Saturday was finally the day for Our Blue Streaks Stable, SGV Thoroughbreds, and trainer George Weaver's Soontobeking as he narrowly prevailed in the $125,000 Gander Stakes. Soontobeking became the first black-type winner for his sire King for a Day.View the full article

Sorry but there is only one place for Pedos

Indeed and that's why Slot races don't happen in most jurisdictions or if they do they don't remain as Slot races for long. If you want the Kiwi to be a Group 1, it has to have quality runners filling the places to bring up the ratings average.  As a wise man once said, money talks, men walk - the "men" in this instance being owners. I've no problem with Te Akau winning the race per se but wouldn't it be good to have some smaller owner having a real chance with a good horse? That's the kind of narrative for which horse racing should be looking not regressing to the bad old days of it being a hobby purely for the wealthy but perhaps having small syndicates able to have a go.

Goodonya Canada……

I thought Tardelli was very impressive. Not eligible for the slot of course. We could potentially have the unusual situation in years to come where the slot remains listed and the consolation could make it to group 3. 

None of my beeswax of course but we don't have Slot races up here and we've never needed them. Simply put the money up and try to get the best to come and run - the money is reasonable without being exceptional and I'm not sure about paying NZD 100,000 to all the finishers so even the last horse got a nice payday. This is why and how you get all the dead wood to turn up - for a slower horse, the money is still very good and more than they could get in other races. For example, PIVOTAL TEN's connections got NZD 100,000 for finishing thirteenth but only NZD 69k for bolting up in the Southland Guineas. I'd have a NZD 2 million winning pot and nice sums for the first five but nowt for the rest - that's how you get the quality runners. The other question is whether you want challengers from Australia and elsewhere or you want it to be a Kiwi race called the Kiwi for Kiwi owned and trained horses only? Other jurisdictions have done it in the past - Japan did for example for many years. The risk of international competition for serious money is, as with the Melbourne Cup, the foreigners will come and take the money.  Given the time of year, I suspect you wouldn't get a Northern Hemisphere 3-y-o to come over (Coolmore and Godolphin might have other ideas of course). Your 3-y-o are halfway through their "year", ours are only just beginning. I suppose you could dangle a nice weight concession (Racing Victoria did that for the Melbourne Cup and ended up with REWILDING) or open the way to Northern Hemisphere 4-y-o (perhaps) but I don't know if that's the point.  If it's a race to showcase the best of New Zealand 3-y-o, fine, I get that. Let me ask a different question - had TARDELLI or ROMILLY run in the Kiwi, how do you think they would have fared? The Windsor Park race was run much slower than the Kiwi but that might have been the nature of the race.  

I meant NZ trained 3yos. And I don't mean purely handicappers ratings. I am referring to how people might assess the current crop when determining 3yo of the year.  Obviously the top 3yo is Savaglee. A group 1 win, placed at WFA in a group 1 and placed in Group 1 company in Aussie. The next four or five would be the Group 1 1,000 Guineas winner, although she has gone off the boil badly in Aussie, the Derby winner, Alabama Lass, Group 1 placed in the 1,000 Guineas. Group 1 placed in the Railway and an impressive winner over the horse that beat her in the Railway a few days ago, then Leica Lucy, especially if she wins the Group 1 Oaks. The slot winner's only chance to raise in the rankings is probably if she wins something in Aussie. She isn't nominated for the Oaks and there isn't much left for her here. Stakes are irrelevant when assessing horses relative merits. You can't rate a horse based on a couple of restricted entry listed races regardless of stakes. We saw the folly of people being taken in by restricted race results when they voted Tokyp Tycoon 2yo of the year based on a restricted race win.  It went on to win one race as a very early 3yo. From vague memory I think the best quality the slot winner has raced against was a group 3. I'm not knocking the horse at all. The connections have won the money, so good on them.

Yes, that question complicates things doesn’t it? I believe that the filly from down south is actually better than what she showed on Saturday BUT “it is Saturday’s race” that will define her.  I guess that happens when one creates a “Champions Day” and for whatever reason some unfortunately disappoint.  Liz

Do you mean 3yo "in" NZ or 3yo that has raced in NZ this season?

True but gee 87, not much time left, what's the point, now,? What are the authorities going to do, put him in jail? Silly old prick but you ain't. going to change things  now.

I didn't specify a distance. I said she would be the 7th ranked 3yo in the country. Where would you rate her? Her best performance in relevant races is a group 3 third.

The funeral service for Michael Moroney will be held at The Church Of The Holy Angels in Hohaia St, Matamata on Monday, March 17 from 11am. Fittingly considering his heritage, that is St Patrick's Day! Further celebration of Mike's life will take place in the Epsom Lounge at Matamata racecourse from 1.30.

Great run by Don Pedro for Peter Jeffcoat,, I backed it EW at $80 & $13 because I thought it was overs. I actually race a couple of slow ones with Peter's niece. Peter Jeffcoat is the uncle of former jockey/trainer Wayne Jeffcoat,

On a positive note it was good to see return To Conquer do the decent thing. About time a million dollar yearling showed something worthwhile. Very few do.

Mate he's a Pedo

Awesome to see Tact McLeod has got a spot in The Race by Betcha 🤗 along with Don Hugo, and possibly LeapToFame it's shapin to be a beaut, cant wait to see who else gets the call up, could turn out to be almost re-run of the MMile.....   Cheers Iraklis

All of the play-off rounds will use the same format - either the Pairs format or the Knockout format.  To be decided by a poll closer to the time. For seeding purposes points ties after 6 rounds will be decided in same way as recent comps - by dropping lowest scoring week, then if need be second lowest scoring week, etc... In the play-offs, in the unlikely event of a tied score the tie will be split using seedings.

This coming Saturday is the 6th and final round of qualifying.  Below is reminder from an earlier post of how the play-offs will work.  A big advantage to be sitting in the top 8 on Saturday night, and a slightly smaller advantage to be in spots 9-24.  Finish below 24 and you're still in the comp but up against the odds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Weeks 1-6 - like the recent multi-format comps, weekly comps using different formats, where you earn points depending on how many entrants you finished ahead of in that week.  At the end of the 6 weeks total points earned will determine your seeding for the play-offs. Week 7 - Round 1 of play-offs The top 8 seeds will get the week off - they progress direct to Round 2 of play-offs. Seeds 9-24 will compete against each other to secure a better route through the play-offs - top 8 out of these 16 get an easier path. Seeds 25 down will compete for four "lucky loser " spots. Those outside of the 4 lucky losers are eliminated Week 8 - Round 2 of play-offs Part A - seeds 1-8 and the top 8 from the previous week's 9-24 will compete.  The top 8 finishers from this 16 will progress directly to the Grand Final in Week 10.  The other 8 will go into a repechage in Round 3 (Week 9) Part B - the bottom 8 from the previous week's 9-24 and the four lucky losers will compete.  The top 4 from this group will progress to Round 3 (Week 9).  The others are eliminated. Week 9 - Round 3 of play-offs The 8 losers from Part A in Round 2 and the 4 winners from Part B in Round 2 will compete. The top 4 will progress to the Grand Final.  The others are eliminated. Week 10 - Grand Final The top 8 from Part A - Round 2 and the top 4 from Round 3 will compete in the Grand Final.

87 year old man still being hounded by police, time they left him alone, better to sort out the people who produce the porn.

I quite enjoyed the whole day, but still would have if they'd been one race less - the NZB Kiwi. If it wasn't for Blake Shinn's winning ride I'd probably have forgotten about it already. Yeah, granted, my memory isn't what it once was, but the NZD Kiwi was only a mid-field runner when ranking the 10 races as a spectacle. Beyond midfield maybe. History means something for a lot of us old-timers, and slot races hold no history whatsoever. Well not for some years to come anyway. Maybe next year will be different? Maybe not? Many of the less expensive races on the day's card offered a lot more excitement from my perspective. Maybe the young ones enjoyed it? The lure of millions of dollars? If so, maybe they've pulled the right rein. But we won't know the answer to that for another 40 years, if the same youngsters are still attending the races, owning horses themselves and/or punting up large. I hope they've installed GPS tracking devices with a lifetime supply of batteries on all attendees 🤣