Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
The official harness racing media is celebrating the fact that leading trainer Emma Stewart has qualified 9 of the 12 starters in Victoria’s richest and most prestigious 2YO race the Breeders Crown, which is run next weekend. They should be in mourning. What does it say about the Victorian harness racing industry that 75% of […]
A few years ago the Australian racing industry was rocked by news that traces of banned anabolic steroids had been detected in products that are regularly administered to performance mares around the world. Despite being linked to a permitted drug, the finding resulted in two Australian fillies being disqualified from racing for 12 months. The […]
Blood builders can’t make a horse run any faster. Nature, training, good luck, fast twitch fibers and freedom from injury does that. But every horse maxes out at it’s top speed one way or another. Genetics are the main cause. Filly 30 can run a quarter mile in 27 seconds. Just one, no more, but […]
For a long time now there have been a growing number of NZ harness racing participants decrying the dominance of the Robert Dunn and Mark Purdon stables, and saying that there is something very, very wrong about the way they dominate the feature events in the country, particularly in the South Island. After what we […]
21.11.12 APL229-19 Reasons
Our friend and colleague in the United Kingdom, the highly respected racing writer and anti-drugs in racing advocate Will Jones, has released the 3rd edition of his hard hitting newsletter The Black Horse. It is compulsory reading for anyone interested in the big issues in racing. This is the lead story. You can read the […]
The decision in the appeal that everyone in racing has been waiting for has just been handed down. It is Darrel Graham’s appeal against his conviction for a cobalt presentation offence, his first and only substance breach in almost four decades of training pacers. Darrel didn’t do it. I’ve always known that. I have known […]
A reader has made an excellent observation about the Cobalt Stacie case. If, as the alleged rumour goes, Stacie Elliott was indeed on holidays at the time her horses racked up two trifectas at Newcastle last month, why has no other licensed person been charged in relation to the two tested horses who threw positive […]
The information at the top is an extract from a questions and answers document published by Harness Racing Australia on its website at https://www.harness.org.au/hra/papers/TC02Q-A.HTM The information is accurate, albeit with the natural TCO2 levels being if anything a little on the high side. Evidence from a study of 231 horses tested by the New Jersey […]
Miss Serena is a four-year-old mare who started her racing life in Western Australia. She had sixteen starts there for just one win and two placings. That sole win was in a lowly late season 2-year-old affair at Northam in a time of 2.01.5. The horses Miss Serena beat in that race have gone on […]
