RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
puha

80's Racing

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It's great reflecting back on the good times, great people & horses that have contributed to Racing.

 

Hope you all recognized some that are still around in the industry, aging gracefully of course ;)

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I loved the 80s, some of my best memories being The Bayer Classic when it was raced at Levin, usually on a Wednesday.

A group of us would travel up from Wellington the afternoon before and kick off early evening with a few drinks at the Racing Club offices in Oxford Street (we were not invited but just rolled up).

 

Then it was off to The Levin Cossie Club for the Calcutta.  We would all chip in to purchase a roughie which usually ran accordingly.

At about 3am we would stumble back to our hotel for a few hours sleep. Then we were up with a hangover and getting our glad rags on for the big day which commenced with a brunch at the racecourse.

 

Des Coppins and Phillip Leishman would do a great job hosting the brunch and it would finish about an hour before the first race. A great days' punting would be had with the sideshow being  a few in the group  latching onto some ugly women. Then it was back to the Hotel for a few more to drink followed by cards at about 9pm. Cards would  get serious with at times several hundred in the pot for one hand..

 

Finally cards would finish at around 5am (for those who weren't already broke) followed by a few hours sleep. Then a slow trip back to Wellington and straight to bed to recover..

 

Oh what memories.

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I remember prominent horses like Blue Denim and Horlicks and also Linda Ballantynes horrific fall at the nellerslie New Year meeting but mostly in the 80's I was too busy paying 30% interest to Rogernomics and raising five kids than to have more than a passing interest at the time. Priorities, but the love of racing doesn't ever go away entirely.

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On 3/22/2014 at 10:37 AM, allaboveboard said:

Stephen Jenkins was also a dominant jumps rider. Peter Tims was another

 

Funny you should mention the grey Deino's Ruler. Pretty sure that was trained by the Archers. I took my mum to the Paeroa races and had a very nice bet on Deino's Ruler in the steeplechase. Was clear in the lead all the way and won by a street. Was ridden by one of the Archer sisters. Trudy or Judy? Did Trudy Archer become Trudy Collet? Lost track there.

 

Anyway we stopped at a flash shop on the way back home to Auckland and I bought my mum a beautiful dress etc out of my winnings.

 

Even now 30 years later my mum still mentions that "beautiful grey horse Deino's Ruler" and of course the dress and jewelry 

bert duncan traned deino,s ruler along with others with the ruler suffix.owned the local pub the cri now pulled down.julie archer the rider trudy thorntons sister.

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@Von Cettes you still about?

You & a few others used to be regulars in here.

Maybe Admin can do an eml out to prompt a few more in here who have been missing in action .

We all share the common bond of Racing & need to share ideas how we are all to go fwd as an industry.

Thanks in advance 

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11 hours ago, swampfox said:

bert duncan traned deino,s ruler along with others with the ruler suffix.owned the local pub the cri now pulled down.julie archer the rider trudy thorntons sister.

the first horse Mrs. vS rode trackwork was Deino's Rulers sister - stable name Pebbles and race name maybe Rich Ruler. That was a few haircuts ago.

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The Day at Tauranga Burt  told Dan Weatherly not to take on the likely pacemaker with Royal Ruler, Dan took it on and was beaten , Burt wasnt one to fire  up but his Wife Ola was and resulted in a flair up in the birdcage and later upstairs . Burt got pissed off and left the track taking with him the float, he still had his wifes horse jennibee running in the last and she ran a good second. Problem was the Stablehand was left with Royal Ruler and Jennibee with no way home, he talked to Mcilroy who said he could see what he could do and wasnt till an hour after the last to get them home. Burt used to feed his horse salads on a regular basis sourced from Derrianas owners next door neighbour . The stablehands werent as well fed and used to join in 😆 Mauriri was a regular Dart player  at the Criterion where he spent his time through injuries, normally accompanied by Rex Baron and Billy Short.He was very sick before he died and was returned to his Marae in Taranaki on his death 😔

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On 8/20/2020 at 9:20 AM, Blue said:

I remember prominent horses like Blue Denim and Horlicks and also Linda Ballantynes horrific fall at the nellerslie New Year meeting but mostly in the 80's I was too busy paying 30% interest to Rogernomics and raising five kids than to have more than a passing interest at the time. Priorities, but the love of racing doesn't ever go away entirely.

Sahiwal🤔

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On 3/21/2014 at 6:26 AM, puha said:

Name the first 5 80's horse that pop into your head.

 

1  Axeman

2 Azawary

3 Brenlaine

4 Commisionaire

5 Otakiri Maid ($$$)

Empire Rose

Van der Hum

Kiwi

Horlicks

Bonecrusher

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On 3/22/2014 at 10:12 AM, Rambling_Kidd said:

On course when HUNTERVILLE won his third, on course when CASTLETOWN won his third, on course when ALTITUDE sucked it, :(

 

 

talking jumpers, PATRONE, Le ROY, Mr HICKEY, DEINOs RULER (a mud sprinter, who couldn't win at 1600 m and then won 2 steeplechases !!), Stevo winning on BOOMALONG and AFTERNOON ?,  taking Hillis and Gilles in every bet .......

 

 

and most of all, WATCHING from OUR open roof grandstand, before they decided to build their new stand.

the name PATRONE rings a bell  in my head...tell me more!

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On 5/19/2014 at 5:37 PM, Ashoka said:

Kaimoto..."the Frog"...spectacular to watch.

Won the Australian Grand National with a very cheeky ride by Butch Londregan.

 

Ballycastle still holds the race (and track) record for the Elleslie Great Northern, I think.

 

Cheers.

Ashoka

Hurdle or Steeple? I remember a horse called KANAWINA winning the GN Hurdle at Flemingtonn, not sure if '81 or not but think so.

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40 minutes ago, We're Doomed said:

A very good horse that people often forget about was the ill fated Weston Lea: winner of 8 from 13 including the 1987 2,000 Guineas. Broke down during track work I think. Could have been anything.

Broke down at Te Awamutu while giving an exhibition gallop from memory.

Haub was trying to get thru to the radio station to tell them but they were broadcasting something else.When he did get thru he gave them plenty on air.

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Remember listening to the RADIO and wondering what Hauby was getting all excited about. Must be gutting having a horse just about to realise their potential then bam no horse. Like Altitude. 

Had a mate went into the Brisbane Cup with the fav and ended up without a horse. Highs and lows right there 

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42 minutes ago, Memphis2 said:

Remember listening to the RADIO and wondering what Hauby was getting all excited about. Must be gutting having a horse just about to realise their potential then bam no horse. Like Altitude. 

Had a mate went into the Brisbane Cup with the fav and ended up without a horse. Highs and lows right there 

It's tough , about 20yrs ago i had just started pottering around with training and i had a filly who won her first 2 j/o's very impressively and the rider reckoned it was real good , it was big lean thing and not a great doer so i spelled her , i started thinking this is too good for me to bugger up so i sent her to a very good horseman . He rang me after a while and tells me she is something a bit special , rang me back 2 days later to say she had busted her shoulder in pace work and had to be destroyed . Soul destroying , there were some tears that day .

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