Lightning Blue

Thinking the owner of ARABIAN BLUE is Mark's Uncle Les. Is L C Purdon listed as owner. might be why young Mark is giving it a spin.

Well that was astoundingly eerily similar to 2015 Cup Day . That was the 'last time' that a Mark Purdon trained horse DID NOT win the Nz Cup. He won the next 5 years before yesterday. Mark was 2nd with SMOLDA to the Aussie trained Arden Rooney in 2015 , after winning 5-6 races on the day including LAZARUS winning the Sires stakes Final at very short odds. Not enough 'Guns' in the MP army to pressure COPY THAT mid-race yesterday. Winner too good anyway.

WINNER winner Chicken DINNER!!. Self Assured picked to WIN all over the place , but HESI not so assured that would happen. A wise decision in the end. Well done !

And the Queen of the North takes Victory (karrots) , with the NZ Champ second (Mark), and the Oz lass third (Nat). Congrats to Mr Orange driving and Mr Green training and Ms Karrots Cheering for COPY THAT !!! Another great NZ Cup winner in the record books.

Onwards and Upwards ! 'It's All About Faith' and the maestro Mark were 9-1 yesterday , backed in to $4.50 today so someone got a nice win today too. very nice.

There's always race 4 ?

Race 1 and it's a MARK PURDON win !! nothing unusual with that on a CUP day ? The 'northerner' did well for Karrots with a 3rd placing off the 30m handicap. She tries so hard 'SHE REIGNS'. maybe they will start her off the front one day?.

Windburn and backdraught to them all then?, as Self Assured and/or Franco Indie are roaring away from the field ?

The Breeders Crown is usually strong every year , and has Strong NZ participacition. With Covid, not a lot came over this year. Nathan Purdon has BETTOR TWIST and AMERICAN DEALER in the 3 yearold semi's . Won with a 2 year old and another a close second in the 2 year old division too. SO ALL 4 are through to the semi's. The NSW finals went last week and a QLDer of Grant Dixon won the 150k Final . TIM's A TROOPER. (well done mate Grant !!) he couldn't go because of covid restrictions. The same horse has missed out in Victoria yesterday as MUCH HARDER. Vic having 10 x more horses (and the marvelous EMMA STEWART) than Qld or NSW for the Breeders. Emma could nearly get the whole field !!!! in the 3 year old fillies final. It's just gob smacking. !! she uses 10 different drivers too. just Amazing.

Ready to go Karrots ! Have put an 'hour' of bets on already ! lol.... Prosecco bottle is empty today and is only 1 o'clock (i'll find another one for tomorrow. lol...) fingers are crossed for a Big Enteebee win with MM.!!!!! (Chance of a lifetime without 'Sundee' and the 'Mountain' about.) Had arguement elsewhere with some mug bagging Mangos (because Nat is care-taker trainer) so am really hoping it Wins now !!! lol. (South Coast Arden) Mangos and Nat have been around Donkey years and done Enormous things for harness racing. How could you bag them ? Mark will probably win , but still gotta get to the post first , like he did last year. Good luck to ALL the Cup runners !! Copy That for the North (and Karrots) and hope they all step away ok to get their chance. And the punters in this Comp too !!!!!!!!

Good to see you good kiwi folk all getting on the Big day !! Love RUST and RICH picks that are in already. Will take something else though, so they can take the glory >>>> couple of place multis for $50 each. crikey! the local TAB had some odds up today . excellent. InvitationOnly-AltaWiseguy-SoundsofCash to place at $300-50 and Cyrus-Taipo-Candfindabettorman to place at $555-50.

Had the great pleasure of seeing him win the Queensland Derby Group 1 as a three year old thrashing Australia's best horse LOCHINVAR ART by near 3 lengths. 'Self Assured' won all 4 runs in Brisbane that trip (beating Lochinvar Art twice) As a 4 year old, SELF ASSURED went over to Menangle NSW, and again took on the Aussie Champ but finished just a 'head' short of LOCHINVAR ART in the $1/4 mill 'The Chariot's Of Fire' in a slick 1.50.2 . Two greats fighting it out. Last summer, LOCHINVAR ART won all 6 starts (3 x group 1's ) for $1/2 million in stakes, but tragically went sore after that. So just have to enjoy SELF ASSURED strutting his stuff instead. NZ Cup at his mercy again ?, after smashing it in last year.

Will be a great day when you do Karrots !! . One of your favs (a Sweet Lou gelding) today WON a heat of the 2 year old Breeders Crown !!! Charlene Guzman trained HES CHARLIES ANGEL. named after her late father. There were 7 Heats today for the 2 year olds . NZer Nathan Purdon winning one with kiwi bred 'Amore Vita' and a close 2nd with kiwi bred 'A Bettor You'. EMMA STEWART winning 4 heats and with an incredible 11 'more' horses placing in the TOP 4 !!!!, So 15 out of her 21 TWO year olds today were in the top 4 in very quick, very high quality races. astounding effort.!!!!!!

MACH DA VINCI came from near last (not needing any torrential rain this time to win) the above race in 1.52. in a 'stunning' performance from that awkward barrier draw. Meanwhile, EXPENSIVE EGO (Luke McCarthy) won from the outside barrier at Menangle by 4 lengths in 1.48.7 for the mile !!!!!! Outstanding speed performance. Just hard to believe how hard and fast these horses are going???? quite incredible. Would of been great to see Expensive Ego in the NZ FFA.

The Group 1 NZ Cup wins (for past 5 years) and Group 1 NZ 3 year old Sires Stakes (for an incredible past 7 years) domination by ALLSTARS is OVER !!!!! Mark will probably still Win them both with 'Self Assured' and 'Franco Indie' but must share the Training spoils with Mr Cullen instead of Natalie this Cup day 2021. Will Natalie take 'revenge' and bring the Brent Mangos trained horse home with the Ultimate Prize ?? the NZ Trotting Cup and then say "How's the Cup drought going Mark ?" afterwards. hehehe

This week , let's have a look at the Group 3 at Albion Park tonight. A few ex-kiwis and I can give you a clue how much the very FASTEST horses in Queensland can earn in prizemoney in Brisbane. (it's tough going) remember ,These are the Best we have racing, they have ALL won 5-6 races each this season (Calender year 2021) from between 15-25 starts each this year. except COLT THIRTY ONE who has zero wins this year from 12 starts . A cruel abnomily , as he was the 'Superstar.' his 5 x 2nd placings earning just a paltry 25k. The rest have earned a mere 50-80 k each this year? from those 5 wins that each has had. Very very POOR IMO , as these are the best fastest horses racing in QLD (inc Auckland Cup winner TURN IT UP who you all might remember) DEUS EX undefeated as yet and winning easily so far. Suzanne Herlihy's horse LL COOL J has impressive record too. At the local metro Brisbane 'gallops' race for $42k winner/ $15k for second every race. Any galloper with 5 city wins like this field, would have near $1/4 mill for the year. Form Horse Trainer Other Eng. Driver Class Hcp 1 12233 MAKE MINE MEMPHIS Vicki Rasmussen Mathew Neilson NR101 B3 FR1 $11 2 02111 WILL THE WIZARD Chantal Turpin Chantal Turpin NR111 B1 FR2 $4.50 3 35s74 L L COOL J NZ Vicki Rasmussen Adam Sanderson NR113 B2 FR3 $14 4 40111 TURN IT UP Vicki Rasmussen Shane Graham NR120 B1 FR4 $3.40 5 71156 KANENA PROVLIMA Shawn Grimsey Nathan Dawson NR102 B1 FR5 $61 6 23581 NORTHVIEW HUSTLER NZ Alistair Barnes Hayden Barnes NR119 B1 FR6 $51 7 840s5 CLINTAL DO (Em 1) Dayl March SCRATCHED NR118 B1 SCR- $81 ------------------------------ Second Row ------------------------------ 8 61221 BLACKSADANCE Chantal Turpin Pete McMullen NR108 B1 SR1 $12 9 5s111 DEUS EX NZ Jack Butler Brendan Barnes NR94 B4 SR2 $14 10 32322 COLT THIRTY ONE Grant Dixon Grant Dixon NR120 B1 SR3 $9 11 23111 MACH DA VINCI NZ Peter Hanson Leonard Cain NR120 B1 SR4 $4.20

sorry Karrots , didn't mean to muck up the thread. You and dancing Show were getting a little upset over a couple of videos there yesterday, and thought I could 'ease' your minds a little , that it wasn't as bad as it looked. I May have failed a little , but gave it a shot , which I am happy with. And Double R has just said some Great stuff above to sum it up.

True. Every human has the right to decide what is important to themselves. In great developed countries like Aus and NZ we are priviliged to enjoy the great Entertainment that horse racing (and for some dog racing) has provided. Horse Welfare has always been paramount since time began. Horses (and greyhounds) love to run , so human intervention has gathered that 'energy' and we see the results daily. great racing . we have trained horses to pull a plough, muster cattle, run the mail, pull carraiges, even calvary charge lol.... and 100 other things. most of those tasks involving some whip use too, to generate the needed speed of activity. Racing is just one of them. of course we are accountable. ALL these horses are treated well and better than what people treat each other generally. We Love them , when we 'work with them' and they have FAR greater care and attention when In work , than in the wild (like brumbies) or paddock.

Yes no problem. The big races have a way of showing up flaws , there are a million eyes are on them. The Melbourne Cup had many jockeys fined past few years and long suspensions. As the kiwi jockey Michael Walker said after getting fined a second time "The whip rules go out the window , when you're trying to win the big race" Yes no doubt Kerryn Manning's own 'personal reasons' were , She was trying to Win the race (Nz Cup Group 1) too.

Hi Karrots and Maria, I think your concern for the horse is a good thing. The methods used to keep a large animal thundering forward , at it's greatest rate possible while maintaining 'Gait' is not an easy one. The 2 examples you have chosen are quite 'mild ' IMO. Neville Clarke ( Gammalite) is as skinny as a beanpole , and Kerryn Manning (Arden Rooney) is size of a grasshopper. She has driven over 4000 winners and knows what she is doing. Neither would do anything to harm a horse in any way. They just have very exaggerated arm movements . Kerryn had an Interdominion winner SMOLDA and Mark Purdon coming at her. I'd be jumping around in the sulky too lol......... I DON"T condone Whip use 'abuse' in any way . But I can tell you there are FAR worse cases than the 2 videos you guys have here. BIG 90-110 kg men that could actually 'use a whip' I can think of 20 that I drove against in Nz and Oz that make Neville and Kerryn look powder-puff's. (Neville's arch-rival Vinnie Knight being one) Steps have been made for a long time to improve horse welfare, and many (all) of these 90-110 drivers that could really hit and mark a horse, have fallen by the wayside after years of fines (and several banned ) for months in the 1990's . I am happy to say I didn't ever get fine /ban though personally. Today it's Just a bunch of skinny kids in most Oz harness tracks So All good.

Karrots was having her Cup bet yesterday?. and has convinced her neighbours too.

The BETTOR TWIST and the AMERICAN DEALER both placed in the Breeders CROWN Heats tonight at Bendigo. (from back row draws for Anthony Butt and N. Purdon) But it was the trainer 'EMMA STEWART' Show yet again, winning 5 of the 6 heats. ( including a trifecta and 2 other quinellas ) Amazing stuff. 10 horses placed . That's better than ALLSTARS level really. KARROTS would love the support given by EMMA to all the lady drivers !!!!!!!!!!!!! KateGath, JackieBarker, KerrynManning , JodieQuinlan and RebeccaBartley all getting an Emma Stewart drive !! in those big races and all running places !! awesome.

Race 6 , and it's a six horse field , and Bernie Hackett has All 6 of them as Trainer. (along with partner Michelle) F4 goes to Bernie lol You could only dream of that as a Trainer Not that Long ago really. The big 16 horse trotters fields used to be quite spectacular at Auckland. Bernie must have a smile a 'mile wide' having the monopoly of it like he is getting lately. Bet he didn't visualise this when starting off in the 80's? Wonder if Williamsons should go for the same sort of thing in Southland/Otago ?

Auckland is on I see, hard to keep up with Spring carnival all week in Melbourne. Lets go the omen KARROTS trifecta in the next then Race 5 The Iron Lady- Some Girls Don't - Lady of the Light

Don't worry too much Karrots , team or stable driving is fine. Telfers, Allstars, Dunns can all get multiple runners in a race because they're pretty good stables. They have been 'Looking After' each other for years. Stewards will take a dim view if a horse is given 'No chance to Win' by the way it is driven ,if it is just to aid a stablemate. example was Ferguson at Auckland when MeetmeinSorrento won. BUT generally you OBviously are not gunna knock a stablemate over ,and can let it go to the lead easily or whatever. No Law Against That.? As long as you give your own drive EVERY POSSIBLE CHANCE TO WIN , which Allstars have been doing quite beautifully for years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! maybe it's the Dunn's turn NZ CUP ?????