irrigation, who cares if the grass looks a bit brown on TV.
 
I wonder if that Twiggy bloke will now bag North Island clubs as he did to the South Island earlier this year calling it a circus