Trump

Get well soon Ohokason. All the best to you going forward mate.

I can’t wait for Trumps legal team to call their witnesses for cross examination! Biden Snr and Jr included. Clinton’s etc. it’s going to make prime TV viewing for sure. I’m getting an extra carton of Henniger Lager in for the show!

Watched the Impeachment hearing today. What a farce and Democrat jack-up. This has a long way to go....

It would have been interesting to be an observer in the Protest hearing. It’s often said that a very eloquent and articulate Jockey can sway a protest hearing his/her way. I wonder if the relegated horse’s Jockey had the thought that “there’s no way I can lose this protest” and didn’t argue the case for retaining the race forcefully enough to convince the panel?

Racing NSW puts money ($millions) into the Everest yet It’s a closed race to the stakeholders who paid $600k per year for their spots. I can’t see the difference but understand your point. Racing needs big races to attract the punters and if the Karaka Million is one of those then why not support it? A twilight meeting with a big race should get support. The Qld Govt and Racing Qld put up $millions every year to support the Gold Coast Magic Millions Carnival - races that are restricted to the MM Sales Graduates. It’s standing room only on MM day in Jan. there’s polo, gallops on the beach, MM Golf day, Mm Ball, MM Lunches etc etc. A week of entertainment that generates interest, excitement, tourism etc. All supported by Racing Qld and the Govt. Some of you need to get out a bit and see what’s going on outside of NZ. Giving $500k is peanuts! But it should be supported -not condemned.

The Everest?????????????????No good for the NSW/Aust Racing Industry????????? Get real you guys! The punters drive the Industry and the Industry should support races such as the K$M and The Everest etc.

What about the colts that stop racing early to go to stud? Sacred Falls won 2 Doncasters and altho now deceased, surely his earnings from stallion fees should be added to his tally? Usually, it’s the blue bloods that occupy the top priced lots due to their possible life as a stallion. There’s not going to be any stallions to come out of the bottom priced lots imho. So really, it’s not just racetrack earnings but also stud earnings that should be added. Darci Brahma comes to mind. Hate to think how much in Stallion Fees he’s earnt!

Then why not balance their negative viewpoint and put up some of the positives. The cheaper buys that went on to win big races in Australia and NZ. Those that were pinhooked and onsold for big profits? Many of the yearlings sold at Karaka will be onsold to HK for big money. The sale price should go into the equation I would think? The negative slant put on TA’s marketing and promotion is an example of negativity that does the Industry no good. There are plenty of stories of success from the syndication of racehorses and there are failures. Redzel comes to mind - as the best success. I’ve never gone into a TA syndicate nor have I had a horse trained by their Trainers. I was invited once and politely declined. It wasn’t my thing. But my niece’s experience with GINGERNUTS, a $55k (approx) syndicated TA horse that won the NZ Derby is a positive and one they should highlight. People buy Toyota cars despite the millions of them having been recalled for defects. Toyota don’t highlight the recalls do they? But people still buy Toyota’s and Toyota still market how good their cars are. Which they are imho.

So here we are, about 7 weeks away from NZ’s National Thoroughbred Sales at Karaka, and we have so called “horse people”, people who love their horse racing, doing everything they can to highlight the negatives of the Industry! Sometimes I wonder if some of you are part of the loony brigade, the anti-horse racing lunatic fringe! Why don’t you do something positive and put up some of the “thousands” of positives that make up the Racing Industry”. Everyone is aware that buying a horse is like buying a Lotto ticket. If you see it in a negative way, just don’t get involved! But why put the boot in on those that are involved and do your best to discourage people from buying into a horse at the Karaka sales coming up? There are thousands of stories of people having the fun of horse ownership. Of going along to morning trackwork, getting excited on Raceday, disappointed with a bad run etc. but they love it and the chance to watch their horse win. There are no guarantees and there are great moments and great disappointments. But why put the boot in at a time the Industry needs all the help it can get. I’m betting that someone will buy a cheapish Book 3 pony that will bring great joy and maybe prosperity in G1 glory in the future. Will it be you?

I have a niece who wouldn’t have known a horse’s head from its tail, no idea of the racing game (other than go once a year and socialise with friends over a glass Or 3 of bubbly etc), probably she has not been to a horse sale and probably thinks Karaka is an imported fireworks from China! Anyway, friends talked her into “investing/speculating” into owning a racehorse, so she “invested” a fingernail in the smallest share - in a Te Akau syndicate. It was her first “speculation”. Name of the horse was? GINGERNUTS. Winner of the 2017 NZ Derby. Ask her what “she” thinks of horse racing, Syndication, Te Akau etc!

There’s a great article in today’s Qld SUNDAY MAIL newspaper. Titled, “A LIFE ON THE MAKE”, it describes what a draft dodging, lying, thieving, conniving, horse nobbling person he was. A briber or blackmailer of Politicians and Police. Involved in the 3 most appalling scandals in Aust Racing history. The one about the doping of Big Philou and Bart Cummings “get even” is a classic. Cummings hated Waterhouse and was so incensed to see Big Philou scouring uncontrollably less than an hour before the Melb Cup, the horse twisting in agony and exploding with Diarrhoea. The prime suspect, Les Lewis, a sacked Cummings stable hand, confessed on his deathbed in 1997, no longer afraid of Waterhouse’s pet gunman, Bertie Kidd. Waterhouse was a known nobbler. Bart got his revenge in 1974 when Waterhouse arrogantly assumes the Big Philou outrage was history and asked Bart for inside info on Leilani’s MC chances. Cummings deadpan, assured Waterhouse Leilani was unfit and could not win. Waterhouse rushes to exploit this info, luring a gold rush of punters to back Leilani. He filled his bag with “mug” money. Leilani won easily and Waterhouse approached Bart, quivering with rage and hissed, “What was that for?” Bart answered, “That was for Big Philou”. The article sums up by saying that big Bill’s son David never spoke to him for 27 years and won’t be at his funeral. He said, “No one loved Bill - good riddance!” What a lovely person!

When the protest went up (I didn’t have a bet on the race) my immediate thought was that the winner had safely held the 2nd horse and that there was no show of the protest being upheld. How wrong was I ! I always thought that the consideration was whether or not the protesting horse would have finished ahead? Bit of a joke imho.

You may be right Ohokason - but I have an open mind. As I’ve said before, The Donald is pissing the Dems off big time because he won’t dance to their tune and whatever one thinks of him ( and I think he’s a moron), he’s exposing a lot of the “establishment” and they don’t like it. He’s going to win the nxt election, mainly because he’s doing what he said he would do when he was elected. Build the Wall, take on the trade imbalance with China etc, get Europe to pay their NATO fair share, pull out of that farcical Paris Accord, and above all, Drain the Swamp! The Dems can’t handle him and they’ve got so much corruption around them, he’s having a ball exposing it. I don’t like him as a person but Jeez- he has the hide of a Rhino!!

He wouldn’t have backed it at those odds - he likes them odds-on...

Do u believe him? Who do you believe?