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Hunterville

Moroney drug culture alleged

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Hunterville posted something from the public domain an article from the admittedly rubbish SST. If this stuff was untrue the impugned could seek damages.

You may not be aware that the rumours have been circulating in the north for months over the operation of the named place. They sounded wild and very damaging to those concerned and were a big negative for racing. At the same time Dillo ran his article on drugs in racing in the Herald which seemed like a kite flying exercise. It was probably a concern over libel laws that stopped him from grasping the nettle.

The recent police involvement with the young female associate and references about continued abscences of the principal allow further speculation.

This situation will be sanitised far quicker by being brought out into the light of day.

Redemption is already being offered with the lenient sentence of 3 months mooted.

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Actually I feel genuine sorrow for them both, but especially Mike.

I wouldn't bother to comment on the allegations but the manner in which the story was presented, the timing of it, and the involvement of Barry Lichter in yet another attack on the thoroughbred code is quite disgusting.

Someone should give Lichter a bloody good hiding and kick himl in to touch for good.

We have just had the Wellington Cup meeting and all we get is a medium sized shared article covering both the Cup and the Thorndon, not a mention of the fillies race, or any other race for that matter. I wonder if the harness jewels will only have one article covering the whole meeting. The SST is a joke as is Lichter.

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Guest Dishlicker

Good on Licher for bringing this out to the open. All you precious thoroughbred types need a realty check. What about all the owners who have horses with Moroney? Don't you think they should know whats going on there? Or should they do what you lot are suggesting and just bury there heads in the sand and hope it goes away? If it was anything to do with greyhounds, or another Geoff Small incident, then you lot would be all over it. Licher needs a medal for being brave enough to tell the truth.

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We have just had the Wellington Cup meeting and all we get is a medium sized shared article covering both the Cup and the Thorndon, not a mention of the fillies race, or any other race for that matter. I wonder if the harness jewels will only have one article covering the whole meeting. The SST is a joke as is Lichter.

Yep it amazes me our some of our massive racing days get a postage stamp amount of attention, and yet others get better treatment. Political?

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Good on Licher for bringing this out to the open. All you precious thoroughbred types need a realty check. What about all the owners who have horses with Moroney? Don't you think they should know whats going on there? Or should they do what you lot are suggesting and just bury there heads in the sand and hope it goes away? If it was anything to do with greyhounds, or another Geoff Small incident, then you lot would be all over it. Licher needs a medal for being brave enough to tell the truth.

I dont have a problem with him bringing it out in the open, as I said in an earlier post, but Lichter is happy to write a half page negative feature on thoroughbred racing, yet dedicate just one small article to the entire wellington cup meeting. As I said, I bet the Harness Jewels gets way more coverage than that. Lichter might be happy to use his paper to fuel his own interests, but the fact remains thoroughbred racing attracts far more attention from the public than harness does. A simple request, just give it the coverage it deserves.

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We all know drug abuse exsists - right?

It is wide spread across the community and is a national problem.

To give the Moroney's credit they have admitted it. So lets move on and not blow the subject out of all proportion.

Yes there are some who may want to discredit the whole industry but as we know not everyone in the industry is into drug abuse.

I feel respect those who are not into drug abuse and little empathy for those who are.

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I dont have a problem with him bringing it out in the open, as I said in an earlier post, but Lichter is happy to write a half page negative feature on thoroughbred racing, yet dedicate just one small article to the entire wellington cup meeting. As I said, I bet the Harness Jewels gets way more coverage than that. Lichter might be happy to use his paper to fuel his own interests, but the fact remains thoroughbred racing attracts far more attention from the public than harness does. A simple request, just give it the coverage it deserves.

omgosh

obviously you arnt highly qualified or have any idea about journalism

not to sure about you, but i dont want to read race results in the paper. I want to read stories, stories with substance (no pun intended) that make me go WOW at the end. When Geoff small was behaving badly, he put a full page article in the SST. Everytime he bagged G Small you either had a laugh or were thinking to yourself WOW.

This is another story, which to be honest is more interesting than who ran second and third in the Thorndon Mile. Negative or not, these are the stories people want to read. They want news, not results and archives.

You say he bags the Throughbred Code, but you seem to forget the consant bashing of Geoff Small.

Robin Brook grabing teenagers bottoms, Doug Howlett jumping on cars at a hotel, Mils Muliana urinating on a bar, Matty Johns being involved in a sex scandal and more money tied up in drugs than horses at Ballymore is what people want to read. Not sectionals and the winning rider of the Wellington Cup.

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I dont have a problem with him bringing it out in the open, as I said in an earlier post, but Lichter is happy to write a half page negative feature on thoroughbred racing, yet dedicate just one small article to the entire wellington cup meeting. As I said, I bet the Harness Jewels gets way more coverage than that. Lichter might be happy to use his paper to fuel his own interests, but the fact remains thoroughbred racing attracts far more attention from the public than harness does. A simple request, just give it the coverage it deserves.

I think there are 2 issues with the SST coverage.

Firstly Lichter does lean towards the harness, so that impacts the coverage balance.

Secondly in my view he is much more interested in the "human interest" angle, as opposed to the more usual coverage about the big race of the day ....etc

It is worth pointing out that he covered the Small saga at length, which no doubt was a major negative as far as the harness code is concerned. Now the same with Moroney.

We all have our own views in terms of sensationalism and what is appropriate. Just be thankful we don't have the News of the World in NZ !

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not to sure about you, but i dont want to read race results in the paper.

Yep, Bradez. If you want a race result, go on-line.

Not sure I particularly want to read of your 'Robin Brook grabing teenagers bottoms, Doug Howlett jumping on cars at a hotel, Mils Muliana urinating on a bar, Matty Johns being involved in a sex scandal' stories either, ha, but - hey - each to their own!

Racing journalism - especially in the Sundays - is pathetic. Each editor seems to look at the freebies offered from the Australian papers and will happily run 5 or 6 paras on, say, Black Caviar winning at Moonee Valley than having one of his staff (presumably much more expensively) write something about New Zealand racing from the previous day.

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omgosh

obviously you arnt highly qualified or have any idea about journalism

not to sure about you, but i dont want to read race results in the paper. I want to read stories, stories with substance (no pun intended) that make me go WOW at the end. When Geoff small was behaving badly, he put a full page article in the SST. Everytime he bagged G Small you either had a laugh or were thinking to yourself WOW.

This is another story, which to be honest is more interesting than who ran second and third in the Thorndon Mile. Negative or not, these are the stories people want to read. They want news, not results and archives.

You say he bags the Throughbred Code, but you seem to forget the consant bashing of Geoff Small.

Robin Brook grabing teenagers bottoms, Doug Howlett jumping on cars at a hotel, Mils Muliana urinating on a bar, Matty Johns being involved in a sex scandal and more money tied up in drugs than horses at Ballymore is what people want to read. Not sectionals and the winning rider of the Wellington Cup.

If your going to quote someone, it pays to wait until they have said it . Or maybe I lack the Qualification to understand what it is I have said. However I dont recall ever saying that I wanted to read race results.

I didnt know true journalism only exists in the gutter, so please forgive my ignorance. Maybe in your erudite world human interest stories can only capture the imagination when focussing on the losers of this world, but in my nescient world journalism should be able to write an equally effective story on the winners of this industry, perhaps with a little more emotion and rhetoric to please those that crave the WOW factor.

I hope For your sake Bradez that it isnt just the morbid side of human nature that lights your fire.

If it is just gossip that excites you, then can I suggest the Womans Weekly!

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It's not illegal if you don't get caught...ask some other trainers that hav'nt made the mistake of miss timing withholding times. Is it ok for the a racecourse D to be talking out of house to a reporter??. The only thing proven by law from the report is the swab positive, the rest is hear say.

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Hi all. I know Meo personally having worked with him before. Dont know what he does in his spare time its not my buisness.

But a week or 2 before he went to Maroneys his father in law died and he was going to Maroneys to save some money because he had to go home.

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If your going to quote someone, it pays to wait until they have said it . Or maybe I lack the Qualification to understand what it is I have said. However I dont recall ever saying that I wanted to read race results.

I didnt know true journalism only exists in the gutter, so please forgive my ignorance. Maybe in your erudite world human interest stories can only capture the imagination when focussing on the losers of this world, but in my nescient world journalism should be able to write an equally effective story on the winners of this industry, perhaps with a little more emotion and rhetoric to please those that crave the WOW factor.

I hope For your sake Bradez that it isnt just the morbid side of human nature that lights your fire.

If it is just gossip that excites you, then can I suggest the Womans Weekly!

maybe you should start your own paper, you'll find that no one buys it. It would be boring as **** ?

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Just picking up on matters for the first time since Saturday.

One comment by John Mackenzie concerned me. It is his reference to a culture re drug use. That's a pretty serious thing to say. "Culture" is the values, beliefs, norms, assumptions, expectations etc of an institution such as a workplace.

In this case, if there is a culture of drug use, then it must be rampant among staff. For anybody who doesn't use drugs, it must be a mighty uncomfortable place to work. At the very least, it must sometimes be frustrating.

Do Paul and Mike M have different approach to stable management?

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to single out Paul Moroneys stable.

With all the people busted in the Matamata area over the last few years it seems to me the "culture" could be a bit more wide spread than just Ballymore stables.

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to single out Paul Moroneys stable.

With all the people busted in the Matamata area over the last few years it seems to me the "culture" could be a bit more wide spread than just Ballymore stables.

some 'moral panic' perhaps! :cool:

elsewhere! I mentioned about a study under way in one state in usa, where mass reading of drug use is underway! via the toilet system! one thing of interest, it showed that 'P' is the only drug that was spread over all areas... class... gender.. rural.. city... rich...poor.. as the drug of choice... most don't become addicts... many! gave the reason of choice was driven by the fact that it gets out of your 'recordable' window quickly...

part of the problem is that 'the state' has used a prohibition approach, which has not worked....

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"part of the problem is that 'the state' has used a prohibition approach, which has not worked...."

a 'more of the carrot, less of the stick' approach to this issue given that prohibition/legislation usually has only a poor/average success rate resolving the problem?

If so do you believe that there is still a place for regulation/enforcement? And what sort of non-regulatory measures would you envisage?

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I just wonder how long this business has been going on within the Moroney stable.

I seem to recall a story of some 25 odd years ago involving a one time close business partner of the Moroneys who got into a bit of trouble and strife over similar matters when he didn't have the "Vision" to keep his head down.

Or is my memory failing me? Perhaps.

Or was the story just that? A story.

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....lol...heck, did he flee the country as well?

I just wonder how long this business has been going on within the Moroney stable.

I seem to recall a story of some 25 odd years ago involving a one time close business partner of the Moroneys who got into a bit of trouble and strife over similar matters when he didn't have the "Vision" to keep his head down.

Or is my memory failing me? Perhaps.

Or was the story just that? A story.

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I feel sorry for the Owner's they pay big money to have their horse's trained.

I also feel sorry for Mike.

They should introduce a no drugs policy at Ballymore, shake the tree and rid all bad apples, the last thing you need is someone who is off their face, looking after multi million dollar throughbreds, it's a bad look.

Having worked with both Paul and Mike at Wexford, i can tell you drugs was never there go, they are top blokes, and Master's of there craft.

They need to be firm and SACK anyone who does DRUGS

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to single out Paul Moroneys stable.

With all the people busted in the Matamata area over the last few years it seems to me the "culture" could be a bit more wide spread than just Ballymore stables.

Even I am aware that the two trackwork riders are freelancers who ride for others.

Only a newspaper[?] could link them solely with Moroneys and one can only wonder why this was done.

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would concede that owners with horses there could be excused if they were a little un-nerved about all that has been said about the goings-on and various players involved with this stable.

I wonder if things are getting too hot yet for certain prominent owners whose reputations and dedication to truth, justice and the rule of law are paramount? I suppose their horses could always quietly go out for a spell, and on their return, be placed with another trainer ....

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would concede that owners with horses there could be excused if they were a little un-nerved about all that has been said about the goings-on and various players involved with this stable.

I wonder if things are getting too hot yet for certain prominent owners whose reputations and dedication to truth, justice and the rule of law are paramount? I suppose their horses could always quietly go out for a spell, and on their return, be placed with another trainer ....

....or poached by another trainer.seems to be a bit of that going on at the mo.......

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