You are so right Scooby on one off my trips down to palmy I called in to see how progress was going on the Awapuni track , I could not believe how many  stones or rocks (call them what you want) were on the track I know that they had a working bee to pick up stones but there were so bloody many of them it would have been impossible to pick them all up.Farmers in the Marton area used to use a stone picker (a bit like a potato picker) Wether they tried to get one of those I don't know.There is a grass seed company in Palmerston North that specialises in grass seeds has been there for many years yet he was never approached for any advise.i agree if racing still had the likes of the Bill Freemans and the Jim Bulls these problems in racing would soon get sorted.

Do you know how long he will be over there for Ted?

🤣😂🤪

Oh fuck off , you with your smarts and common sense , these are not current requirements of our industry .

Hope he does well Ted, gifted rider and light weight hope he can break in over there.

Yes. Left yesterday.  Will be based in Sydney and riding for Chris Waller.    

Here is some really worrying points from this BS story in my opinion reading it. 1 Why has 8 months been wasted, the work agreed now was always the work needed to be done...so 8 months wasted. 2 Did they get input from the locals there, trainers, caretakers etc??? Surely they must have been consulted from day one...right??? 3 Awapuni now not to be rushed back huh you only think of this now...FFS why on earth it was not left until the spring god only knows.they had been without it for over a year already what difference would two or three months have made??? 4 So these so called "experts" are the same ones who now found rocks in Awapuni and cocked up Ellerslie for 12 months, who I bet are not cheap and dont fly down the back of the bus!!! How did the rocks just mysteriously appear??? And why are rocks so close to the surface they can be pulled up??? 5 This organic matter thats seems so necessary now, why in the hell was it not added in from the beginning, and why is it now NZ racetracks are sand based, are we having turf races or beach races after all.Do we not have a single turf expert in NZ who knows how to grow decent turf in NZ conditions, did they even ask the opinion of a single person with knowledge of this in NZ??. 6 So clubs spend a fortune on redoing the tracks then have to spend another fortune on expensive remedial machines that have to be used weekly to stop the flash new expensive sand tracks covered with some sort  of green grass to stop them compacting and becoming unsafe. I guess they must be employing the wrong type of experts. I am sure Bill Freeman and the great caretakers who were at Awapuni in the past are pulling their hair out wherever they maybe. This press release is just more corporate spin aimed at shutting down the criticism that is well warranted in my opinion, but all they do again with this release is word it to cover their own arses when it all turns to custard.    

It's cutthroat over there. I'm sure Waller will insert some more professionalism into him, and also improve his riding tactics.

Having won his last five starts in California, including two grade 1s, Formidable Man aims to solidify his place at the top of the West's turf mile division in the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T) at Santa Anita Park May 26.View the full article

Mike Ryan's homebred Be Your Best takes her show on the road in search of firmer turf when she starts in the $300,000 Gamely Stakes (G1T) May 26 at Santa Anita Park.View the full article

Horse racing is staring down the prospects of one of the most highly anticipated rematches in recent history between Sovereignty and Journalism. View the full article

Hope if he does ride over there he smashes it out of the park.Go hard Wiremu!!!

All smoke and mirrors as always, no accountability.

Lockinge Day at Newbury and the first Group 1 of the season for the older horses took place on perfect summer racing ground (Good to Firm). It looked a very strong renewal with the top 3-y-o milers of 2024, ROSALLION and NOTABLE SPEECH who, between them, had won the English 2000 Guineas, the Irish 2000 Guineas, the St James's Palace and the Sussex facing DANCING GEMINI who had won the Group 2 Sandown Mile as well as top fillies TAMFANA, the Sun Chariot winner and FALLEN ANGEL, the Irish 1000 Guineas winner. Having been quite a short price two days earlier, ROSALLION had drifted to 9/4 with DANCING GEMINI sent off 2/1 favourite. The morning money had been for the Gosden trained LEAD ARTIST who was backed from 16s to 17/2. Oisin Murphy was able to snatch the race from Ryan Moore forcing LEAD ARTIST to the front as DANCING GEMINI faltered in the final 50m. The trainer of the runner up, Roger Teal, thought the ground the fastest his horse had ever faced and he had just failed to see out the trip. Huge returns from both ROSALLION and NOTABLE SPEECH, once again split by almost nothing, in third and fourth. I thought ROSALLION was keen enough with Sean Levey not able to get the cover Oisin Murphy enjoyed on the winner. William Buick reported NOTABLE SPEECH had run well after his long break. At one point immediately after the race, it was 9/2 co-favourites the first four home for the Queen Anne at Ascot next month but currently DANCING GEMINI is 3/1 favourite, ROSALLION 7/2, NOTABLE SPEECH 4s and LEAD ARTIST 6s. LEAD ARTIST loves really quick ground - the long term aim is the Breeders Cup Mile but a little ease wouldn't harm the prospects of DANCING GEMINI. However, both ROSALLION and NOTABLE SPEECH will come on a lot for their first runs and I just wonder if NOTABLE SPEECH might be the one at Ascot.  We mustn't forget PORTA FORTUNA who is in the Lanwades on Sunday at The Curragh and is herself 8/1 for the Queen Anne. All in all, if they all turn up, it's going to be a mouthwatering start to the Royal meeting. The two disappointments were the fillies - FALLEN ANGEL set the early gallop but faded once headed and TAMFANA continued the moderate start to the season for David Menuisier. LEAD ARTIST ran 1 minute 35.09 seconds for the straight 1609m - 0.74 seconds BELOW standard. The supporting Group 3 was the Aston Park over 2400m and with one or two disappointing, EYDON put up his best performance since running fourth in the 2000 Guineas back in 2022. It's fair to say he's had his problems since with a near two year break due to injury and it may be we are now starting to see his true potential. A race like the Hardwicke at Ascot might be a logical next step. TABLETALK, who was tenth in last year's Derby, loves Newbury and ran well in second. The race favourite, AL AASY, wa switched off at the rear but got caught out by the pace of the race and ran home too late for fourth. SUNWAY didn't seem to have come on for his seasonal opening and finished fifth and I suspect the ground was fast enough for KING'S GAMBIT but he could well have needed the race after his gelding operation. SYMBOL OF HONOUR got an 8/1 quote for the July Cup after a convincing win in the 1200m Listed for the 3-y-o. 

Here is a pic of Billy's style. On EV of course

Good on you Mick , nice little rider there to cover your arse , COULD !!

Central Districts get vote of confidence from racing bosses By Michael Guerin Racing Editor·NZ Herald· 22 May, 2025 05:00 AM5 mins to read       Awapuni's comeback meeting on Anzac Day was abandoned after one race and a track inspection. Credit: Peter Rubery. KEY FACTS The troubled Awapuni turf track will undergo intensive work in the hope of being ready for a return to racing in August. If all goes well the Palmerston North-based track will hold two Group 1s this spring. The Hastings track will be re-cambered with the plan to have it back hosting race meetings in spring 2026. The immediate future of two of New Zealand’s most important race tracks became at least a little clearer yesterday. And both clarifications are good news for the embattled Central Districts region. It has been a brutal year for the proud racing region with Awapuni’s turf track closed for renovations while Hastings has been on ice since an abandoned meeting in September brought long-running issues with their track to a head. Things got worse on Anzac Day when the Awapuni relaunch lasted one race before that meeting was called off for the usual reason: a slippery surface making racing unsafe. Add to that long-term doubts about the sustainability of the remaining Trentham grandstand and Ōtaki losing its only Group 1 to Ellerslie and good news has been hard to come by in the lower half of the North Island. But help, or at least the promise of help, is on the way. New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing have backed the new Awapuni track by scheduling two Group 1s to be run there in the spring, if the track can come up to scratch by then. That IF has to be in capital letters as NZTR chief executive Matt Ballesty has made it clear the track must prove itself first and any sign of trouble that threatens the Group 1s will see an alternate venue found. The two races are the Arrowfield Stud Plate and the Livamol, traditionally the second and third legs of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown. With Hastings out of play for the spring (more on that soon) the three Group 1s it usually holds will be split between Ellerslie for the first, the Tarzino Trophy, with the next two legs tentatively at Awapuni. “Subject to a visit from track expert Liam O‘Keefe in early June we intend to run the two Group 1s in that region,” Ballesty told the Herald. “However, if the track isn’t exactly where it needs to be and more time is needed we won’t rush and we will look at other options. “NZTR understands all participants, especially trainers, need to know in advance where the races are to be held.” While the move is hardly the most boisterous vote of confidence in Awapuni being up and running by spring, NZTR are bringing in the big guns in Flemington track man O‘Keefe, who helped Ellerslie smooth out their problems when they launched their StrathAyr track last year. Like Ellerslie, one of the key Awapuni issues has been compaction of the top layer, making it prone to becoming slippery, so it will need constant verti-draining to break up that level and create more organic matter, ultimately providing a more natural surface. But one of Awapuni’s issues is rocks underneath the surface which limits the use of certain verti-draining machines. There will be weekly management meetings between the local administration body RACE, NZTR, O‘Keefe and fellow track expert Callum Brown.   If that all goes well racing is scheduled to return to the turf track in August with Ballesty saying, “a safe return to racing is our number one priority”. So while nothing is certain in the increasingly weird world of race track management, NZTR are at least giving Awapuni and those who run it the chance to prove themselves. The second piece of good news for the region came in Hastings last night when Ballesty announced racing will remain at the current track with recambering work to start soon. The Hastings track has been dogged by problems in recent years, admittedly not helped by erratic spring weather, but one of its biggest issues has been the camber on the bend out of the straight. There has been debate about whether it is better to fix the current track or look to build a new track in the Hastings region, but Ballesty answered that question when addressing club members last night. “We will start work on correcting the camber on the track and all going well hope to have it ready for racing in spring 2026,” he said.   That is a far quicker, and cheaper, option than moving the track in what is a famous racing region and all going well Awapuni and Hastings could be racing, on safer surfaces, in the New Year. Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.  

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/racing/central-districts-get-vote-of-confidence-from-racing-bosses/MMKT6NBYEZGETCPSMAWYADP2UE/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKbDg1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFBbnpMTDVONllBbnJxYWRtAR4R7__dcZWeU1nppQlmMSgjBuzoRCk2HASKtoMxkFW3zWHfHa01JaAxCFHnCA_aem_DFKEaNxp-ofbBkKkzz3ThA

Entries for the first three days of Canterbury Park's 51-day season were robust. A total of 186 horses were entered across 22 races for average entries of 8.45 per race.View the full article

You heard correctly. I think NZTR will have a fight on their hands to do that though.