Ozzie Telethon for AS

[Fartoomuch 1,376]

Thanks very much for the kind donation with team AS winning 3 races including Ballarat Cup with The Fixer who in anybody's language just went huge the last 150. $2.20 was very acceptable as well

[Rusty 575]

Back All Stars, smoke cigars

[Stables 577]

Yawn

[Fartoomuch 1,376]

2 hours ago, Stables said:

Yawn

I admire your honesty

[Stables 577]

And your response surprised me. Well done

[Thejanitor 1,219]

5 hours ago, Fartoomuch said:

Thanks very much for the kind donation with team AS winning 3 races including Ballarat Cup with The Fixer who in anybody's language just went huge the last 150. $2.20 was very acceptable as well

Yes, it was a great drive by Natalie Rasmussen to get the horse clear of the pocket and then find racing room. Who needs a passing lane?

[Fartoomuch 1,376]

11 hours ago, Thejanitor said:

Yes, it was a great drive by Natalie Rasmussen to get the horse clear of the pocket and then find racing room. Who needs a passing lane?

Quite a few used the passing lane to good effect at Waterlea over the 2 day meeting. For a few it was the only reason they won given their slim winning margins

[Stables 577]

Passing lanes should never have been permitted. They change the whole dynamic of a race and allow too much influence into the result. The best horse is often beaten in the last stride or two by a horse which had the good fortune of a soft run all the way

[Newmarket RC 209]

1 hour ago, Stables said:

Passing lanes should never have been permitted. They change the whole dynamic of a race and allow too much influence into the result. The best horse is often beaten in the last stride or two by a horse which had the good fortune of a soft run all the way

To be fair though Stables , there are many things that influence any and all races. Draws, abilty,type of start,driver abilty etc. The so called best often get beaten with a soft run as well so at the end of the day surely the winner of the race is the best on that occasion.

[Fartoomuch 1,376]

“In fairness to the two leaders, they went really hard from the 400-200m and I was just lucky enough to get across the back of them … he’s got really good point-to-point speed,” driver and co-trainer Natalie Rasmussen said.

It was a mighty effort to pick-up to sharply while going sideways to find clear air in a 27sec final quarter.

And it absolutely showed Thefixer was a major player for Saturday week’s $500,000 Group 1 Hunter Cup.

The Aussie TAB crunched his Hunter Cup odds from $6 to $3.80 equal favourite with Tiger Tara, while Cruz Bromac is $6 and Spankem is $7.

Thefixer gave the All Stars barn its fifth Ballarat Cup win and fourth in succession. The others were: Heaven Rocks (2018), Smolda (2016 and ’17) and Highview Tommy back in 2012.

 

Compliments of Adam Hamilton report

[Stables 577]

3 hours ago, Newmarket RC said:

To be fair though Stables , there are many things that influence any and all races. Draws, abilty,type of start,driver abilty etc. The so called best often get beaten with a soft run as well so at the end of the day surely the winner of the race is the best on that occasion.

There are 2 things that have happened in the last few decades, that have changed the dynamic of racing to a great extent. They are Passing lanes and changing the push out rule to only permit pushing out in the last 1000 metres of a race. These changes have altered the speed races are run at as now it is considered acceptable for drivers of the better or best horses in the field to go to the front and go as hard as they can in order to take the finishing sprint out of the horses behind it. This often works accept when a horse with ability is the one lucky enough to get the trail and come up the passing lane. The All Stars stable have used this system to their advantage, thanks to their superior numbers of horses in a race. They tend to lead out at the start with one horse, move another horses up to sit parked and then hold on to the lead at all costs unless another All Stars horse comes round and then they give up the lead without a fight. From there they dominate the race because no driver is able to attack them. If anybody did attack they would probably be left 3 wide without cover as the parked All Stars horse would move up to ensure they couldn't pass them. This used to be called team driving but now appears acceptable as I have not been aware of any action taken against them by the stipes. Harness racing has therefore become far less entertaining as a result because the only thing you can bet on is a Purdon horse, or how many wins the All Stars have on a feature night

[Newmarket RC 209]

9 minutes ago, Stables said:

There are 2 things that have happened in the last few decades, that have changed the dynamic of racing to a great extent. They are Passing lanes and changing the push out rule to only permit pushing out in the last 1000 metres of a race. These changes have altered the speed races are run at as now it is considered acceptable for drivers of the better or best horses in the field to go to the front and go as hard as they can in order to take the finishing sprint out of the horses behind it. This often works accept when a horse with ability is the one lucky enough to get the trail and come up the passing lane. The All Stars stable have used this system to their advantage, thanks to their superior numbers of horses in a race. They tend to lead out at the start with one horse, move another horses up to sit parked and then hold on to the lead at all costs unless another All Stars horse comes round and then they give up the lead without a fight. From there they dominate the race because no driver is able to attack them. If anybody did attack they would probably be left 3 wide without cover as the parked All Stars horse would move up to ensure they couldn't pass them. This used to be called team driving but now appears acceptable as I have not been aware of any action taken against them by the stipes. Harness racing has therefore become far less entertaining as a result because the only thing you can bet on is a Purdon horse, or how many wins the All Stars have on a feature night

Im not convinced with all your posts arguements but agree that some  drivers are now more aggressive in terms of getting to the front but you must concede that most drivers will hand up to better supported runners these days.

As for AS comments your fully entitled to them although im pretty sure they win plenty of races with only 1 runner. Your AS driver tactics resemble US racing more than local stuff IMHO but each to their own.

As the idea with punting is to win im more than happy to take shorts on their horses but do it with other stables as well . You'll never go broke backing winners was drummed into me very early on

[tim vince 985]

road to the poor house backing the short ones.

[frankie 119]

Interesting that The Fixer had to pull out and go 3 wide as the leading A S horse didn’t look like leaving the fence turning for home. I dare say that if the race was in NZ the leader would have drifted out. Not tried in Australia as the stipes there wouldn’t have put up with it. Different story here with NZs hopeless stipes .

[Newmarket RC 209]

1 hour ago, frankie said:

Interesting that The Fixer had to pull out and go 3 wide as the leading A S horse didn’t look like leaving the fence turning for home. I dare say that if the race was in NZ the leader would have drifted out. Not tried in Australia as the stipes there wouldn’t have put up with it. Different story here with NZs hopeless stipes .

Cruz and MP were more than likely trying to win the race but ill throw it in the conspiracy theory file. I might add that in most meetings in NZ there is a passing lane.

[Newmarket RC 209]

1 hour ago, tim vince said:

road to the poor house backing the short ones.

Each to their own Tim but im ok with taking the shorts.

[Thejanitor 1,219]

6 hours ago, Stables said:

There are 2 things that have happened in the last few decades, that have changed the dynamic of racing to a great extent. They are Passing lanes and changing the push out rule to only permit pushing out in the last 1000 metres of a race. These changes have altered the speed races are run at as now it is considered acceptable for drivers of the better or best horses in the field to go to the front and go as hard as they can in order to take the finishing sprint out of the horses behind it. This often works accept when a horse with ability is the one lucky enough to get the trail and come up the passing lane. The All Stars stable have used this system to their advantage, thanks to their superior numbers of horses in a race. They tend to lead out at the start with one horse, move another horses up to sit parked and then hold on to the lead at all costs unless another All Stars horse comes round and then they give up the lead without a fight. From there they dominate the race because no driver is able to attack them. If anybody did attack they would probably be left 3 wide without cover as the parked All Stars horse would move up to ensure they couldn't pass them. This used to be called team driving but now appears acceptable as I have not been aware of any action taken against them by the stipes. Harness racing has therefore become far less entertaining as a result because the only thing you can bet on is a Purdon horse, or how many wins the All Stars have on a feature night

I don't recall you whingeing about team driving when the T. Butt stable or G. Small stable did the same as what you are talking about above. No one said a word in those days about far more blatant "team driving" than what we see today from the All Stars stable. Methinks you protest too much. 

[Rusty 575]

5 hours ago, Newmarket RC said:

Each to their own Tim but im ok with taking the shorts.

Small fish are sweet.

[Stables 577]

Janitor, I wasn't moaning just stating facts. Yes there has been team driving before, but there definitely was not the total domination we see now. I don't think you were a member back in the days of Geoff Small and Tim Butt, so I fail to see how you would know what I was posting about back then. 

[Fartoomuch 1,376]

 Found this on Harnesslink  With him set for Vic Derby and Sniper the NSW version it could be more spoils for NZ's top stable

 

But Im Another Masterpiece made a real statement winning by far the strongest of the three heats and doing it in style at Ballarat last Saturday night.

Driver and co-trainer Natalie Rasmussen was content to let Shane and Lauren Tritton’s buzz pacer Muscle Factory lead and sit on it, but things changed when Im Another Masterpiece left the trail to sit parked with a lap to run.

In doing so, Rasmussen avoid being pocketed on a track without a sprint lane but also kept another key contender, Centenario, three-wide for the final lap.

“You don’t come all this way to be unlucky,” Rasmussen said. “You have to run top three and I wasn’t going to to run a nice hard-held fourth on the fence.

“It was a nice win and the run should tighten him up for the final.”