Those two out has turned the HB into a fairly average race . If the Annabelle Neesham horse wins then we may as well close up and turn off the lights , every average aged horse will be over . I remember when these races were the highlight of the season . My favorite horse when I was a teenager was Kings Romance , winner of the then Thibenzole sprint .

I don't recall the Fay Richwhite connection, but the million dollar races were at Ellerslie in about 1989 and 1990. Horlicks won both of them either side of winning the Japan Cup. The Auckland Racing Club wanted to run the races on what is now sweepstakes day but weren't allowed to because that was Wgtn Cup day. Things were different then. They eventually ran them on what is now slot day. Both races were sponsored by DB. Westminster was placed in one of them, and the Phantom from memory. The aim was to attract some overseas horses, but I think they only got some third raters., none of whom placed from memory. Highland Reel, or something like that. Fay Richwhite's major sponsorship that I remember was the 4yo race on Kurow Cup day. This was the time of the share=market crash of course, so the idea of high staked races and big sponsors was short-lived.  Fay Richwhite went on to make millions out of selling NZ Rail and disappeared overseas. Benson was one of a string of short lived Auckland RC CEOs. They had a long serving CEO before that whose name escapes me for now.

Jesus I'm so far out of the loop I didn't even know she was sharing his bed far less marrying him . My wife has always taken what ever she wanted from me , I am here to serve .

Pretty sure Horlicks won it .

Orchestral is going to the Otaki G1 now run at Ellerslie on Feb 22.

In modern times we have men taking the surname of their wife, which could have been a linguistics disaster if Jamie Kah had decided to instead marry fellow jockey Wayne Hill.

Iv'e been telling you for weeks, months, that in my opinion there has been a low grade virus going through the place. No proof, but they are better trainers than that.....all of them. Liz

I am amazed!

VOTE straight BLUE Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response: "A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: * Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. * You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: 'My God… what… have… I… created? If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."  

Fairly sure I read somewhere that Snazzytavi had a temperature this morning, and Orchestral camp had other targets in mind

In the middle of a Winter's frost followed by a Hailstorm for good measure. Those in Racing and who work with Animals after all are about been outdoors unlike his life indoors at Sky City aka Metropolis.   Does any one know if he owns a pair of Skellerups?  

Just having a browse through Papers Past NZ archives using various keywords including "New Zealand Thoroughbred" and came across an article mentioning Fay Richwhite, as in Michael Fay and David Richwhite were to sponsor a Million dollar race at Ellerslie back in that era. Does anyone know more background to this and why they pulled out of Sponsorship of the said Race? Benson (?) was CEO at the time. Where is he now? Is he still in the Racing Industry?

More than likely. Why didn't they simply give it to Daren? P.S. I am over the Industry bringing people in from the outside. Tell me the last one who was successful?  

Say No More and Nomates, you are letting the "old timers'' down, not being able to keep up on something as important as Jamie's new surname.  Didn't your wives take your name? LOL

A useless bit of trivia - Jamie Kah's last winner was New York Lustre and Jamie Melham's first winner was also New York Lustre.

Which horses has he owned and in which countries and which year/s?

Board of Directors, wherever they are, as we all should be aware are also accountable.   It's in the Media release he has owned horses, we would like to know which ones and in which countries where .  It's noted he spent time working New South Wales "Clubs", Does anyone know if he is mates with Cameron George?  

University academics advise Politicians with their "research" - students have for around 40 years now been using Computers to do their work and cheating by Copy / Pasting answers...no critical thinking. Oh for the days of Fire using Pine cones, fallen branches, a couple of coals and burning Rubbish to heat up the home. People in general, especially Politicians don't understand Rule of Law hence all of the World's  messed up systems. Once upon a time everyone knew The Road Code which worked perfectly fine then along came the Data Scientists telling Politicians to tell us we must Save lives and stuffed up the working systems, just like Glass Milk bottles because the Dustman cut himself so we could no longer have them...    

He's gunna be a busy orange.  Gazza,Panama,Canada,Iceland. 🤣

Not sure if it's just a lack of ability but a lot don't appear to be finishing off their races , even off a soft run . It's been like that for a while now .