No surprise, TVNZ ain't renewing any of sparks conquests and Sky more than likely dictate terms through no competition, but interestingly this deal is for Black Caps and White ferns, not domestic, no doubt Rugby will more than likely be just Super Rugby and All Black's, NPC and Heartland may be cut in the next deal

Trumps 13 biggest lies of his first month back in office…   No change here then….   The tale of the $50 million – no, make it $100 million – in condoms for Hamas: When press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at her first official White House briefing that Trump had thwarted a plan to spend $50 million “to fund condoms in Gaza,” it was immediately clear the claim was highly dubious; the Trump administration had no evidence to substantiate it. But Trump not only repeated the $50 million figure the next day, he added an incendiary claim that the condoms were “for Hamas.” Then, days after it had become obvious the $50 million figure was pure fiction, he inflated it to “$100 million. This was another example of Trumpflation – the president’s years-old habit of making his inaccurate stories more and more inaccurate over time. Blaming Ukraine for starting the war on Ukraine: Russia started the war in Ukraine when it invaded Ukraine in 2022. That is an obvious fact. But on Tuesday, when Trump dismissed Ukrainians’ complaints about their exclusion from US-Russia negotiations about ending the war, he falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war – saying, “You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal.” Laughable Kremlin-style propaganda, this time from the president of the United States. The (non-)uniqueness of birthright citizenship: Trump offered what might have sounded like a reasonable rationale for his attempt to get rid of birthright citizenship. The United States, he said, is the only country that has birthright citizenship. Except that is not true, as CNN and other outlets pointed out when Trump made the same claim as president in 2018 and on various other occasions. Dozens of countries, including Canada and Mexico, also grant automatic citizenship to people born on their soil. More up-is-down reversing of the reality of January 6: For years now, Trump has presented a version of the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, that bears little resemblance to what actually happened. When he was asked in early February why he granted pardons to people who assaulted first responders, he said the people he pardoned were actually “assaulted by our government” and that “they didn’t assault.” This “they didn’t assault” claim was a brazen denial of the obvious truth, clear in video after video and trial after trial. The Justice Department has said more than 140 officers were assaulted on January 6, and that more than 170 people pleaded guilty to such assaults. A gusher of deceit about California water policy: Amid disaster, more dishonesty. First, Trump linked the Los Angeles wildfires to California’s decision to use some of its water to protect a fish species in the northern part of the state – even though the two things have nothing to do with each other, as befuddled experts explained to anyone who would listen. Then, after ordering the sudden release of billions of gallons of water from Central Valley reservoirs for no apparent good reason, Trump declared that some of this water was heading to Los Angeles – even though it wasn’t heading to Los Angeles and couldn’t go to Los Angeles. The election lie he refused to let die: What can you even say about this one at this point? Trump’s win in the free and fair 2024 election did not convince him to abandon his endless lying about his defeat in the free and fair 2020 election. More than four years after his loss to Joe Biden, he repeated his “rigged” nonsense during at least three events on his 2025 inauguration day alone, then a bunch of times after that. That fable about Olympic boxers, again: Trump, once a prominent promoter of lies about President Barack Obama’s birthplace, continued to demonstrate no hesitation lying about not only policy issues but also individual people. This time, to promote his push to try to get transgender athletes banned from the Olympics, he told his familiar story about how two gold medalists in women’s boxing at the Games in Paris last year were men who “transitioned.” Wrong. As the International Olympic Committee repeatedly noted during the Olympics, when Trump and others made such claims, neither champion had transitioned; both were born as female and have always competed in women’s events. Even the discredited boxing authority that controversially disqualified the women from a 2023 competition, vaguely claiming a test had found they had unfair competitive advantages, did not allege they had transitioned. The president’s fictionalized northern neighbor: Before taking office, Trump casually asserted that the Canadian people “like” his idea of Canada becoming the 51st US state. That was the opposite of the truth; the idea is hugely unpopular with the Canadian public. Then, after his inauguration, Trump continued to make stuff up about Canada – at one point posting on social media and then saying out loud that Canada prohibits US banks from doing business there. He added, “Can you believe that?” No doubt some Americans believe it, but it’s false. Blasting Biden for a program launched under Trump: After the deadly January collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet, Trump blamed Biden administration diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration without providing any evidence any FAA diversity policy had anything to do with the crash. He added in a fictional storyabout a frantic last-minute Biden push to hire people with significant disabilities as air traffic controllers, failing to explain that this FAA pilot program was actually a years-old initiative launched during his own administration in 2019. Relentless deception about who pays tariffs: When Trump talked about the tariffs he imposed on Chinese imports in his first presidency, he spoke of how much money “from China” these tariffs generated for the US Treasury. When he talked about the additional tariffs he plans to impose on various other countries during his current presidency, he spoke of a need to “charge them.” At no point did he acknowledge that US importers, not foreign countries, are the ones who pay the actual tariff charges – or that study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan trade commission, found that Americans ended up bearing almost the entire cost of his first-term tariffs on Chinese products. A wild exaggeration of the increase in autism rates: Trump keeps flirting with, though not explicitly endorsing, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that childhood vaccines cause autism – and in a social media post in early February, he inflated the extent of the increase in the known prevalence of autism over the last two decades. “20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34,” Trump wrote. “WOW! Something’s really wrong.” Aside from the fact that experts say the increase in autism diagnoses (to 1 in 36 children by age 8 in 2020) likely has to do with greater awareness of the symptoms and improved screening practices, public statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the known prevalence in 2004 was 1 in 125 children, not “1 in 10,000.” That’s a pretty big difference. China’s (non-)operation of the Panama Canal: Much of Trump’s lying is ad-libbed. Some of it, however, is planned in advance. Some of it, however, is written into his prepared speeches. He said in his inaugural address in January: “Above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.” This would have been a good line if China was actually operating the Panama Canal. Itisn’t; Panama is, though Trump could have raised legitimate questions about China’s influence in the area. Trump’s invented dominance with “the youth vote”: Trump said some accurate things while touting his victory in the 2024 election, such as the fact that he swept all seven swing states. But in keeping with his longstanding practice of exaggerating even legitimate accomplishments, he also kept sprinkling in a claim that wasn’t even close to correct – an assertion that he won the youth vote “by 36 points.” In fact, exit polls show he lost the youth vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Even if these polls were off, there’s no basis for the claim that he won the youth vote by 36.

TOP 3 R2 MATAKANA GIRL - looks well placed here, after doing best work late. Dam won 6 on good ground, so looking to see more improvement today.  R4 MELTEMI - Nice 2nd to We Found Love, beautifully bred to get over more ground later, but will take some stopping here. R6 TREAT YOURSELF - Will have improved with first run over 2000m, bred to run some this trip and longer, nice draw. (Granddam won the 2018 Cuddle Stakes and was a winner of 9). Keep watching over ground in 2025. Best Value R8 UNSCRIPTED - Needs a good track, if so, big chance stepping up in distance after doing best work late. over 1600m R9 GUM BASHER - Eye-catching fresh up, nice draw and won 2nd up. Capable type.   Good luck. 

For the first time in the U.S. since data has been recorded, the racing-related fatality rate for the majority of U.S. races—specifically tracks under the oversight of HISA—fell below 1.00 per 1,000 starts for a calendar year in 2024.View the full article

Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races has canceled its Feb. 20 card as a result of the bitter cold and single-digit forecasted wind chills. View the full article

Eight racehorses, seven trainers, and one jockey account for the 16 finalists that will comprise the National Museum of Racing's 2025 Hall of Fame ballot, as chosen by the Museum's Hall of Fame Nominating Committee. View the full article

Wonderful move, great idea

This is all starting to smell, badly The future may not be as roses as the marketing campaign regularly tells us. Some gaps emerging, not good at all  

FWit

Ya dreaming Jonesy or you haven’t travelled for 5 years

Yes the slot holders drew the horses for their drivers yesterday , and they are all set for 20 races. 10 Friday night and 10 Saturday. Pete McMullen drives very well at Albion and I backed him in a few multi's at 6-1. ALAS his slot holder picked some pretty poor horses for him so he is out to 9-1 odds now lol .🙄😁 Gary Hall seems to have the best book of drives so is in to favourite now at 5-1 . Dexter and Nathan Dawson at 6-1 2nd Fav's. Here's the field . (still think Pete can win 3 races Saturday night , but has nothing of note tomorrow, except a few bad barriers lol 😪)

I was thinking a cake from the tea lady might be all they're left with at season's end, and now you tell me somebody else has already taken it?

At this rate of departure, they'll be asking me to present the trophies while l run our depleted health system on the side 🤣 i do spend more time at the hospital than some doctors l reckon 🤣 

At the end of the day, or week, or month, or year, or 4 year term, they'll be a kazillion pro-Trump posts and videos, and a kazillion anti-Trump posts and videos. And yes, at the end of whatever term you choose, Trump will have done some good stuff and Trump will have done some really stupid stuff. That's what all leaders do, and have done since the beginning of time. The REALLY stupid people are those that think Trump can do no wrong and Biden could do no right - or vice versa. We certainly have some of the former on here. If you really think Trump is "winning" 100% of the time, you certainly are a complete loser. Not even clever enough to be termed a tosser. Far too complex based on your posts to date. To label Biden a crook and Trump a saint? They're both bloody crooks for goodness sake. Both only in it for themselves and don't give a stuff about their people, their country or the world in general. Grifters almost on the scale of Te Pati Maori and those around them.  

More likely pushed off than jumping.  Kiwi probably part of the reason why.  Looked like a total flop until  yesterday.  That's the only thing that's seen the race get a mention on mainstream television. But in reality they wouldn't have anything to do now.  Everything is run out of Australia.  Only staff they need in New Zealand are those working for Trackside and maybe some people to look after the TAB machines.

That’s the opposite to my experience in most of the countries that I have visited. 

Doesn’t make sense to me. In fact I am flabbergasted.  I guess that it’s a wait and see now. 

And this lot are racing for 3.5 million.  I've seen some things in racing that are hard to make sense of, but this takes the cake.

I know exactly who you are...Doug....now stop coming in the number 1 site to try to stir trouble...if you persist you will be gone...just like your other previous Identities...🤣

Based on what?  You have no idea who I am.  But you aren't brave enough to go head to head are you?