bazach

Hey Baz, I didn't think you were quite on the pension yet (haha!). Seriously, he (Winnie) certainly did more than all other Racing Ministers in living memory, especially over ensuring the tax rate for racing was aligned to other gambling forms. Not sure where the big financial 'shot in the arm went' as stakes at 7k still aren't enough to keep the wolves from the door. Athough he isn't in the same outrageous league as Donald Trump, having read about why more people are voting for Trump than anyone else - ie they are sick of the establishment doing nothing other than lining their own pockets - it's not hard to see a comparison between Trump and why people vote for NZ First. Methinks that NZ First will clearly be a bigger player in the next election than the last, ie likely hold the balance of power.

This family goes back to the 'blue hen' mare Malva, and what an amazing mare she was. Only 15 hands high, but the dam of derby winners Blenheim and King Salmon, and also of His Grace. Blenheim of course is the sire of Mumtaz Begum, the dam of Nasrullah. Breeders in New Zealand will also be familiar with this family, as Malva is the 3rd dam of champion sire Summertime, the fourth dam of NZ half brother sires Crest of the Wave and Palm Beach, and now the 9th dam of both Jakkalberry and Power. This family has been extremely successful 'down under' and it would be no surprize if both Jakkalberry and Power continued this success with this great thoroughbred line.

They sold really well at the first couple of sales when he first started standing, maybe because they were good looking types, but overall have been a disappointment. The dam side of Perfectly Ready is quite weak, so my feelings are that is why he hasn't "made it" as a stallion.

Okay leggy. You are probably more correct with the 'key'. The main point with Maori is that it is easy to pronounce Maori words once you know the vowel sounds. The only other 'sticky' area in Maori is 'nga' pronounced 'nar', and 'wh' which we know has some dispute over its pronunciation. Cheers.

"Oh ta ki" is the correct pronunciation. The 'a' in Maori is pronounced 'ar'. Likewise, the 'e' is pronounced 'ay', the 'i' is pronounced 'e', and the 'u' is pronounced 'oo'. This pronunciation of the vowels is the same as Italian. Interestingly, all Maori and Italian words also end in a vowel.

Thanks for that. I bet there were times you wondered why you kept all those old registers!!!

Thanks heaps Gubes. Is this all in your (very good) memory, or is there somewhere I can go online to see this info? Roland had a lot of potential as a stallion. Do you know why he only seemed to serve for two seasons? I used to handle and 'strop' Kija when Fred had him. I was there the morning he died doing track work - a sad day

I was talking to a fellow 'Naki man about this sire the other day. I would like some info on whether it is possible to go anywhere on the 'net' to find out about stallions of years gone by. It doesn't seem like it, as I have 'googled' Roland and nothing comes up. The current on-line studbook doesn't give a lot of info except he left 8 broodmare daughters all born in 1969 and 1970, so clearly his stud 'career' was short. From memory he stood at Ngaere at Mount View Stud alongside My Pal and Bucentaur - I believe the stud was owned by a (Peter?) Cooper, who I think died quite young. Roland himself was very well bred being by Oman (who descends through his dam to Frizette) out of Citril, making him a full brother to the dam of Thnk Big. Also from memory, - I think he was an unbeaten racehorse having four starts as a two year old for four wins, and didn't race again - no doubt cafers will correct me on any of this if I am wrong. I would be interested to know why it seems he only did a couple of years at stud - ie died young, didn't get any mares etc etc. Of his horses to race, the very versatile mare Ngaere Dawn, and good two and three year old Kija (died at three) were, from my memory, his best horses.

Hopefully will encourage more people to go back to breeding stayers and giving their horses more time to mature. Okay, it is expensive waiting, AND people don't seem to have the patience they did have, but if we want to go back to having horses be competitive in races like the Melbourne Cup, then its a good thing taking the Wellington Cup back to 3200 metres.

This has been a very interesting thread to read Tom and Ted. Re the lack of crowds at Auckland. There will be many reasons, some of which bestbets has alluded to. Another one is the complete chaos trying to get from A to B in this 'world class'(!) city. If I was bestbets I would be staying on my sofa too!. We spend a bit of time in Melbourne - went to Caulfield on boxing day, and the comparison between Auckland and Melbourne could not be better shown between the public transport available (or not in Auckland's case).

I was very impressed with Jakkalberry at the stallion parade recently. He is a beautiful walker, and a very well balanced horse. What he has over Shocking, in my opinion, is a stronger female line descending in direct female line from the dam of NZ stallions Crest of the Wave and Palm Beach, and further back from the dam of champion NZ sire Summertime. A mare with some pace would be good to stop breeding a horse which was too dour.

Interesting comments about the stakes in 1989 Chris. It's all related to what people are earning as well. My first horse as an owner trainer won a race way back in 1977. I cannot recall the total stake, but do know that my winning gross stake was exactly $1,000. In 1977, the average annual salary was about $7,000, so my stake for winning this race was about a seventh of an annual salary (as an owner trainer it was enough to cover all my expenses for a year). To have maintained this relativity, and taking the annual average salary today of say $48,000, the stake for the winning owner of a maiden race would be....wait for it $6,800!!! Is it any wonder I am now out of this game, and that horse racing in NZ is "knackered"!

This "collapse" of NZ racing has been building up for 30 years, and in addition to the excessive cost structure to run the industry, the other big factor leading to its demise, is that there has not been the rationalisation required to reduce the number of courses where racing is held. Racing cannot expect to get support from the next generation of people when nearly all of the courses provide 1950s-1960s facilities and deteritorating, poorly maintained assets. No-one has been prepared to deal with the empty stands and see that few clubs have the finance required for capital works. What needs to happen is radical but necessary. For example, in the Waikato, I would close EVERY current track for racing, and that includes Te Rapa where the track surface may be great, but the 1960s facilities are a joke,- purchase a farm in central Waikato and build a brand new multi purpose race track which would also have facilities for other equine and non-equine income. Without this radical approach, racing in NZ is haeding for oblivion.