Got the Trots

I see Mark Purdon talking in Raceform today about wanting to reward Olivia for her excellent work over the past few months driving for the stable. Unbeaten record on the horse helped too. Mark also said he felt WWBF was a good place chance.

He's been down here for a few weeks, working with/for Fred Fletcher. Presumably his good horse has come down with him.

Mark won it as a driver with Spankem. And as a trainer with Have Faith In Me. Barry two driving wins with the mighty Homer (Holmes DG) but also training wins with Chokin x 2 and once with Christopher Vance.

What's hopeless about it? Unprecedented rain fall has caused the formation of a large puddle near the winning post. Can't control the weather. What you can control is timing. And RIU, the Club and HRNZ have let their participants down once again by waiting so long to make a decision that could have been made at 8am this morning, or even yesterday. Why is reliance on just Methven and Mot fraught with danger? Is there not danger should they use Rangiora as the premier grass track or any other grass venue for that matter?

Why can't they be both? In fact they are also a Jockey Club too aren't they? Remember reading somewhere about the Methven club drawing $60,000 off their farm one year. If thats the case then that's huge. Tough work for some of these clubs to stay a float. Good on them. Certainly hasn't impacted on my viewing today.

Hole In The Wall Gang is a group of people from Canterbury. Gathering of folk who have all chipped in to secure a spot. Word is that one of the people in the syndicate is one of NZ's leading trainers. Won a few races this week.

Two stables. Both large in capacity and firepower. One in the North and one in the South. Building an impressive line up of future broodmares for future sale, or racing prospect. They seem to compete against themselves in the North Island most weeks already.

Now that's the most bizarre reasoning I think I've ever read. Colin Calvert had a champion in Bee Bee Cee but couldn't train a ruler to lie down straight.

Or it's perhaps got something to do with the fact that both the Cromwell Cups and Nelson Cups are qualifying races for the newly minted Country Championships. If you've got one on the float, might as well be 3 or 4. And there's not a lot else for fit, race ready horses.