Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
If there was a better 2-year-old male pacer anywhere last season than Merlin, then I didn’t see it. Many will disagree with me and say Don’t Stop Dreaming (DSD) had his measure, but I say that’s bullshit. Mark Purdon’s star only beat the wizard once, in the Sires Stakes, and that was by virtue of […]
Jack Callaghan has copped a hammering from the NZ media for his drive on Spirit of St Louis in the Hunter Cup, in particular from Barry Lichter in an article quoting Ray Green published on the Lincoln Farms website, although you’d expect that given Lincoln’s close relationship to Green and owner Merv Butterworth. Here is […]
He’s red hot the Canary isn’t he? I refer of course to Andrew Fitzgerald, the owner/promoter of the dodgiest syndication outfit north of Dunedin, the deliciously named Off N Gone Racing. In May last year the Canary sold a bunch of suckers some shares in a slow six-year old mare by the name of Northview […]
So Major Miss is a yearling and a 2YO at the same time? It’s a good trick isn’t it? New Zealand’s dodgiest syndicator Off N Racing selling shares in it is too. Why? Because Studholme Bloodstock own the filly, and there is no lease registered with HRNZ. For the sake of the clarity that Off […]
A harness racing trainer injected a horse with vodka and then tubed it on the morning of the biggest trotting day of the year as he felt “behind the eight ball”, and just wanted to do his best. Phillip Burrows was disqualified from racing for 10 years by the Judicial Control Authority on Tuesday. The Herald can […]
Philip Burrows at age 51 is now a multiple convicted drug cheat, after pleading guilty yesterday to stomach tubing one of his runners on the morning of the NZ Trotting Cup, and being given a 10-year-disqualification for his sins. If after 20 years of cheating fellow licensees, owners, punters and the sport Burrows was going […]
New Zealand driver Phil Burrows is due to face the music today for being caught doping one of horses Rakero Rebel in a race on Cup Day, ably assisted in his unlawful actions by no less that Matthew Anderson (aka Vanderklay), the disqualified fraudster, drug dealer and woman basher who was infamously supported by Harness […]
The NZ Thoroughbred Racing Starters Manual stipulates in no uncertain terms that the starter shall (must) test the starting gates before the first race to ensure they are working properly. It is not an if or but situation; the gates must be tested. The starter at Gore race meeting on 21 January, Steve Batt, didn’t […]
I have been wondering all week why a vastly experienced trainer like Graeme Rogerson would put a jockey like Ryan Elliott on Sharp N Smart – the best horse that Rogie has had in 2 decades, and maybe his best ever – on board in a Group 1 Classic like the Thorndon Mile. Ten hours […]
What you see above appears in the Harness Racing New Zealand 2021/22 Annual Report. The names of the four in the obituary section are never repeated again throughout the report. Neither are the names of other good trot people who over the course of the year went to the great race track in the sky. […]
