napier

Less said the better…not sure what the stable was thinking there. Keep an eye on it though.

Interestingly, I drove through Rangiora yesterday. It is quite a booming area. Might be a good place to consider building a new racecourse. The AWT funding might have been better spent around there. It's even in the provinces.

Incompetent and ignorant I would suggest.
Could someone explain to me the reasoning behind the $25,000 twilight meetings? Are they supposed to attract massive on course attendances, massive off course turnovers, do they appeal to Aussie punters? Fields generally aren't flash, trainers don't really care, so they don't really achieve anything that I can see. Potentially up to $65,000 in additional stakes per meeting compared to a normal meeting. Probably need $1m in extra turnover to fund that. Surely that money would help keep stakes at $18,500 for another month or so?
The $800,000 odd bonus' they dished out for being placed in a couple of group races probably would have funded decent stakes all winter. I don't believe those bonus payments boosted fields in the slightest and probably didn't add $1 to turnovers on those races.
The current regime doesn't really have any understanding about how best to allocate stakes for the good of NZ Racing.

Cascadian! Go you good thing. 

The Williamson’s are the pin up team for professionalism and integrity in the racing industry.
Through hard work and tremendous skill sets and a superb up bringing by Phil and Bev they are high achievers and deservedly so
They earn their success and will be a force in harness racing for many years to come
Tremendous folk

Think Cascadian is a shot here too. 

With the imminent demise of Newshub, there is going to be up to 200 very talented people with "media skills" come on the market, between now and June.
Entain/TAB, NZTR and the Harness people should be putting the feelers out now, for anyone who might have an interest in our Industry.
My guess is that many of them would have an immense amount to offer, if you simply took a line through what Guy Hevelt brought to the Karaka Sales/Karaka race-night presentation.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have Samantha Hayes fronting Trackside.
Don't laugh, maybe not Sam, but there are surely dozens of quality people waiting in the wings with nowhere to go.
Liz
 

it gets funnier
1.30 favourites are expected to win 77% of the time, not 100% of the time
there are plenty of ex jockeys in the stewards ranks
not many punters though 😜
here that my man !
jury out .

I don't think so.
I have seen the above Brittany many times when watching harness racing from Australia, but "Saturday's Brittany"" even with her helmet on looked and sounded different. 
As I said on a different thread, she was absolutely superb. 
Her understanding of Vinnie when interviewing him after wasting down to 53kg was handled with empathy and experience.
Without doubt in my mind, Brittany has to be the best I seen, doing those sort of interviews.
 

There doesn't have to be a legitimate slip to abandon Reefton.

So one horse slips at Trentham and the day is called off...
Same day Ellerslie at least 3 horses report to lose their footing plus two jockey meetings throughout the day, but the show must go on?
It's not really passing the smell test..
 

Between her and Guy the show was a success , the others should look at both as an example , Guy needs to be a full-timer on trackside , lifts the quality no end .

I’ll give 100 out of 100 to Brittany today. 

The rot set in about 25 years ago when Administrators with a thorough knowledge of horses and racing were phased out and gradually replaced by academics with freshly minted business, accounting or communication degrees who knew very little about racing and less about horses. I guess you reap what you sow.

Because people who do not know there a..e from their elbow are running the show...end of story.

The more things change the more they stay the same . They can throw all the money they want at the top end stakes , but it doesn't resolve the fundamental issues we have in our sport . 
Till they open their eyes and wake up to getting the basics right then all the million dollar races in the world won't paper over the cracks in our industry .
Really feel for the connections of the horse that lost it's life , and to the jockeys that came off . Should never happen in a professional world .
I take it there will be another robust enquiry into why this happened . 
I wonder why the previous reports into these track issues haven't resolved this problem . 

100% agree no matter who the stable concerned is...it needs to be a level playing field for all not rules for some and rules for others.

Couldn't agree more, give him a chance, all the best were in his shoes in once.

Can I just say big ups to her. Just goes about her job day after day week in week out no fuss no bother no banner headlines. Gets the job done and 3 wins today an excellent reward for a very good rider.  

Perhaps a bit harsh. I see the Riccarton AWT was used just yesterday. Thank god it was available. Obviously no traditional grass tracks available anywhere in Canty or nearby. The only low grade meeting in Canty for 7 weeks too. I have no idea how the SI survived before we had the AWTs.

Doesn't become wasteful. Was wasteful wasn't it?

Thanks Ohokaman...nice collect from your Charterhouse tip.

I would be worried if I owned one behind it .

So why do we get betting flucuations? The reason is jockeys talk and knowing where a horse will be in a race is HUGE. Assano did this at Cambridge as a $2.8 fav drifting to $8 in 20 min after looking perfect in the parade ring. 

If you're not already aware. Trackside is also broadcasting on Sky Channel 64 today...Extended coverage from Hastings and Randwick apparently.