Been following a horse called matador, big run yesterday out of his grade, and caught three wide the trip, only downside a tough run, and the divvy probably gone for next time.

Gubes I dont know what horses this guys had part or all of. Suspect not NZ as the name doesnt ring a bell.does it? Names and faces you see at the races. If he is an enthusiast that can lead the troops and follow Boards direction and fronts the issues, that will do me. You know people here jumped on Guy Hvelts early days and I thought that unfair.   

Looking ahead to the Waitangi Day meeting at Tauherenikau which should attract a very decent crowd. A competitive card and some early thoughts hoping the ground will dry out a bit from the reported Soft 6. 12.38: FELUCCA 1.10:  SHAMELESS STAR 2.52:  FINEST HOUR 4.38:  SONATA It’s all my fault, apparently.

Jesus WD , like it's not bad enough then you go and pull out those horses names to just pour more shit on our misery .  I know nothing stays the same but bugger me we have fallen so far .

It was the Lion Brown most of the time I remember it. The 2,000m was usually the international.  I recall the likes of La Mer, Vice Regal, March Legend and Commissionare. And of course held on a Tuesday in those days.

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.