Hesi
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Posts posted by Hesi
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Crusaders can still make the top 8 but have to beat the Blues on Sat and Moana Pacifica the following week, both in Chch and hope the Drua and Force don't win any of their last 2 games.
I have a friend in Chch and they are all still quietly hoping this can happen, then they believe everything is on if they make the top 8 and the Crusaders will magically return to the unbeatable team of old.
Then again, I have another acquaintance in Chch who always used to fly the Crusaders flag on their letterbox, who know refuses to talk about the team and has locked the flag away in a secure cabinet.
Watched about 10 min of the Phoenix game, and sorry, but it is boring, passing around at the back, no attack.
The downside of the Warriors winning, is that all the people that only ever follow league when the Warriors do well will be back onboard and we will have to listen to 'Up the Wahs', including from TV1 newsreaders, which is about enough to make you puke. They should stick to their lycra and flat whites lol
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Interesting read
Trainers Peter and Dawn Williams have announced their retirement from racing. Photo: Race Images
Dawn of a new era for Williams’s
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
19 May 2024It will be the dawn of a new era for Byerley Park trainers Peter and Dawn Williams, as they get set to enter into the next stage of life after announcing their retirement from racing.
“I am 70 next month and I felt it was time to move on,” Peter Williams said. “I think it is a younger persons game and we have got in and support these younger ones.”
The husband-and-wife duo have been a dominant force in New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing for several decades, with Peter having trained for half a century when he hangs up his training hat.
“Next month it has been 50 years since I have had a (trainer’s) license, and Dawn came onboard in the eighties. We have been doing it a long time,” he said.
Racing is in Williams’ blood, and he said he was always intent on a career with horses.
“Dad was a horse trainer and I went into partnership with him in 1975,” he said. “We went on for two or three years, and when I married Dawn, we took over the stables.”
Williams said he had a memorable start to his training career, teaming up with well-known jockey Brent Thompson on the West Coast of the South Island to record his first victory.
“The horse that probably gave me the big start was a horse called Bun Tuck, he was my first winner and Brent Thompson rode him at Greymouth in an invitation jockeys race,” Williams said.
Group One performer Sir Clive and Group One winners Desert Lightning and Shuka have been particularly memorable horses for the Williams’s over the years, but it was Sea Swift that had the biggest impact on their lives.
The daughter of Auk won the 1988 edition of the Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m), and the $500,000 purse helped her trainers establish their training centre in Ashburton.
“The Auckland Cup was a big win for us,” Williams said. “Sea Swift won the Auckland Cup in 1988 and I think she still holds the track record today. It was the richest sporting event in New Zealand at the time and was worth $500,000.
“Winning that set us up because not only did we train her, but we also had a third share in her as well. That set us up to buy a 100-acre farm in Ashburton just off the town boundary. We set it up as a training establishment – it had its own track and starting gates. We trained a lot of winners from there.”
From their Ashburton base, the Williams’s campaigned frequently in the North Island and decided to eventually move north in 2011 to Byerley Park in South Auckland.
“We were getting sick of the travelling, and the earthquakes in the South Island weren’t a help,” Williams said. “It put us on the backfoot for a while and we found that we were doing too much travelling. We decided to make the move and come up, and we were lucky we did. A lot of owners followed us, and it has been great ever since.
“Daniel Nakhle (Byerley Park owner) has been a big part of Dawn and I’s career over the last 10 years, and when we came up here, Colin Jillings (trainer) was good to us. He put a lot of horses and owners our way.”
Williams was pleased with the support from their owners in their transition north, including Barneswood Farms’ Sarah Green and Ger Beemsterboer, who have raced some quality horses over the years with the likes of Group One winners Planet Rock, Media Sensation and Desert Lightning, with the operation also having bred three-year-old sensation Orchestral out of their Group Three performer Symphonic.
“They started off small but got pretty big in the finish,” Williams said.
While many top equine athletes have passed through their stable, so have some well-credentialled horsemen and women, including top harness driver Dexter Dunn and trainers Pam Gerard and Wayne Hillis.
“We have had a lot of people work for us over the years and Dexter was one,” Williams said. “He used to come in after school and before school some days. He wanted to be a jockey, but I sat him down one day and told him he was going to be too big to become a jockey, so go into trotting. He did and he has done well. He came and saw us on Karaka Millions night.
“Pam Gerard worked for us for quite a considerable time in Ashburton, and Wayne Hillis was another.
“We have been very lucky to have been given some good horses to train, we have had good owners and a lot of good people have worked for us over the years.”
In preparation for their retirement, the Williams’s bought a property in Christchurch a couple of years ago and will head back down south in the coming months, with Barbara Kennedy set to take over their barn at Byerley Park.
“We will be shifting back to Canterbury, we bought a house in Christchurch two years ago,” Williams said.
“Barbara Kennedy, Warren Kennedy’s (leading jockey) wife, is going to move into the house here at Byerley and take the stables over. We will hang around a bit to help Barbara settle in.
“Barbara is getting her license and she trained 59 winners in three years in South Africa. Dawn and I give her our blessing, we think she can do the job. She is getting some nice horses to train and I just hope the owners support her.”
While Kennedy will take over the majority of the horses in Williams’ care, Group One winner Desert Lightning will head offshore.
“Desert Lightning will head to Australia, not that we don’t have confidence in Barbara, but it was just in weight-for-age he is probably better suited over there now,” Williams said.
Heading into retirement, Williams is looking forward to watching how racing unfolds at Ellerslie in years to come, with the newly-installed StrathAyr track undergoing remedial work over winter.
“I have got all the confidence in the world in Ellerslie, I think they have done a good job, just bad luck has plagued them a little bit,” he said. “Paul Wilcox and the team there are doing their best, they just need things to go right for them.”
Williams said the investment in the Auckland track has been the single most important development in his time in racing, and he believes the entire New Zealand thoroughbred industry needs to get in behind the club.
“When they built the new track at Riccarton, I had quite a bit to do with it. I worked in with Tim Mills (Canterbury Jockey Club chief executive) and the people who built it. That was big, but Ellerslie is bigger,” Williams said.
“We need all of New Zealand to get in behind Ellerslie, because if that isn’t going right then we haven’t got a lot of hope in racing in New Zealand. We need Ellerslie to be an international track and all racing should lead into Ellerslie as far as I am concerned.”
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A sign of commitment to NZ from Warren Kennedy??
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Thanks PJ, another clockwork afternoon's effort. Nice touch with the naming of the Cup and Championship to honour Pam and Jen
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1. 1/3/9
2. 1/5/6
3. 4/8/14
4. 10/12/15 bb
5. 2/4/5
6. 1/2/3
7. 1/3/15
Good luck to all competitors in this fine comp.
Thanks PJ, pre-eminent, champion comp master supreme
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5 minutes ago, Tonkatime said:
Great point re councils Hesi. Wellington Council does anything but that.
Neither do many Govt departments. NZ Transport Agency (Waka Kotahi), who proposed to have dual street and place names (English and Maori), when the roading infrastructure has so many things that need attending to. Wrong focus!
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18 minutes ago, JustPlodded said:
As long as the boffins that did the maths are not the same ones that thought it was a good idea to buy those Chinese companies a few years back that ended in getting rid of them at a huge loss.
I understand also, that by being a supplier of the base raw material and a user, it has price implications for the supply price of the raw material which is then subject to controls. This is removed if they no longer are a user???????
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I thought the usual suspects were saying racing at Alex Park was all but finished. Seems like pretty good stakes and fields
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1. 1 3 5 10 11
2. 2 3 5 6 7
3. 4 7 9 11 12
4. 1 2 3 4 5
5. 2 12 13 14 15
6. 1 5 6 7 8
7. 2 3 5 7 9
8. 1 2 5 6 10
9. 1 3 4 5 6
10. 1 2 3 4 9
Much appreciated Karrots and good luck
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Why could it go tits up. A shame a few other entities like councils and Govt departments don't focus on their core reason for being.
93% of Fonterra's sales come from the supply of basic raw materials derived from milk.
I presume they are doing it as the other 7% has a disproportionately high amount of cost, a lot more than 7%
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The idea of divesting, is to focus on business-to-business supply of raw materials, so I presume Fonterra. It would be a condition of the sale?
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Nice slideshow Roland, thanks for sharing
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That is a huge shock, she looks so young and healthy.
My thoughts and sympathy towards you Roland at this difficult time
For those not aware, Roland's wife posted for many years as Jenlove in PJ's comps and was well known for consistently landing longshot winners, most notably of course, Pride of Jenni
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38 minutes ago, curious said:
Good of you to post here though to help keep up the dwindling member numbers.
The site is small for sure, but numbers have actually increased over the last year, not dwindled. This notwithstanding that 2 people were asked to leave for reasons that will remain private.
The people that post here, in the main enjoy the site and the several unique features the site offers and that is all I am concerned about
Add to that, no bombardment with penis enlargement ads, or ads that remind you of what you have been searching online for and no bots or manufactured profiles to boost traffic, and best of all, no Thomarse lol lol
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No
If he is in danger of blowing a foo foo valve, then the last thing he needs is a penis enlargement
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You heard of algorithms haven't you
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If your view of Mardi, is that he is of low intellect, then I'm afraid that is a reflection on your ability to appraise and judge people.
Curious/Leggy is also a very clever guy, not as clever as Mardi, but still very clever
People on these sites quite often misread that as being a know all or smartarse. I like to open my mind to the knowledge they have.
Barry (even though he gives me a lot of shyte, in jest of course) also can be almost fitted into the same category. His knowledge on horses and punting has been accepted and respected by quite a few on this site. You may notice that they almost always back up their opinion with data or a factual reference.
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Anyone that knows Mardi or knows of him, will know he is anything but low intellect.
He possibly views that as a positive or even a negative sometimes, others may disagree
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I think it is a common thing on social media/chat sites, where people simply get out debated, out thought, out knowledged, so resort to personal stuff.
Moral of the story, know your limitations, which can be a bitter pill to swallow
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34 minutes ago, mardigras said:
One of the reasons I never returned to that site.
I got censured for what I said about the guy last time on here. But what I stated was 100% spot on.
He simply is not worth it.
Which guy Mardi, Bruce Sherwin??
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12 hours ago, curious said:
People have short memories; I think it is called being shallow, seems to happen a lot over there. People may recall all the work and research you put into supporting Kevin Morton (Midget) being charged under the rules of racing.
I'm not a Te Akau fan, but if you listen to their Facebook video, they give horses like Imperatriz the full checkover at the end of a campaign, and full credit to them for having such a modus operandi. X Rays showed wear and tear on the knees and this was the reason cited for not racing the horse any further.
So for a new owner to race the horse, it is a buyer beware situation, that in the event of a major injury and the horse having to be put down, would be a major scandal.
So, I guess the horse being presented as 'Broodmare Only', is a case of full disclosure.
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1. 9/10/11
2. 1/7/9 bb
3. 7/9/13
4. 1/2/3
5. 1/4/16
6. 2/4/6
7. 2/6/7
Thanks PJ, I'm picking a lot won't make it to the end
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Someone with more knowledge of the 2 industries might like to paint a picture of the scenario of what would happen if there was a second or third bloodstock player in the NZ breeding market, not just the one dominant NZB
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Don't get your hopes up about the Commerce Commision and anti-competitive behaviour. They get thousands of complaints every year and investigate very few. Speaking from personal business experience. Section 36 of the Commerce Act deals with Misuse of Market Power, which this is clearly an example of.
Review of the Weekend's sport
in General Sport
Posted
Can football fans honestly say that the way football is played in this part of the world, that you can still describe it as the beautiful game.