Risk $10.00 to get $9.00 back on a trifecta!  No thanks!

Totally agree on the quality issue and lack of atmosphere on course Ohokaman, and whilst not a fan of small fields if I am having a local bet, it would be in a multi format (adapted to the situation) Most of my interest and punting is on Gloucester park these days 

You'd better believe the Kentucky Derby (G1) will be a hot topic this spring in the Boston Red Sox locker room. Two of their players already have been bitten by the horse racing bug: Walker Buehler and Alex Bregman.View the full article

This ones been scratched a few times since this post but finally getting a start today.  4yo mare first up over 2000m doesnt usually excite me but Cody Cole is good at having them ready - just a watch today Gruffy?

What are you PS…unofficial cheerleader for the ATC ? The average punter doesn’t care about the things you raise. They are interested in competitive fields of quality horses that provide a decent betting option and at the same time some exciting entertainment….and both those things have been missing for a long time at Alexandra Park.  Watching ordinary fields of six or seven with $1.50 favourites excites no one, hence the financial propping up by HRNZ.

Here's one for you tonight Mite - $25 for any 4 / 5 is a cheap bit of entertainment (although you can be out of action after 2 races of course)

That's a pretty decent argument PS - you point out a lot of 'ups' My main bet these days is 3 or 4 horse multis (usually Top3 or 4 depending on price), with the any 2 /3 or 3 /4 option (sometimes Win or Top 2 as well)  which fits well with the smaller fields. It ends up multiplyng out to a decent return, and your 25 bucks entertainment can spread over a couple of hours which ups the entertainment value 🙂 

Despite tiring and finishing fourth in the Feb. 1 Holy Bull Stakes (G3), co-owner Ramiro Restrepo said Ferocious checked off several important boxes in his 3-year-old debut that gives the team confidence ahead of the March 29 Florida Derby (G1).View the full article

Three years after taking the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (G1) aboard Home Affairs, jockey James McDonald returns to Flemington in hopes of piloting the Chris Waller-trained Switzerland to victory Feb. 15.View the full article

CEO of Ladbrokes owner Entain steps down after five months in role Company will be run on an interim basis by the chair, Stella David, after exit of Gavin Isaac     Julia Kollewe Tue 11 Feb 2025 09.28 GMT     The chief executive of Entain has left the business in a surprise move just five months after joining the owner of bookmakers Ladbrokes and Coral. Britain’s biggest bookmaker said Gavin Isaacs was leaving by mutual agreement, and with immediate effect. Entain’s share price fell by nearly 11% on the news.   Isaacs, 60, an Australian lawyer with 25 years of experience across the global sports betting, gaming and lottery industries, had come out of semi-retirement and relocated from Las Vegas to run the FTSE 100-listed company in September.   Ladbrokes gambling ads shown to parents on app used as a baby monitor   It is unclear what Isaacs will do next. It is understood that his departure was not related to the group’s strategy or performance. The sports betting and gambling company will be run again on an interim basis by Stella David, the chair, until a permanent chief executive is found. She also assumed the role of interim chief executive for nine months during the previous CEO search. Pierre Bouchut, a senior independent director, will act as interim chair of the company, which is valued at more than £4bn. In a short statement, David said: “Entain is making strong progress in delivering our strategic priorities. We would like to thank Gavin for his contribution.” This means that David, on an interim basis, is one of a small group of female chief executives at FTSE 100 companies, of which only 10 are run by a woman. Entain, which also owns the Gala, Foxy Bingo and PartyPoker brands, said it expects underlying profits to hit the top end of the £1.04bn to £1.09bn forecast range for 2024. The company said it was “comfortable” with market expectations of £1.1bn profits for the coming year. Isaacs previously worked for the US gambling companies Scientific Games Corporation, DraftKings, Bally Technologies and Aristocrat Technologies, and was inducted into the American Gaming Association’s hall of fame in 2022. He was hired for his US experience, but running a UK-listed company proved very different from his previous career, sources said. Analysts at Goodbody described Isaacs’s departure as “disappointing,” which they said created “another period of uncertainty around management”. “The group spent nine months to hire Gavin Isaacs, and by all accounts he was regarded as a strong candidate by stakeholders,” they wrote. They also said David was very well regarded when she previously held the role and “as such is a safe pair of hands”. Entain’s results for 2022 are under investigation by the Financial Reporting Council, which is scrutinising the audit conducted by KPMG. In 2023, Entain fell into the red with an after-tax loss of £879m after spending £585m to settle an investigation into alleged bribery at a former Turkish business, and taking an impairment charge of £190m on its Australian business. UK authorities had investigated possible bribery offences by one of its former Turkish subsidiaries, which was sold in 2017. Two months ago, the Australian regulator Austrac said it was bringing civil penalty proceedings against Entain. The company was accused of “serious and systemic” non-compliance with Australia’s anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, and not having the right procedures in place to spot and block criminals from using its sites. It is unclear what fines could arise but Entain has said the costs could be “material” and the uncertainty unsettled investors. Entain said in December it had cooperated fully with Austrac throughout the investigation and embarked on a programme to overhaul its Australian systems and processes, due to be completed in June. The Guardian

Tickets for the 42nd running of the Breeders' Cup World Championships will go on sale to the general public April 23, with the event returning Oct. 31-Nov. 1 to Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.View the full article

Nothing like some good old fashion facts to get in the way of PS's fiction. Once again well done CMN for providing the numbers that count

Stephen Marsh’s in-form stable will have an array of stakes contenders in action.View the full article

Similarly, I struggle to see arguments made by some (a polite way of saying I think they are rubbish) that more remote ‘line breeding’ is responsible for the ability of numerous top horses even if closer inbreeding may be unhelpful.   In the next few weeks I might have a website foalmare.com that will discuss inbreeding, rheoteric light with a supply of data and analysis. It will look at duplications in pedigrees (I dislike bunfights about the definitions of inbreeding and linebreeding). In Jan/Feb 2017 I extracted the duplications from 159,200 rated horses and compared the ratings to the duplications (18 different duplication types ... inbreeding is many things). There is a connection between increases in a few types of duplication and ratings, the higher the count the higher the rating.   I hope to explain how great breeders produced their masterpieces, and that it was done by planned pedigrees. An example of the lack of understanding is the comment in the Bibliography at the back of Breeding For Racing (1976) by John Hislop. The Italian Federico Tesio bred many great horses including four unbeaten runners, the best Nearco (14 wins) and Ribot (16 wins). John Hislop's comment on Tesio's book, Breeding The Racehorse "A short dissertation on breeding racehorses, including some unorthodox and unscientific views.  Any opinion  of so distinguished a breeder as Tesio is of interest, but this is no guide to producing a Nearco or a Ribot." In Chapter Seven, Breeding For Speed, Tesio explained what was necessary but did not go into full detail. People did not investigate what he said. I have a 29th April 2004 Racing Post newspaper article "Tesio - the Einstein of the breeding world", the 50th anniversary of Tesio's death  The respected breeding writer/expert Tony Morris says in the full-page article  "Everybody wanted to know how he did it. Everybody still want to know how he did it" "Tesio's own book, eagerly devoured by all and sundry, at once fascinating and frustrating. No revelations, no explanations. The enigma remains." I can explain how Tesio (1869-1954) produced his great horses Nearco (1965) (m) and Ribot (1952) (m).     Here is the pedigree of Ribot (1962) (m), twice winner of Europe's biggest race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The duplications are of two sires, St Simon (and his sister Angelica once) and Cyllene. The non-essential horses were removed.   St Simon sons: Rabelais; William The Third; Florizel; St Frusquin; Persimmon; Chaucer; Persimmon; Persimmon St Simon daughters: Simona; Cheery; Roquebrune; [ANGELICA full sibling]; Simonath That is 8 sons and 4 daughters of St Simon, and his full sister Angelica is also present.   Cyllene's sons: Cicero; Cylgad; Polymelus; Polymelus Cyllene's daughters: Seraphine; Cyclamen; Maid Of the Mint; That is 4 sons and 3 daughters of Cyllene.   Support means a parent or grandparent of the duplicated ancestor elsewhere e.g. Galopin (St Simon's sire) Support adds to the inbreeding group.   Only 19 instances of those two ancestors in Ribot's pedigree, 12 producing sons, 7 producing daughters       Tesio's other good one, Nearco, has as everyone knows, two sons and two daughters of St Simon. Nearco also has the 7/8 siblings Quiver (f) and Musket (m) Nearco has a daughter and son of Isonomy (m) Nearco has two sons and one daughter of Hermit (m) Nearco has three support lines to St Simon (his sire Galopin three times) Nearco has in his 6th generation 5 sons (St Albans; Blinkhoolie by full sibling Rataplan; Doncaster; Knowlsley; Lord Lyon; ) and 5 daughters (Sandal; Thrift; Aline; Celerrima; The Princess Of Wales) of Stockwell (m) "the emperor of stallions"  * "son of full sister" in the chart should read "son of full sibling"     If you want another example of remote duplications in a very good horse look at Galileo (1998) (m) who has 58 duplication groups in 10 generations. The number of duplication groups is of no importance. An amazing 56 of those 58 duplication groups (the majority duplicated sires) have female offspring. You have to go back to the 25th group to find the first group of all sons of a duplicated sire.   You might not realise that is unusual but Northern Dancer in my data appears 103,503 times in the three generations (i.e. his great grand-children). Northern Dancer produced 522, they produced 19,680, and they produced 103,503. The 201 stallion sons of Northern Dancer were very busy as people cashed in on the super sire. The 103,503 in three generations were 96,886 through ND sons and 6,610 through ND daughters. (a ratio of 14.66 sons to 1.00 daughters). What do you get in 21st century pedigrees?  An excess of sons of Northern Dancer; Mr Prospector (267 stallion sons). Let's bang the drum for bigger stallion books and more shuttling. 🙄   Have I made a case for the defence?      

You look at it all wrong idol-mate. Let's have a look at the advantages. A lot of people own the horses. they pay training fees. and at this meeting a huge chunk are getting a cheque back . near 20% getting a winners cheque.💰 excellent stuff. exactly what the sport needs. winning owners to keep it going .  In the racing their horse should get a nice Interference free run , as less runners means less things go wrong. Everyone should get their chance to Win. It's harness Racing . That's WHY we bother.  Don't just give it the cold shoulder. What are you gunna watch Tennis or something ? boring as bat-shit. The drivers/trainers have a great time here . as a big chance of earning something back for all their hard work. and you begrudge them.  Much much harder for beast and driver in those bigger 14 horse fields. a lot of luck and fair play are required in those sort of shambolic races.  The Punter? . Why can't you take a Trifecta if you're so worried about 3rd Place Divvies? . Much easier to get in these small fields too. Piece of Cake 🍰👍😆. and you can have your cake and eat it too. 😂.  you can take Quaddies and quinella's or even heaven forbid,  still  Back something to win ?  who cares what runs 3rd.  anyway , if you boycott meetings because you want to back 3rd place and can't with no SHOW divvie' like USA for 3rd . you might as well just watch the Tennis . Then you can run first or second and not even worry about 3rd placing lol 😁   fault . 15-luv. 

I had always wondered what happened to Green Moon. A bit of a favourite of mine and probably my biggest Melb Cup collect.

Why would nobody bother even going to or watching the meeting, unless you owned a horse. There's certainly nothing for punters. 

ATC field size for tomorrow;       5-7-7-7-8-7-6-7      8 races     54 horses     Stakes $134,000    per horse $2481 Not sure if that is a record or not, but only one race out of eight will pay 3 dividends!

Geoffry Palmer,  this all traces back to his naivety . Bill damages 'fabric of the nation' Sir Geoffrey Palmer said the Treaty Principles Bill has been a "fundamental exception" to a "proper policy process," and it has "damaged the collective fabric of the nation." If the public are going to have a conversation, he said, they have to have a proper policy process that's been "worked through with documents that are authoritative, accurate and carefully researched before any bill is ever introduced." That would require in depth analysis, in-departmental consultation and discussions, and Māori would be consulted, he argued. "Instead, what we've seen is the bill that has clogged up the house with more than 300,000 submissions, wasted a tremendous amount of time and money, and it has damaged the collective fabric of the nation." Palmer said you did not have a policy process that starts with a bill, a policy process "ends with the introduction of a bill." "And that is the basic flaw which this ill-considered Bill has suffered from, and it ought to be cured in the future." He explained ministers must confirm that Bills comply with certain legal principles or obligations when submitting them to be included in the legislative program. "In particular, ministers must draw attention to any aspects of a bill that have implications for or may be affected by the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi." He said that is because the Treaty is binding on New Zealand. ( THERE ARE NO RECOGNISED PRINCIPLES and that's the problem .) "That is the normal way in which policy is made in this Parliament. This has been a fundamental exception to that. This has been an extraordinary legislative process, and it ought never to be repeated." In his long career of studying the New Zealand constitiution and being an actor in it, the former Prime Minister added, he never thought it "would ever be necessary to have a discussion of the sort we've been having here this morning." How Fuckin stupid is this naive Fwit  , 300,000 submissions is huge , not all against the bill  but that's the size of the feeling in society and this tosser is surprised , what shocking judgement this all traces back to his labour government . WHERES DONALD TRUMP AND ELON MUSK when you need them , this country needs a Trump/ Musk equivalent to clean out the sponging , watch the lawyers squeal if we find one .          

Not sure I just assumed the club...heard there was some accident during a recent function there...hope its not true but does not sound good for them.