Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
Bevan ‘Billy’ Johnson took just five horses up the The Isa yesterday. He was up against it because local trainer Tanya Parry had 25 of the 36 runners on the program. Shryn Royes saddled up the other six. There wasn’t another trainer to be seen for miles. Billy won three races, and ran seconds in […]
The Stewards report into the Gaitagate scandal is in. Or not, as the case may be. Tony Pullicino has been suspended for 21 days for cutting off another runner entering the turn into the back straight. He deserved it too. His mother looks on face value to deserve a whole lot more. Stewards have convened […]
I have been a huge Peter V’Landys fan for many years now. Not because I’ve been kissing PVL’s arse, but because I truly believe that he is the best sporting administrator in the world, and a thoroughly decent human being. Plenty have knocked me over the years for my strident support of the bloke, but […]
When I was a kid almost half a century ago my grandfather used to take me to the Albion Park races. Gallops not trots. The Creek was a sand track back then, and was where they raced when the gallops tracks were too wet. Barely a meeting was ever cancelled due to the weather, not […]
The Dominion Handicap is one of the greatest square gaiting trot races in the world. Not as good as the Elitloppet or the Prix d’Amerique. But not far off. The best of the best have won the Dominion over the years. The freak Lyell Creek took it out three times, so did the champions Take […]
Leap To Fame is the best horse in the world. We have been saying that he was two-year’s old. On sheer ability and a perfect preparation he would win the NZ Cup by panels. The great problem is his driver Grant Dixon. Dixon is a brilliant horseman and trainer, but despite the excellent driving record […]
We have written a few times in recent weeks about the extraordinary and totally against previous form run of success of the hitherto average Kiwi father and son training partnership of Peter and Mitchell Robertson, and how over the past couple of months they keep turning donkeys into flying unicorns. The pair did it again […]
Archie Falls that break everyone’s heart have come again in another wave, but there’s a few key points in my opinion as to why they’re happening. Due to deficiencies in their training and education, there’s no race craft any more with a lot of jocks. It’s just a case of jumping out of the gates […]
Race 1 is crap, and race 3 and 4 too. The second race would be as well, if only not for the fact that the Jason Grimson’s of the NZ South Island Peter and Mitchell Ferguson didn’t have one of their inexplicably grown a leg pacers Ward Lamon in there. Throw out the previous form […]
Grant Dixon has runners in seven of the nine races at Albion Park on Saturday night. The first three are preferential barrier draws. Dixon has taken advantage of it by entering horses that have drawn 1, 2 and 2. The next one is a trot in which Grant’s pair have drawn 5 and 7, which […]
