Mr Spyro

I see they just turned down the name Piston Broke.

Always liked Richard Cranium in Australia , the above BLABS. and of course Sir . W.O.F.T.A.M. speaks for itself. Had a horse or two that those initials could apply to.

From what I know they spend countless hours watching videos of races, selecting horses for jockeys who haven't got the time to do it and might not be same horses they rode last time. Also act as confidants for jockeys in some cases like as above for Chris Johnson and try and keep them on straight and narrow I have seen them late at night when races are long over, taking calls from their jockeys and analysing every ride that day. They deal with some trainers who can be right grumpy buggers and then cop it if said trainers feel rides haven't been up to expected. For say $ 10 a ride and percentage of stakes won, it isn't a path to riches. For the income personally, I wouldn't want the aggravation.

Remember writing her down after seeing her at Avondale night meeting. From memory came from about 20 lengths off pace to run 2nd in a maiden race. Had to be special. Sue Ellis was John Walker's sister in law ?

The way I look at it, the facilities, service, would be equally poor summer or winter. There has to be a reason why they got bigger crowds / higher turnover's / than the day's in summer . then crashed in winter. I'm surprised that too many were paying for drinks in the early years, my memory might be hazy, but I'm sure when the The Quakker was running things, just about every yuppie / businessman in town was up in President's Room getting pissed on free drink all night , that led to infamous night of power being turned off during a race. Thinking about it , more than anything it was the 1987 stock market crash that really put the nail in the coffin and led to likes of above and many breeder's no longer being involved in the industry.

The funny thing about the night racing was it worked in Summer. I remember being told by committee member's that the T / O's for night Summer racing far exceeded the Summer daytime figures. What absolutely killed them was the Winter night racing where you couldn't get two men and a dog out. I remember one night getting free drinks as something like 3 member's turned up. If you can't get more than 3 member's there how could you get the public stuck outside ? Maybe they could have stuck to Summer and dumped the Winter's.

I'm sure they thought they would get their feature races back, the Auckland Racing Club offered them back, but authorities stepped in and said they didn't want the G2 races ? televised from there because it didn't look good on television with the eyesore grandstand etc. As a member I'm flummoxed if they are entertaining idea of new stand, just bowl the old one and leave it at that. They won't be selling, but that will almost certainly mean no more racing licences, so what the hell would a new grandstand achieve ?

They don't want to sell the course because all monies, assets, now go to racing authorities as I understand it. Before, the constitution allowed the member's to decide where everything went in event of club being dissolved, of course member's can't benefit, but could give to charity if so desired. Under pressure club's had to bow down and sign away that right, now on dissolution everything would be taken out of their control. I'm sure that is way it is now, but stand to be corrected.

Virtually the jewel in the crown, being Auckland land, will be interesting too see how far it gets without the projected $ 200 million from the intended sale. Now they are forced to admit what we all suspected , that they were on very shaky legal ground to begin with in regard to grabbing club's assets. Can withdraw licences sure, but that is as far as it goes.

Did they say they would build a new one or just knock the old eyesore down ? As a member would be dead set against that folly, for the crowds they get now, the member's stand and owners and trainers are open to all and suffice.

What is frustrating me more right now is the speed, sometimes it moves at the speed of a constipated sloth Especially if you have missed a race and go back to get a result, it just goes around and around in circles and you have to retry later. Not just this computer, as have tried it on others for same result. Along with info that should be there that isn't and the most protracted way of having to do what should be as uncomplicated as possible, I'm more than ever convinced it was developed by Monty Python's legendary " Village Idiot "

He's still relying on selling off the other courses to fund it, esp Avondale . Heard through the grapevine that some intend to stand and fight . Hopefully with quite a few lawyers having served recently on these club's committee's , they might help clubs fight the Whiskey'd One's plans, pro - bono.

One of the good blokes and a true old school gentleman. Very sad news.

Very astute and a damn hard worker.

Yep my uncle was very good mates with a leading SI trainer / driver and they always got together when he came up. One time they couldn't meet up until after the first day when my uncle bet on this particular horse of his . Trainer told him on meeting up day after " No, you didn't !! you should have waited until the second day and punted " It was all " hands down " the second day and it bolted in at large odds.