Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
The harness racing industry is in uproar over a dispensation granted to former high-profile trainer Nigel McGrath who was banned for eight years for cheating in 2020. But in a surprise move on Tuesday night, McGrath, speaking publicly for the first time in five years, said he had withdrawn his application to break in yearlings on a restricted […]
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, / Gang aft agley (often go astray) – Robert Burns Kiwi drivers Blair Orange and Gavin Smith has it all worked out in the 9th at Addington today. Orange’s was on A Bettor You, the odds on favourite from the Mark Purdon stable at $1.80. It was […]
Number one issue – we need a Code of Conduct, and we need it urgently. Now we are a sport Greg, and there are three pillars to sport: fair play, integrity, and doing your best. I’m worried about integrity, really worried about integrity. I want to make it very clear to everybody that I am […]
Just look at this pair. Would you trust either of them to babysit your kids, look after your wallet while you go for a swim, or chaperone your wife to the Opera? If yes, you need need urgent professional help I was swamped with requests to follow up on a story that appeared on the […]
As the brilliant Brad Reid reveals on Harnesslink this morning, the schemers on the HRNZ board late last year quietly slipped a changed into the rule 1303(i) that I wrote about last night to change the meaning from that which I detailed in my story to this which Reid has detailed in his. There can […]
The recent article written by former staff member Brad Reid outlining some of the deep, underlying problems with NZ harness racing has struck a real cord with participants in the sport, so much so that I am led to believe that within days it has become one of the most read stories ever on the […]
Kiwi harness racing writer Brad Reid is a relative newcomer to the sport, who first became involved less a decade ago. In that time though he has fallen it with the trots like many of us, and has become a passionate enthusiast and advocate for our great game. Sadly though, like a lot of us, […]
We have written often about the NZ Racing Integrity Board’s strengths and weaknesses. With good reason the themes of these stories have been 10-1 the weakness way, and we are probably going soft on them at that. The treatment of driver Tim Williams, whose dad is on the board – and therefore the Stewards and […]
We have this morning sent this request for information to the Chairman of the Marlborough Harness Racing Club in New Zealand. The issues relate to substantial seven-figure sum gaming machine grants made to the club at a time when it only raced twice per year. For the avoidance of any doubt, no allegations of impropriety […]
Former Racing NSW and Racing Australia Chairman John Messara came to New Zealand a couple of years ago to compile a report into, and recommendations about, how to fix the ills of New Zealand racing, which didn’t really have any great ones at all. Why they thought an Australian who was the Chair of one […]
