Royal Nod

He was trained in Southland for all but his last two NZ starts

Thanks Robert. I’m not sure what the purpose is of having a suspended & unavailable list on HRNZ website when it was last updated on 31 st August

Would certainly expect so. Blair has always really liked him.

Surprising that Nat didn’t turn up last Friday to drive Self Assured. Now she isn’t standing in for Mark on Milwood Nike. Is she away or has she given up driving? I wonder if she will make an appearance on Cup Day?

How is your Sweet Lou coming along Karrots?

My first winner was a bracket of sorts. It was the first division of a division race so was bracketed with a horse in the 2nd division.

Great to hear some positive thoughts for a change. I tend to agree with you Double R.

Agree Addington. For some time various posters have alluded to Brodie being Wayne Higgs. I was always sceptical because if you follow his posts closely it’s clear Brodie does not have the knowledge Mr Higgs would have. Don’t know what ever made people think it was him

I said years ago there should be a stock take done of all the tracks and how much they are worth & who actually owns them. I think we don’t really need both Mot & Rangiora but one estimate I heard was that selling Rangiora would only bring in about $ 4 mil. If it was sold though money could be invested in developing a training centre & community at Mot where young trainers could set up relatively cheaply. As for Auckland I think if they can get out of their difficulties in time it would be best to stay put. Addington get good crowds to Christmas at the races and other functions during the year. That revenue stream would largely disappear if they shifted out of town.

Went to Melton in 2018 and underwhelmed by the place. It has nothing on Addington. It would be a big mistake in my opinion to go down that road here. Also any funds from selling Addington would be eaten up by a green field development of a new facility, so not much to be gained and plenty to lose.

I fear you may be right. But then again if there were more horses would there be the owners to race them?

$26 for RP in The Race is very poor odds in my opinion. $17 for BP in sires stakes final is much better odds, though Purdons filly will be very hard to beat

Read the first few lines but I don’t subscribe to PP.

Thanks Karrots. That was exciting. Didn’t expect her to do that

Carmelite scratched but Light Up My Fire should win that

👍

She is entered at Ashburton on Sunday

Not Chicago Bear.

Probably about 5 weeks away from trials. Keep an eye out for another one at trials next week.

Is sweaty a 2 year old now Karrots?

Years ago there was a program based around Harness Racing. Made in New Zealand around the late 80s I think. Characters were fictional. Anyone remember that and what it was called?

I think there should be more of a sliding scale for stakes. For a 35 - 45 rating race say $6k minimum. For up to rating 49 say $9k, and for 50 rating & above 12k min. We have plenty of horses in that lower bracket and if they were racing in Aussie or USA horses of that quality would be lucky to be racing for $5k. Let’s put more into the intermediate horses to encourage them to stay here & hopefully get better races & fuller fields in the grades where we are low on numbers. That’s my thoughts anyway.

He was trained here by Cran Dalgety and won the Great Northern Derby driven by Dexter. It was a very wet night that night and he improves 5 lengths on wet or muddy tracks. I think I remember reading he won in USA at big odds on a wet track as well.

There was a stallion named I Am A Fool. The owners sponsored Maurice McKendry. Believe it or not he had I Am A Fool printed on his helmet.

Thought the 2nd horse was the run of the race. Burnt early, sat parked on a 1.47.6 mile and still got 2nd