TOM(the other Molloy)

Just give me an example of an inconsistency at Reefton Admin. Hokitika Greymouth and Kumara all suffer from it because they have all been dug up and 'renovated' but you are talking shit about Reefton. Sure if it gets wet they come down the outside as they do at every NZ track but to suggest inconsistency is fairyland stuff. It is the best surface on the Coast(probably in the South Island) by a street but is simply too small so has a limited life. Every track in NZ that has been 'renovated' has been cocked up without exception and 99% of the abandonments relate to renovated tracks.

Ellis made it clear he wants tracks with give in them Torch not firm and to be fair Hoki was a definite laughing stock last year albeit one of the most entertaining days racing I can remember. it does rain here and the place is equipped to handle it(much more than the dry) but there should not be inconsistencies in going within the locale of one track(unless there is a debacle like the Omakau issue). For people's interest Reefton had 16mm of rain yesterday versus Kumara's 67mm.

Apparently there are bare patches and surface water. Not sure about inconsistencies in the penetrometer readings but the rail is the issue I hear

wonder what it would be without the k line going?

Reefton have formally offered the track for Saturday if Kumara decide not to race. It has had rain but nowhere near as much as the other tracks and is in excellent nick. Probably a dead 6 at worst at present. At this stage horses apparently to gallop at Kumara tomorrow morning to check the track. There are definite issues I hear with the bend from the winning post to the 1100m point. Reefton is the logical place to transfer because the TAB are relocating there after Saturday anyway - just bring it forward a day or two. This is an embarrassment

I'm astounded. This definitely should not have happened.

I was in about how good it was a week or two before Christmas. Watched a Waipa trial 15 minutes after it had been run

Different this year to last. This would be the best early summer I ever remember on the Coast. While the forecast is not flash you cannot rely on that and the Kumara course will be in a lot better nick than it was at this time last year. Having said that Reefton will be on standby should the boys need a substitute!

Dear oh dear! I knew they had K line out there but would not have thought they would have needed to use it with the last two weeks weather. Perhaps they are trying for a slow 8 on Saturday

Don't hang about WD I don't think we will be there long. Though to be fair I always get a burst of enthusiasm close to raceday and think I might go again. In the middle of the winter I will not be able to wait to get rid of the joint. We could charge but hey we are always pleased to put a day on for the locals to enjoy without sticking our hand out. Just hoping a decent dose of this rain has arrived in Reefton to freshen the track a tad. It has been bloody dry even though we have been heavily irrigating.

Don't pay it on too thick Shad I will start to get emotional. Your mention of the angle reminds me of a prominent Cafer who in his riding days was astonished not to have won a race there one day and demanded to see the bad news via the photofinish print before he believed it. At that time the angle truly was shocking - now it is just bad though the commentator has a good line - it is the high up Trackside camera that is ten or so metres past the line. We will be pushing the proverbial uphill to get a good crowd now all the local mills, freezing works and general industry has gone back to work but we live in hope. There is no real incentive other than pride to chase turnover anyway. Because we will not charge we cannot be part of the interislander summer festival and therefore we miss out on a hell of a lot of advertising locally. The three trotting meetings and the other gallops dates get tons of publicity but you would think we did not exist. It is our call however I must say.

$5 million not $5

I have no idea as I am not a student of the handicapping system and all its flaws(though I imagine he would got to say 105 given the poor quality of the likely field And the fact that Kawi went not too well in Aussie is not the point I make - if he won seven G1's in Aussie he would have at least $5 in the bank Patrick Erin could get into the Sydney Cup on the minimum and struggle to win it - it is an attractive stake and plenty of Northern Hemisphere breds will be chasing it

That what I like to hear! Kumara actually cannot accommodate a lot of horses. They only have about 4 stables and a limited number of stalls so running more than 10 races is a hassle for them

Raining quite steadily and reasonably heavily here now

Saint Emilion probably would too. But then Kawi would probably have a three or five in front of his stakes tally, Consensus a two and so on and so on. If you are going degrade NZ horses to ratings that would make them competitive in Aussie handicaps they would probably all be R75's and then not get in. I am sure the point WD was making was in relation to fellow NZ horses not Aussie racing. It is the prerogative of Patrick Erin's owners whether they sold him or not and the Sydney Cup is a bloody long way away. Good luck to them however - it would be great to see an NZ stayer win another major Aussie two miler.

It would want to rain a bloody sight more than it has for them to be that bad(mind you if the forecast is right it could do) i'm bloody surprised the little bit of rain we have had has turned Hoki to dead 4 and Kumara to dead 5 but if it fines up I reckon they will both be good 3 dead 4.

well it has rained a bit but it will absorb that easy. 6mm is a light shower here though I hope the poor old farmers up the Grey Valley got that much. I have been out for a bike ride this morning without a jacket or coat and certainly didn't get wet. Looking a the times on Sunday I suspect that track was nowhere near a good 2. The times were comparable to Awapuni's dead 5 times and allowing for the tighter track they should have been quicker.

Don't know that he is so badly disadvantaged either - he has won $197k from ten wins in twenty starts and rates 101. Saint Emilion as a comparison has won $243k from 11 wins in 34 starts and rates 96. The comparison is not that bad. Patrick Erin is just a consistent horse and when you are consistent it is bloody hard to get your rating down. There is good money in South Island Racing and blokes like Pitty are experts at picking it up. Riccarton in particular have a series of feature days in Spring and Autumn.

There has been regular rain(regular but not a lot) here since a couple of weeks before Christmas. The tracks will handle it IF it comes(but that is a bloody big 'IF'). Only one I would have doubts about if it rains close to the meeting is Kumara as they have dug the track up in the past and , as with every track they touch, it is now susceptible to horses slipping. Reefton is the one in need of rain. There has been very little in the district for quite a few weeks(though it did get half an inch last Thursday). The Coast weather forecast covers Milford Sound to Karamea - only about 500 miles. Today 3 News reported 38mm of rain in Milford and you would say, given that, there was heavy rain on the Coast. Well where I am in Greymouth it didn't look anything like raining. The Coast forecast is so often wrong it is best ignored.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. They will throng in again this year to Kumara so while the purists might not appreciate it the general public absolutely adore it.

It really didn't happen because of all three of the 'Coast' Clubs(Greymouth Hokitika and Kumara - Reefton is 50 miles inland). It was me who suggested it(I wasn't the first but I was the last) but the general reaction from all the committee men was'oh well if we are going to do that then I will drop off the committee'. I even had the site lined up and at the time the NZRB had money to spend on that sort of thing and the Coast was booming so the tracks would have been worth a lot more but hey you can lead a horse to water.... No skin off my nose - my Club is Reefton. Kumara would always have refused anyway - understandably their track is the significant aspect of their ongoing popularity.

Great. Dufficy still moans every week or at least regularly about track bias and the Sheik lost $120m. Dodgy characters pervade the place as Cassidy and James Macdonald are well aware. Aussie racing is all things to all men all right. It's good but let's not get the idea it is racing paradise.

I do know they had been irrigating but clearly too close right now

I know nothing about them Michael but would like to think it would be something like a dead 4. Mind you it was stinking hot here yesterday(a reverse nor wester) and again today so may have sucked whatever juice was in it out. Clearly it is a problem but I do know they have had nice rain at least twice since Christmas Day. The problem here of course is the extremely dry early summer. The coast is not equipped to handle too much dry weather.