I see Chicken is on the menu at Addington. Sincerely hope it’s a different caterer than UC uses. 

Exactly my point, his tips on "Don't you miss your Mail from The Whale" are and have been for ever absolute crap. Have no idea what his tipping line does, but if like he tips on Trackside .. well has to be rubbish as well. But the whole point is what he produces and gets paid for on Trackside.

Yes.  Excellent facility.  But helped by being so very close to the action. Not so easy to replicate at many galloping tracks where the horses are miles away. 

Whoever dreamed up Spectators at Addington should be hired by all NZ courses to provide expertise on modern hospo

What's the story with The Falcon? Has Crimson had it a while or just purchased it? Opened up at $4 and hasn't raced for about 7 months Looked promising going through the grades but most of Goeff Dunns horses got sick of being driven like there's no tomorrow

Speaking of picking up something thrown away my mate used to pick up discarded tote tickets and check them for winners. Couldn't be bothered myself but he did quite well out of it.

$10 for a racebook is extortionate. When we were young and poor we just waited until after about the second race and would go and fish one out of a rubbish tin.  There always seemed to be punters who had done their money quick and gone home early. You could take a hip flask of something to conserve your punting money as well, but don't take much and bet small as drinking and betting can be a recipe for disaster.

Time to review the weekend action up here. The jump courses continue to be blighted by the unseasonably dry autumn - Exeter had the dubious distinction of serving up the first televised walk over since ITV took on the racing contract in 2017 as two of the three declared in the Novices Chase were taken out by connections due to the ground. CAPTAIN TEAGUE's connections trousered £20k as their horse walked 300m down the track, turned and galloped past the judge. Paul Nicholls, the trainer, was left angry and frustrated and will try to run the horse at Cheltenham or Newbury. The Grade 2 Haldon Gold Cup had five runners and wasn't a bad race. JPR ONE handled conditions far better than I thought he would and ran out a clear winner. I don't see him as Champion Chase material but connections will have a go at the Tingle Creek which may also cut up badly if we continue to get little or no rain. DJELO ran well in second but clearly needs 4000m at which trip he'll be decent. Saturday saw the circus decamp 100 miles or so up the A303 to Wincanton for Badger Beer Day. This sponsorship is the oldest in British racing (63 years and counting). I tried the beer once - a bit too much badger for my liking - but it's a popular brew in the West Country. The Grade 2 Elite Hurdle had just three runners but on a good day for Paul Nicholls (if you can't win in your own back yard, why bother?) RUBAUD defied a 6 lb penalty to see off BRENTFORD HOPE. The winner will go chasing and he looks a far more likely Champion Chase contender than JPR ONE at this time but the problem is right handed tracks are his strength so a race like the Desert Orchid at Kempton at Christmas would be ideal. Connections feared the ground would be quick enough for BRENTFORD HOPE and so it proved but he ran well and he'll no doubt turn up in the Graded hurdles once the ground eases a little. The Rising Stars Novices Chase saw BOOMBAWN spring a bit of a surprise by running down SOUL ICON, who had jumped superbly, in the final 150m. I'd love to see the second round a Cheltenham as his jumping will always keep him in any race. HANDSTANDS was six lengths down in third when falling at the third last and badly hampering INSURRECTION who was in truth beaten at the time and subsequently eased by Harry Cobden. Both will have other opportunities but neither had an auspicious start to their chasing careers. Next weekend sees the November Meeting (oddly enough) at Cheltenham. The course has chosen to water (less of a risk as this track won't be used after the weekend until the Festival) to provide Good to Soft ground. Eight have been entered for the Grade 2 Shloer Chase on Friday and JONBON has been put in at 4/9 with EDWARDSTONE at 7/2. The Albert Bartlett over 4200m has ten entries including three from Ireland and a number of highly promising novice hurdlers. This will be a decent race if they all turn up. Saturday has Grade 2 races for the 3-y-o hurdlers and the speedy novice chasers - entries today. I'll try to comment on these later in the week.

You'd better believe it's a problem up here as well. Tomorrow I will go to Lingfield for a moderate 6-race jumps card - admission will probably be £15 (concessions) and my bag will be searched. Are they looking for a flick knife or a faded copy of the Sporting Life? No, they are looking for alcohol - my personal bottle of water will be fine but I've even seen soft drinks confiscated though Lingfield are more easy going. The Brasserie (I know) will be the sole catering outlet open - the food's okay but it's £9.50 for a main "meal" which will probably be a curry or perhaps a pie with veg so plenty of profit for the course and that's before £7.50 for a pint of Guinness or Cat's Pils or whatever. Staff are at a minimum apart from what they need to run the racing itself but from what little I know of racecourse economics, they'll lose on the day and only the media rights will prop up the meeting. Yet the Arena Racing Company (ARC) want more race meetings especially synthetic cards (much cheaper to run).  There are even those proposing "closed door" meetings which would be run at a bare minimum and just for the betting shops and that would probably work for most tracks. There's a big debate about the "Raceday Experience" up here and yes if you have under 18s accompanied by an adult they get in free which helps the families a little but in my experience children need feeding (to what I don't know) and that costs if you can't byo.  ITV Racing would have you believe British race meetings are enjoyable days with huge crowds but the reality is most aren't - the midweek crowds are usually two men and a dog (and the dog doesn't always turn up). Tomorrow there'll probably be about 1,000 paying customers (if the weather's decent) but for a synthetic meeting, only 300 (the needy and the greedy as I call them). They are run for those in the betting shops or for those at home with their online accounts.  The summer evening meetings with Tom Jones or some other big star do bring in the crowds and the courses gouge appropriately (£50-£60 admission even if you say "Why, Why, Why, Delilah?" to the woman on the admission desk) but of course Tom and the band need to be paid and the costs of setting up the infrastructure need to be met.  I suspect the only really profitable meetings (someone tell NZTR and the BHA) are the country meetings which draw in the big local crowds a few days a year (Cartmel, in the Lake District, go if you can, get 10,000+ for their Bank Holiday meetings, no music, average racing) and probably Cheltenham (60,000 rich Irishmen downing Guinness at £10 per pint - you do the maths) and some of the other big festivals.  I'm really surprised more courses haven't gone under but BHA loans and media rights just about keep them afloat.

It has just occurred to me, cashing up Alex Park and moving to Puke is obviously the only remaining option, but you wouldn't let the ATC organise the building of the new complex would you. HRNZ would have to step in and control the money and organise the new build.

Beautiful horse country down that area. And a lot of trainers that race in Auckland are in that area. ATC should build a U-Beaut New course there .    (Sell Alex Park , the debt has to go)   Imagine a Shuttle Bus full of happy (young and older folk) going back and forth from the Pukekohe Gallops on their big race days around to the Luxury ATC Trot Centre on the other side of the railway, so those patrons get dinner and fine evening Saturday Harness racing at the gallops completion . They'd have a blast .!!! They could Do it every month. A long day but if you pace yourself you would make it. I'd get mates to go all 12 months lol.  

I won’t be hard to spot, was only about 20 of us on Sat in the members. The food has improved at TR or I thought it had till Saturday. Bought a steak & cheese pie to find out it was actually chicken, then a scone tha had come out of a freezer.

I used to go to Pukekohe all the time, for the cars and the horses. But then l lived in Pukekohe at the time 

Would of been going DSD for sure,  if trainer Mark was driving it. But then again,  I think Blair does 2 days of fast work at Allstars each week or similar, since Olivia Thornley went over to help Cullen's team this year . So Blair Orange probably had a few workouts with DSD in recent weeks to get the 'ultimate feel'.  . By the way old mate , the good horse' The Janitor' back in Action Albion Park last Saturday . Won well too, at $1.50 only . 3 wide to the death seat .then home in 55 seconds too .  A top Free-For_Aller in the making that bloke. NZ Cup next year ? 😎  (the exceptionally gifted leading  Brisbane Trainer/driver Pete McMullen won 5 races Sat night with them all paying under $1.80 for a win. he's going like Allstar's used to lol)    Charlie here at cafe, was tipping that horse, and he was thereabouts at Ashburton, so in the Box trifecta he goes as some sort of chance for sure. 

It is about 50 kilometres from central Melbourne to Melton. about 70 kilometres from central Sydney to Menangle, and about 60 kilometres from central Auckland to Pukekohe. Surely a no brainer? How long can they keep paying $500,000 a month in interest? Sell Alex Park. put it down to experience, put out a hit on the CEO and President who did all the damage and start again in the countryside. Might be fortuitous the Franklin sale fell through.

She has won 8 of 21 over 1400m. Sounds like a very good record to me. We all have opinions and for me yours is 'rubbish'.

She's fantastic at both trips, but I'd say 1400m is her best trip. Of the 14 times she's run worse than fifth, 4 of them have been at 1600m (from seven attempts. The other three were wins, in the Wairarapa Breeders and twice in the NZ Breeders). Six of them have been at 1400m, but from 23 runs at the trip. Just the fact that she's HAD 23 runs at 1400m means Lisa Latta probably agrees with me. Plus she's Per Incanto over O'Reilly, which also screams sprinter. I love a fast, front-running sprinter-miler so she's basically my perfect horse. I bet David Woodhouse is glad no-one wanted to pay $700k for her on the Gold Coast; she's put nearly double that in the bin since.

Lion obviously pays heaps for exclusive pouring rights and then pours their worst beers and wines. The sad thing is that while their wines aren't generally very flash, they do have some good beers, but choose not to pour them. Surely the club could ask them to provide at least one decent beer and wine in each of the bars. Perhaps someone could report back on the offerings at Addington tomorrow.

Group One - Railway, Perth. As long as it's a flight over and back, otherwise I wouldn't go.

On that note, there are some very good craft brewers in Canterbury. You'd think the CJC might consider offering a couple of their products for patrons on these days. Those brewers might sponsor a race in return. I intend to go on cup day and give it another go but if I get my beer served up divided between two plastic wine glasses because they've run out of the beer ones, like last year, I'll walk straight back out.