Blue

Not reading this again. Wide open for derogatory puns. I dont know her personally so I better keep away.

Old news. Money caused the problem and, ironically, money will fix it. Only the amount needs to be sorted.

And one is going to be a six horse race as Irish Call is dual accepted.

The last three posts are right on the money !! HRNZ or Alex Park must have a sizeable marketing budget but where does it go? Close to big events they'll take a full colour page in their own racebook but otherwise none but hardy regulars will see it and they know about it already. Then there's trackside- but again only preaching to the converted. Why do they not advertise on TV1, 2 or 3 for example and reach a new audience? One of the best marketing tools is the internet. From the Waikato north there are hundreds of horse crazy people connected to pony clubs who all have internet sites and facebook pages, then there are various buy and sell pages, community pages and so on. I know possibly hundreds of people in that sphere but none - that's NONE - ever, that's EVER - are given access anything about harness racing, the horses, the people involved, the events. The Small's are in both camps as are the Hacket girls but otherwise there is a potential market going untapped. Ex racing standardbreds are competing well in the showring. There is so much that can be drawn upon if the marketing arm actually knew what they were doing and thought outside the square. Once you have these sites on line they can be literally bombarded with news, newsletters and updates on a weekly or monthly basis at the press of a button. Then there's competitions - must have competitions that will get people responding to build a rapport. Must have prizes that will get people of all ages on course, not just free racebooks but family meals, dual carts, stud visits, intro to horsemen etc, etc. I've rambled enough but in short, you have to throw a sprat to catch a mackerel and if you always do what you've always done, you'll simply go down the gurgler and the industry is on the brink of that right now.

He's in his mid 60s Lloyd so id say probably. Not a lot of speed but pretty sure hes ok right handed.

My brother works as an engineer on a trawler in Iceland, should he be considered a ' frozen seaman"??

Yep. Over five hours on cold winter night only appeals to a few. How long to people spend at rugby. Daytime races, 6 races, 25 minutes apart and encourage families. After all we need to initiate the next generation but not bore them with lengthy gaps between races.

Buy a pie mate, buy a pie.

Interesting that the horse had an outing in Ireland. Was he bred there? I'm only interested because 'On Kiley's Run' is the title of a poem by Banjo Paterson, so essentially Australian.

Markings are pretty close. Hand-coloured silks Trump so could possibly have got that a bit wrong.

Having watched an exciting free- going jumper win numerous races then lose form, I have felt for a while Thenamesbond is steadily heading towards the same category as TD. Just my opinion though.

True LJ but on Friday's performance, interest value only whereas amateurs are generally reasonably long time race drivers with considerable experience.

Amateurs. Being a rider is one thing, being a monte race rider is something else for both horse and rider.

With you on this one Col inasmuch as we need proponents of and for the industry. Cafers constantly bemoaning the lack of newspaper coverage of racing generally and especially harness promotion but the moment someone comes along with a depth of knowledge and an opinion (which we all have, I might add, hence Racecafe) the tall poppy syndrome comes into play. Often he says what many of us are thinking. The industry needs more like him. The Aussies have plenty of them.

If the talk of doubling stakes here ever eventuated the same thing would happen and we'd be no better off. It's all relative.

Did anyone think to invite D Trump? Seem to be pretty good at this type of thing, at least according to himself.

That's right, Dumar was the go but got nutted.Im sure Gubes could give us the result.

It's inevitable some horses are going to go over hurdles/ steeples later in their careers regardless of how they are bred. I personally don't put a lot of store in breeding when assessing their ability on certain track conditions either. A number of good summer sprinters/gallopers have turned out good jumpers on wet tracks. The only rule is there are no rules.

Yes, Sue was a Stenberg. The family had shoe stores in the 60s. Horsey family they lived between Howick and Whitford.

I think I was there that day BH. Rain never let up. Main race was won by the rank outsider that paid 3 figures or thereabouts.

Lots of "old" horses are paying their way but TD is definitely not nor has he looked like it for a long time.

He didn't look quite as sharp JS because he didn't get matters all his own way this time and never had to work like that before. This was one step up and he's made that move but from now it'll be like going from Super Rugby to the ABs - a whole new ballgame. Can't fault 7 from 7 but this far out from the Cup he'd want to be 20s at least before I'd touch him. Good to have a new star on the horizon though.

Yes SD, I believe this to be the case plus it's the tech age, no problem with verification, barcodes etc.

Well he isn't 13 but I seem to recall Chautaqua had a choice ( or at least decided he'd had enough). Tongue in cheek of course.

Why on the shore? All the horses come from south of the bridge plus Auckland traffic would make it more hassle than it's worth.