tasman man 11

Chintz in Thorndon. Thanks

This topic has been thrashed out many times........if Young Quinn raceway used ,could the Gore Piecart be transported there to feed everyone ?? Are there any snow ploughs in the area ???

Thanks Bruce, busy so I'll stick with A Reunion, follow the Boss !!

Everyone loves Mark M , I think they all do a pretty good job and at end of day don't really influence the end result. But geez ,Mark M is a talking machine and he has a lot of "in " references like one driver he calls "the German". Then the other night I'm watching a race and he's telling us the horse has a good record but never run a 3rd place. And he slips the breeding in and other distractions which if that stunt was pulled by some of others they would be criticised . And he makes many races sound a lot more exciting than they actually are ,some may say thats a good thing but again others would be criticised. Whats more he's an Aussie ,so lets not wet our pants over him......the others are pretty good too !!!! AWhite is just fine !!!!

Good advice ,given to me by a drunk in a dimly lit TAB years ago. Don't back horses.......back trainers and jockeys/drivers. Pretty good advice !!!!!!

Conservative maybe ,but it was also the weakest field he has been in for a while ........speaking of "Conservative" did you note champ driver AGH's conservative ride in the final race on a favoured runner called Liberty Styx. Handed the coveted one-one shortly after the start ,AGH decides to drop down 3-back on the rail which probably cost him the race as he rushed into second once clear. Now AGH is a champion driver and great bloke but like any driver he sometimes takes the wrong option......he's certainly one of my favs. But being a grandstand driver/jockey can be rather fun and picking on the 'little guy' is even more enjoyable as he is never going to go out and win 4 or 5 races in a day.....in fact he is not even going to drive 4 or 5 times in a day. More and more drivers are taking the initiative and surging to the front and staying there . Maybe the Abernethys,the Clarks ,the GDShands, etc are having a little influence on the drivers today. As a result the times are getting faster and faster.....a few years bcd you had to go 2.43 to win an intermediate race, now its 2.40 !!

Waste of money ,especially if you have computer ......Stuff has some stories , plus you can look at all newspapers stories in timely fashion....all papers anywhere !!Plus there are regular Thoroughbred Stories sent out by various orgs .once you register. If you are looking for cheap dunny paper.......the press is best , cos the Times are hard and the Truth hurts !!!!

Good time too ,I doubt if the Ginga has the zip to take trails......but notice how warm second fav Dr Hook sat parked ,gee whiz ,even our champion driver gets caught out once in a while or twice in a week. But not to worry AGH will atone in the next race on hot fav Darcee ,drawn 3. Holy cow ,caught in breeze again . But Sailesh knows how to do it ,first out first home....nice work....a pretty Sunday on a Friday night !!

With Dr Hook and Sovereignty there ,3rd will be a good result IMO.

My point is that AC drove as everyone knew he would ,and from his back-row draw he was going to move around and try and sit parked. The horse had been below par 4 days earlier ,and rarely if ever wins a sprint. As a result he was 4th fav out of 7. The general opinion is that he should have stayed last from his draw and tried to power into it from the 400m !!!!!!As he has gone forward in 98% of his starts it wasn't going to happen ,hindsight tells us he would have finished closer but still probably out of top 3. Meanwhile ,IW had won a Group 1 four days prior and was backed into odds-on.....a stinking hot failure. However ,why not suggest he wait at back etc etc etc or leave gate faster etc etc. Had he been driven differently he probably would have finished a lot closer ,probably in top3. AGH is a great driver , and he was a 'victim of circumstances'......but the fact a hot pot failed to pay a divi was the most 'notable ' talking point of the race ...IMO The topic has been done to death....

An immature post ,and pretty much confirms what Freespeech is getting at. Personally I thought the notable disappointment in the race was the odds-on favourite Irish Whisper who 4 days earlier had won a Group 1 race......and had our top driver AGH driven him differently I doubt if he would have failed to finish in the top 3. AClarks lack of driving skills have been criticised dozens of times on here......I think a lot of folk are jealous that a self-taught amateur has had such success with a cheap-buy horse. That and the fact that losing punters often consider themselves experts on the finer points of driving harness horses. Friday's race is history but the Form Guide in the paper rated the odds @ $1.60 for Irish Whisper and $21 for TFGinga in the 7 horse field...with course and distance specialist Sovereignty drawn the front row , not even the most ardent TFG follower could have expected him to feature from the back row.

Clearly the horse has been below his best for a few starts , running several lengths below his best last start.....so it was hardly going to be a factor over a sprint ,a distance he has never won at. Plus from the second line he was always going to be back at start and highly predictably try to get handy. Our top driver AGH ,didn't let him in and he too ran below his best out of the money...a bad driver ?????? There were a number of examples of well-fancied runners being caught wide and fading at Cambridge tonite. plus in Aussie A .Butt suffered the same fate on Vulcan and the horse was beaten at the 600m. And these horses were favourites. Go the Ginga...26 wins ,a number Sovereignty matched tonight. A front row draw and gate speed takes you a long way in Harness !!!

The constant bagging of the presenters gets a bit tedious. Trackside provided me with some excellent viewing today , often I'm on-course NYD but in the man cave today ,keeping an eye on some big hitting at the cricket . Today Trackside tipped me into some good collects with interviews with winning trainers Anderson, Pike and Logan before their race-wins ,as well as highlighting the mounts of top jocks McD , MDP,Innes, Tinsley ,Parkes and of course DWalsh. A good day allround ,little to complain about in my opinion. As usual I'd give Trackside a 90% plus rating. And before you negaholics leap on to the key board ,please give me the names of any company who consistently performs at a higher level of competence than Trackside/TAB ?? I'm consistently frustrated by some of the 'name' businesses I deal with.....but not Trackside !!!! Laughed at the criticism of the pronunciation of Iechyd Da.....the horse from early 70's spelt Iechyd was pron. Yacky da , so todays one I assume was called Yackyda Da. No demerit points for getting that one wrong ,Tom Wood was misled by Internet then later on corrected himself. Thanks Trackside and all the best for 2014 .

Is that the same Natalie that was thoroughly rubbished on here a while back ?? And well done on the positive post !!!!

3 winners r1.....Duquesa r8....Waterford r10...The Last Shower Happy New Year

LInnes .....12 JMcd........7 Happy New Year

Just read the second story dunno where the 'Award Winning ' scandal is....certainly no fast cars , wild women or guns and missing bodies. In fact the chronology...forget the spelling.....is all over the place and where does the money go ?? It seems the money all goes into helping small South Island racing clubs survive . Small 'amateur run clubs ' put relatively small amounts of money into a 'lawyers' trust account to earn decent interest rates ,knowing 'unofficially' that it would result in decent grants from the pokies. But there would be little in the way of a 'paper' trail , and the whereabouts of the original money would be somewhat fuzzy ,Club Presidents were hazy on what Gallop South was up to. Cos the NZCT sites weren't performing too well , the TTTF trust would get involved with the Actual pokies sites , to gain control of the sites to ensure the grants would continue .....the individual clubs would only be concerned with putting in a bit of money ,and applying for and getting grants far in excess of their investment !!! The accountants would bury the investment in the books and amortise it over a few years while the lawyer would maintain a shady trust account. A Mr Lu would try and get control of the pokies , make phone calls as if he was the cleaner and generally run foul of the Pokies authorities. A web of deceit but hardly an "Oscar" winning drama. I see the fines are up to a maximum of $10k , little wonder lawyers and accountants are willing to flaunt with the rules. Especially as 'pokies ' grants have been very loosely controlled for years and only recently has legislation been tightened. Bluegrass ,which barely gets a mention in the second story was set up to mainly assist horse racing !!!!

Picks $20 Win.....r4 #8 Question Mark????????????????? $10 ew.......r5 #1 Peerage $20 pl.........r7 #12 Slippery Mistake Thanks.....have a great Xmas and prosperous Festive Season....PJ

This appears to be a "nothing" story ,just a summary of the investigation which is taking far too long. This journalist @ ODT brings out these little 'tasters' from time to time ,to me it shows 1....he is a little paranoid about it and 2...the DIA are bloody slow at their job and maybe would be better off deploying their talents elsewhere. It was reported at one stage that they had over 50 people working on the 'case' !!! Three of the clubs they mentioned have about 5 meetings [if that] between them. Of course the story is really trying to nail the guys behind the shady grants ,and possible 'law-breaking'.....the DIA needs to sharpen up. Meanwhile churches and charities are coming to realise that pokies is one of the few places where they can get funds to survive.....SStimes yesterday !

Picks $20 win....r5 #12 Dancers Tale $10 ew....r9 # 19 Ellie'O $20 place....r6 #8 Back in Black Thanks Can I emerge off bottom ?? I see I was late scr Friday Southerners in different timezone !!

Picks $20 win....r4....#16 Zhanim $10 ew.....r3....#11 Harper Rose $20 pl.....r5 ...#2 Jungle Knight Thanks

Whats the issue with Race 5 ?? We had a horse running ,there was a good lead up with most prelims ,a trainer was interviewed ,you could see the horses before the start at the gates ,the race was well filmed ,well commentated ,they showed a replay of the last 300m then it was time to cross to the next race where that race could be shown. Sure the placings weren't confirmed but no way were they going to change and I flicked to the computer to confirm what I thought.....we just missed 3rd. As an owner ,plus I had a small investment ,I was happy with the coverage...plus I Myskyed it ....plus it will be on the website before long !!! Amazing !!!! Nearly as good as being there !!

Picks Win r6 #11 Shes Smashing EW r5 #15 Soul Sista Place r8 #11 Sicilani Thanks

I haven't read many of the posts above......personally I have 2 decoders......and I thought 80% of NZ households had Sky but does BLichter's article in SSTimes have any relevance to this debate. It stated that before Xmas 2013 you can watch Trackside live on your computer or mobile device....as long as you have a TAB account. And soon you will be able to lie on a beach in Hawaii and watch the races in NZ. Plus all the form ,direct from your phones. Initially its just the Trackside channel ,but both channels soon. I ain't got a smart-phone myself but Kiwis will never have had it so good....you can sit in Church and watch the first race from Wyndham. Amazing !!!

Well John maybe Saturday Aussie racing ,when they go around for $80k to $100k is presented a little better ,and not a grey hound in sight.......its a single meeting type of focus they work with .....there are presenters for each facet of the presentation often 4 or 5, more on big days ,sometimes one just showing the tote movements . Racing is big time in Aussie ,as another post highlighted you can pay A$80 just to get in .....its a big business in a big country. But Aussie has its wall to wall racing channel as well...and some of those lesser country tracks are real mickey mouse ....once they get the rabbits and kangaroos off the track ,and the commentators laughable, by comparison our guys speak the Queens English. Many of our Saturday meetings are the equivalent of these second-tier meetings in Aussie and I'd say our Trackside coverage is vastly superior......often at Ellerslie there is one track presenter, they sit out by the parade ring and race around trying to get interviews in the stables back to the birdcage after the race ,up to the Press room to handle other media commitments they need to do to eke out a living ,they may also be jockey managers as well cos Racing in NZ is so small. Plus they have driven up to 5 hours in dense traffic just to get there !!! Nah NZ trackside does a great job.....and when the big Cup Days come they bring in Jane or Tommie, put on their roses......world class !!!! As for Hong Kong , several presenters who do nothing but watch the same horses all work on the same track ,race the same horses ,big fields most of the horses have no form at all just filling up the big fields to entice the maniac public to punt. They then pick 6 horses each often completely different horses .....sure there's big money on offer but the racing is so sterile and they rarely tip winners ,most of their main fancies race 5 wide and finish 50 m behind. And the spectators have paid $80 - $100 to get in. Big money = ben hur presentation. Kiwis look at HK in awe but according to betting figures turnover at their normal weekly meetings is pretty average from NZ. NZ Trackside ,champagne coverage on a beer budget .....I'd rate them a 90% plus in all types of weather !!!!