Tapu

I think Mr Robertson should first, get himself a TAB account (he went to local to put a bet on Melbourne cup) then go to an auction or Gavelhouse and purchase himself a horse (no helpers or advisors) and start from scratch. Make it a filly so he can have the highs & lows of breeding his own.

In his letter the Minister demanded RITA: * Make best use of the $3.5m Crown contribution to the cost of industry change – ensuring that this funding ‘buys change’ rather than underwrites business as usual activities. * Improve customer service while improving operational efficiencies. * Provide for temporary management of residual functions, if necessary, after the formation of RITA’s successor organisation and the devolution of the intended functions to the codes. * Avoid any further deterioration in the RITA balance sheet and put steps in place for improvement. * Embed a customer service ethos that invests efforts into keeping promises, being realistic in making promises, and delivering on target. The letter also said RITA must complete the work started by the Ministerial Advisory Committee. It should: * Prepare a devolution of racing functions to the racing codes. * Continue assessment whether TAB betting operations should be outsourced to a third party – including exploring the extent to which joint venture and other arrangements with betting, broadcasting and gaming operators can provide the organisation with cost-effective access to up-to-date skills, knowledge and technologies.

Ministers instructions to RITA The Minister instructed RITA should ensure as much money as possible goes to additional prizemoney – not racing industry overheads by: * Maintaining the current level of overall funding to the codes as a baseline. * Minimising transitional costs for the industry and government. * Looking for efficiency gains in operations without compromising organisational capability and ensure the transfer of functions to the codes does not result in an overall increase in cost to the industry. * Progress the doubling of returns to owners as a key component of the cycle of revitalisation in the Massara Report. Critically, RITA was to have provided written and non-financial reports to the Minister for Racing and his department not later than four weeks after the end of each quarter. “I may alter this frequency depending on RITA’s performance and risks,” Peter said. “In addition, there is a ‘no surprises’ expectation, under which RITA is required to inform my office and the department of any material matter that arises and respond promptly to information requests.” Questions sent in under the Official Information Act by the federation seek, among other things, to discover whether the above instructions have been carried out. Under the Act answers must be provided within 20 working days but extensions can be sought if producing a large quantity of information unreasonably interferes with the operations of the agency.

I thought the TAB belongs to the racing clubs so how can anyone offer it as collateral for loans when they don’t own the asset? The document from 1950 clarified ownership.

They have been live on FB

SW & P

Can someone enlighten me to what this means in Valachi Stakes please?

NZTBA have a library

Photo’s of Verdi’s first foals around now and looking very nice youngsters

Have you tried the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders (Canty, Marlbough, West Coast, Otago) Face Book Page to ask?

He also had Antrim Lad & a Zenno Rob Roy stunner (unraced because of injury) stallions. La Affaires dam, Latestu & her Antrim Lad filly we foaled for him among others. Leggy, would you be the one to contact. Tried to look in ODT for funeral details as his former Best Man was wanting to know when, where etc Shaun was also his Best Man.

They should be running R60 races for 1 win horses instead of them competing against 5 win horses who have dropped back in the grades and then get an apprentice up. Very unfair and it happens all the time & looks deliberate in cases. This is why there is congestion and it the 1 win horses who cannot get a start and get put into emergency B! B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 & so on until their owners get sick of paying bills for nothing angive the game away. Why can’t the handicappers see this glaring fact? This is where we haemorrhage horses and disillusioned owners from and meantime the higher grades race with minimal fields and make money.

Shaun was getting Jaggard back and kept asking if I knew anyone who would like to stand him anywhere. Very well performed stallion with great lines (double of Vain among them)

So sad, Shaun was a fountain knowledge and had contacts all over the world. He lived for breeding & I will miss his weekly calls immensely. He knew it all without a computer and could go back years with such clarity. His favourite line he spoke of was Paper Money as being so important and he is showing up in many good horses today. He was so generous sharing his knowledge with any other breeder who had a passion for pedigrees. There will be many on this site with whom he regularly rang for a chat.

Vespa

There will be no festival sale (book 3) next year so no use breeding for that market

They won’t because they won’t go without any things they regard as normal, to save. They want it handed to them on a plate.

We have bred two. My Hallucination, now a super eventer, & Smokem Wilson. Have multiple lines of The Tetrach. Wilson is currently spelling

Wendy is open to suggestions from breeders, trainers etc on how to improve racing and opinions on what that person perceives to be wrong with the industry and how to improve it. Just email her she says

No he died recently Longspring have advised - was 20. We have a Colombia yearling colt.

Can't get a start in a maiden or R65 as it is. Some horses get balloted out more than 4 times so owners stop trying it and walk away. Then there is a 5 win R67 who loses, drops back and beats a 1 win horse. Need to be R60 1 win horse race..

Explain spent her later years here at Hedwood thoroughbreds in West Melton with Kay & Marie Hood. She had a Painted Black first, then when Alan was down (one of Aide Memoires co-breeders, we were going to see him (PB)and I asked him to swing by and look at Remind on the way. He was very much more her type but had a couple of things that I liked in the match and a couple that Alan liked so off she went to stud. Bella was foaled and brought up here in West Melton, before going north to the co-breeders to be broken in and race. We kept Explain and she foaled a very nice Coats Choice Colt for Hedwood who was unweaned when she succumbed to anaphylactic shock from being stung by bees. We lost two of our mares this way as neighbour had a beekeeper put hives on boundary unknown to us until we saw swarms of bees on horses water troughs. Bees need water so asked them to supply their bees with it themselves, but too late for Expain & Emerge. Bella was always a lovely type and very much The same type as her mother. She was 20 on foaling Aide Memoire and 22 for her last foal who is in Auckland after being sold at Si sale. Nice natured and lovely to handle she was very much a boss mare in the Broodmare paddock. The other mares allowed her orphan to mix with them and their foals. It was sad she didn't leave us another filly. Who said old mares don't produce. Explain has and made all her breeders and syndicate owners very proud. First G1 for us all as breeders and for her sire. Remind who stands at long Acres Stud at Darfield. Another SI stallion kept the flag flying today when Natuzzi won the G2 at Elleslie, Coats Choice is his sire.

Most powerful female line is the one on the bottom line,. This is where it counts. Most mares will have other good mares sprinkled thru pedigree somwhere but to say a mare is from a particular family means her tail fremale family (with a family number) ie Crimson Saint's daughter Terlingua is family 8. As are any mares born from those descendants

NZB have bought Gavelhouse NZ and first auction in April. Hayley Martin has come back to NZ to run it. Existing horses advertised on Gavelhouse get free entry for first auction to go live. Photo's to be in by this week. The Australian site have been ringing for business also and seem very proactive. It is advertised on Hedwood Thoroughbreds Ltd Facebook page - scroll down to it.

I gave up in the end. Also time the IPad had a feature like a photo albums where you can just run your fingers across page to go to next horse instead of all the dots at the bottom - horrible way to look for pages.