bazach

No argument about farming still being our “backbone”, but generally speaking farmers have no interest in horses these days. The generation after WWll - through to the 1970s were only a generation removed from where horses were being used to work farms, hence they had a love for, and affinity with, horses. They also had small one man band farms allowing them the flexibility to pursue their horse passion.

This sire keeps turning out more stakes performing horses, but some are of the opinion he is a sire just of wet trackers and isn’t ‘commercial’. What do others think?

Slam Dunk, it IS a free country so making climate change denial illegal is crazy. However, what amazes me on this post - and I wasn't initially going to react, are the comments from ill informed people suggesting that human induced climate change is not happening. Not being a scientist myself, I am not going to get into a debate over what changes are currently happening and will happen, but suffice to say, 97% of the world's climate change scientists who are qualified to make informed comment on the issues are in no doubt of what is happening. The main political parties in New Zealand have also recently agreed on the Zero Carbon Amendment Act. I would therefore respectfully suggest that those who are trying to align climate change with one side of the political spectrum, put that thought aside. I won't be making any more comments on this issue as if you are an ostrich with your head in the sand over this critical issue, then it is unlikely I will be able to get it out of the sand!

The Eulogy family, from memory Bruce Lowe No22 was prolific and produced many great horses. All the best to you John, persistence will eventually be rewarded!

Oops.... beam me up Scotty!

She (Tessa Gillian), was also the dam of successful NZ stallion Test Case, so her blood will be seen in many of our thoroughbreds.

Gee he was a lovely horse, raced until he was 16 if my memory is correct.

I like your post RR. As Barry B pointed out, the issue is about animal cruelty and all forms of life that humans slaughter should not suffer pain and should be killed as instantly as is possible. Most abattoirs and freezing works would or should, be complying with strict animal welfare legislation and practices. So for me, this whole issue isn’t about whether we eat horse, goat, deer or whatever, but about caring for animals when they are alive and if slaughter is the end game, as it is with millions of animals everywhere, then show the animal respect and care when this done.

Red Rum, this is the key sentence in your response, - all animals destined for slaughter should be treated with respect and killed quickly and painlessly.

No worries Hedley, they are going to keep Waverley going (population 1,000 people)!!! The integrity of the 'closing down tracks' decision was questionable from the get go based on decisions like this.

A key difference in your example Gruff is that the legislation only relates to work places, ie unless you good enough to be a professional surfer, a surfing “mishap” doesn’t fall under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

what sires offspring impressed?

The key outcome of track rationalisation should surely be to revitalise the industry to encourage the younger generation(s) to get involved. Racing clubs aren’t the only ones suffering from too few members and participants. Ask your nearest golf club, Lions club or bowling club how they are managing, it won’t likely be good news. As referred to earlier, it’s mostly grey haired people you see at the races. To at least try and redress the many reasons racing has declined (farmers now too far removed from horses being used on farms so most not interested, computers, TV, couples spending more time working to make ends meet, social media making it easy to spread the perception horse ing is cruel etc etc), we do need far better facilities than those provided at most courses, so I am in favour of whatever courses are closed which help the better good of the industry

Probably a combination of the Gavelhouse two weekly sales, and the vicious circle which has been affecting the racing industry - to a greater or lesser extent, for thirty years, ie stakes poor (and costs always increasing!), meaning less people interested in breeding or owning, meaning less horses racing, meaning less money being punted, meaning less money to improve stakes and on and on it goes. It does seem a huge drop though, as although the Gavelhouse fees are cheap, being able to see a range of your prospective purchases in the flesh at one time would ensure better prices (in my view) for well conformed animals. It would be interesting to know who buys on Gavelhouse sight unseen??

Interesting to see 25 broodmares in the Gavelhouse auction this week, and a good number over the last while. Although the studs like Waikato are putting a few on this site, many have notations such as "owner getting out of breeding", or "owner downsizing", or "owner has too many...." etc etc. Just another sign of the many issues surrounding racing which have been slowly accumulating for the last 30 years plus.