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

Oamaru barrier staff

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14 hours ago, Berri said:

What was that....Race 7 Tickets on Me refuses to go into the stalls....where were the people getting in behind the filly to push it in?   Where was the hood? Why don't we use one in NZ? A poor showing and totally unprofessional.

Didn't see the race to which you refer...but we do use hoods/blindfolds.

No idea why not in this case.....and yes,  you do see a fair bit of standing around at times when a concerted shove could work.

Just as an aside...it never fails to amuse me when you see various people, barrier staff and others,  waving their arms around pointlessly behind a blinkered horse.

What is that supposed to achieve?

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9 hours ago, mr dickson cider said:

Your welcome to come around and show us how to do it you keyboard warrior.

 

Did you actually see the extreme "work" one operative put via the lead rope on the horse's head? By the time he was finished a fractious horse was positively rebellious. If you did see it and you still think it was OK then you should quit the game.

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8 minutes ago, Midget said:

Please explain Chevy, thanks

Self-explanatory--look at the film. Not a good look if we are trying to protect the image of the sport and have to say that most of the time the cameras avoid incidents such as horses down in the gates , playing up, flick with the long whip etc.

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10 minutes ago, Midget said:

Didn't know there was a film.

Is it normal to have films of horses who won't load available ?

I meant Trackside recording--I do not have it recorded but somebody else may be able to post from MySky.

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1 hour ago, Pam Robson said:

 

Just as an aside...it never fails to amuse me when you see various people, barrier staff and others,  waving their arms around pointlessly behind a blinkered horse.

What is that supposed to achieve?

it is to advise that - a new underarm deodorant has been used today!

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11 hours ago, mr dickson cider said:

Your welcome to come around and show us how to do it you keyboard warrior.

 

I paid my way through Uni doing barriers two days a week when I was at Curtin in Perth. In two years we missed out on one horse, a pig by Beau Sovereign called Sturgeon. I made it my pet project never to lose him at the barriers and worked with his trainer to get him sorted. Also flew horses in planes to get to Uni so I learnt the game through fire.

Also spent time in UK where they use the blind fold on a regular basis. It seriously works the oracle.

So this "keyboard warrior" was appalled, shocked and frustrated at the absolute lack of barrier knowledge that I saw at Oamaru in Race 7. Totally unprofessional in this day and age

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And why don't those vets and farriers lend a hand at the start?
 
The vet and farrier at Ellerslie sometimes lends a hand, but the majority do nothing except drive around the course in their V8 Range Rovers!

Regarding the head post, horses are 10 times easier to load without jockeys, but for some reason the stewards don't permit them to dismount now. The smart jockeys of yesteryear always dismounted around at the start to keep weight off their mounts back.
 

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Billy, for one, it's not their job, and with OSH breathing down their throats, and ACC Levies as they are, who can blame them.

In the real world, we would have more attendants for every barrier crew in the country, but NZ racing can't afford it.

I do take my hat off to each and everyone of these people involved in this job, it is a thankless task!

Not many horses beat the Northern crew!

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Agree, the barrier boys do a great job as Woodsie says.

Usual story though, you can only spend your money once and when you've got 12 people off to Inner Mongolia, and 4 million a year on travel for NZRB staff, and NZTR running a million over budget, not to mention 20 staff and hangers on to the Asian Racing Conference in Hong Kong, and so much wasted on stakes......well who can afford barrier attendants !!!

The end is near anyway, go read the data published in the NZTR bulletin thread, it seems the decline into oblivion is accelerating now. We won't need barrier attendants soon looking at that data. 

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7 hours ago, trakdap said:

I saw it Chevy. The attendant was yanking on the bit which made the horse go backwards and get more stirred up.

IMHO I think the barrier staff should have a headstall available in their arsenal.

For the record the horse had a headstall on. The horse was late scratched at it's previous start also with a DIFFERENT  barrier crew. We did our best. If anyone can do better give me your number your welcome to come and show us how you would do it. In the perfect world you would have 6 x 140kg props to push horses in but you can't get them. Most barrier staff are ex jockeys because they have horse sense, they don't grow that big even when they retire we had 4 working yesterday. Chris got off before he got thrown off. It is dangerous to blindfold a horse with no rider on if it gets loose your in trouble with no one to remove it it will kill itself.You would be mad to use the blindfold first up on raceday as I have seen horses go beserk if they are not used to it . Trial days are the place to test it out to see if it makes a difference.

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3 hours ago, billy connolly said:

And why don't those vets and farriers lend a hand at the start?
 
The vet and farrier at Ellerslie sometimes lends a hand, but the majority do nothing except drive around the course in their V8 Range Rovers!

Regarding the head post, horses are 10 times easier to load without jockeys, but for some reason the stewards don't permit them to dismount now. The smart jockeys of yesteryear always dismounted around at the start to keep weight off their mounts back.
 

Hey Billy, in the old days we used to get off, check our gear, walk around, have a ciggie if you were Bob Skelton, and then get back up, [swing up] ourselves, but then again the northern boys [Bob excepted] were always up themselves, weren't they Midge? snr?jnr?

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Not sure about "up themselves", NGH was too busy up our girlfriends, well not very far up our girlfriends I'm told but he was doing his best with what God gave him.

The only one up himself was Graham Walters, of Loch Linnie fame, he was desperately in love with the half length mirror, but even he came around after a bit of roughing up from the locals.

I think we generally liked the northerners, they taught us all about hair dye, bell bottoms, soft top cars, Neil Diamond, how to roll joints, and how to wear bangles on our wrists and studs in our ears.

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You've been 'up north' for too long, you're far too kind. David Peake had the cheek to ask me in the barriers ''could I steer straight'....cheeky bugger. As for Walters, that handle bar moustache was gut wrenching, he could sit on though.

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The unfortunate part about yesterday was that the ex jock that was trying to lead the horse in had no horse sense at all. What we was doing was counter horse intuitive. This isn't personal. It's a poke at a system that is getting progressively worse. Had that footage aired in the international racing market we would have been the weekly joke.

As for the use of a blind, it's been on many a first starter in the UK and it's generally put on while the jock is up, although I have seen it put on an I mounted horse before....what ever works. Have you ever tried a blind?

Horses often need encouragement and security. Having a couple of people either side from the rear often does the job. You don't need to be 14 stone. I weight 90kgs and I can assure you I didn't weigh that when I was at Uni. 

I take my hats off to most barrier staff. I don't take my hat off to incompetent barrier staff, or those who haven't pursued enough passion to ensure mediocrity doesn't rear its ugly head.

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Start with two people to the side, one on each side where the saddle is. Don't have the idiot you had pulling on its head like that. Making nice cooing and reassuring sounds whilst calmly touching and patting the horse, slowly get to the rear at both sides. Don't lose physical contact with the horse and watch it's ears. That's the view into the brain. Make sure both parties have bodily contact on either side with the bloke in front, calmly patting and caressing the horse's head as though he was playing a virgin. Then slowly both men on either side, without losing bodily contact, link up behind. If it kicks out you'll both be out of range because if there's two of you the horse won't know which one to tag. What ever, go calmly, always soothing. 

When you do manage to link up behind, have a lot of contact, not just with the linked arms. That allows you to stear it by using your weight as the guide. If it still doesn't want a bar of it, put a blind fold on. Works wonders but once again you need serious body contact to stear it to the right place. 

That will get you 99 percent of all horse problems.

 

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At the end of the day its not there job to educate them on raceday i know i didnt look pretty but put the shoe on the other foot if you get the same horse come to the start and do the same thing every time it becomes very frustrating for the staff when they always are being critisized for being overtime when the have to deal with horses like this

 

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