Ha ha we'll bake you mate!!
Printable View
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...m9iQ7-I7uWv5MV
Hi Jaimie . Believe it or not , I tend to agree with you . I don't fully understand it , but what I do see is a system that is open to interpretation and , more so , innuendo . A system where control of your horses racing is taken out of your hands . A system where your horses placement is open to someone else's opinion . A person who has absolutely no idea where your horse is at . A system that,in my opinion, is open to bias or accusations of bias . Don't like it Jaimie , don't like it at all ----- and $4000 for a country front na na
http://www.harness.org.au/hra/annual.../regn_info.pdf
Hi Jaimie . I don't think that anyone can read a positive into this . Are you seriously trying to tell me that this is home grown? People/groups/attitudes/changes are not ruining the industry , cheats are and cheats are causing the changes . I'd absolutely love something positive to happen . Yeah positive swabs .
As far as raining gold bars are concerned , you haven't put much thought into it . That would cause a massive drop in world gold price which would cause catastrophic hyper inflation across every financial market worldwide which could and probably would lead to a world war . But I suppose that's being negative to .
VVV- Trish, I can immediately read one extremely significant positive into that PDF.
The Named Horses figure as it directly relates to annual foaling numbers and in turn Industry wastage.
We are breeding far, far fewer horses than we ever were 35+ years ago HOWEVER at the same time it is a FACT that we are conducting significantly MORE races than we did 35+ years ago.
This is because the horses we are breeding these days are sired by infinitely better class/quality stallions than were ever even dreamed of being available in the past, the foals by those sires are... I suspect to the surprise of nobody who's been paying attention...getting to the races in vastly greater %'s, age wise they are getting there earlier across the board & consequently they are having MORE RACE STARTS LIFETIME than their predecessors could ever have dreamed of.
That there are fewer Trainers & Drivers now than there were 35+ years ago merely reflects ongoing Industry changes from a large number/greater % of part-time/Hobby trainer/drivers to a smaller number/ greater % of more full-time participants. I hesitate to use the word 'rationalisation' however, like the number of small tracks throughout the State being closed down and the Industry moving to a focus on fewer but larger Regional Centre operations (Menangle/Goulburn/Bathurst/Newcastle/Tamworth)...trainer/driver numbers, like tracks and foal numbers, are not immune to rationalisation as a result of financial pressures/constraints. How would you like to have another 7000 odd foals across Australia out there looking for someone to shell out their hard earned, a % of those at the sales & others privately, to buy and pay to have trained and subsequently...looking for somewhere to race?
At one stage there not so many years ago we had 16 mares. We saw the writing on the wall and to remain a part of the Industry we loved so much we cut our cloth to suit the returns, we're back to 5 now, probably drop one more off/not replace her over the next few years.
It is what it is, the basic financial fundamentals of remaining part of the show are what they are.
Even now the Australian & NZ Breeding Industries produce more foals each year than there are Owners out there who are willing to shell out to buy, train and race.
Hand in hand with the above...the lack of Owners is in now way assisted by the really spineless efforts of recent times that have occurred on behalf of a great many Trainers. These are blokes who are at the coal face and who, despite being much more aware than most of the shrinking pool of Owners out there and becoming aware of the Owner pool dwindling much sooner than anyone else, still steadfastly refuse to put their hands into their own pockets and own shares in the horses that they train. They are of course more than happy to fire off their monthly accounts... but as far as sharing even a part of the risk they expect their Owners to take on...by and large they are notably gun shy.
If a Trainer doesn't show some faith in their own Industry, faith in their own product, faith in that which puts food on their table by way of taking a piece of each horse than enters their stable...it's more than a bit rich for them to nevertheless expect Owners to do so.
There are some VERY notable exceptions of course...however they are unfortunately very few and far between.
Interestingly those few and far between Trainers are often more successful than most BUT also inexplicably critiqued by their contemporaries...often whilst said critics stand at the bar at the Yearling Sales, a can of Jimmy in hand and waiting, like a Venus Fly Trap...for some poor unsuspecting bastard to wander by and drop a horse or two into their lap.
All this makes me think of a short story. In response to a journalist suggesting he had been lucky throughout his career, the late, great 5 time Little Brown Jug winning Trainer, Billy Haughton was quoted as saying "The harder I work, the luckier I get". That's been used many times by many different people...but always to the same end. We all need to take a leaf out of Billy's book.
A good many people in this very much loved Industry of ours simply need to quit their bitching and moaning and groaning, pick their battles and otherwise just get on with it. There are a dozen or more things that I would change if I could. I would fight 20 battles plus a day if I had the time & the inclination. I like a good old stoush more than most & way more than I should. I have found one thing to be true however. There's more than one way to skin a cat. If you want to kick the chairs out from under those you believe to be cheating, very little is to be gained by running the Industry down here in a public forum. You need to be a little bit more creative.
What so agreeing with someone's post is being a smartarse Kevin. On Jamie's last post he is right we don't need to breed three times more horses than we need. Kevin and patrica if you are so concerned about horse numbers bred now(we don't need them to get much lower) can you do some research and find out what the hell happened to all the foals we bred 20 years ago when we had a third of the racing,for god sake we didn't even race through the winter.
A number of posts have been deleted lately from this thread. In the majority of cases they are simply irrelevant to the thread topic in its widest sense whilst others are simply attacks upon other posters. As kev said this is not the way the forum is supposed to work. Can we please get back to some mature discussion or has this thread past its "Use by date".
Also the forum is not running popularity polls at this time. Posts that simply and solely suggest someone has posted a good thread is hardly adding to the value of the discussion especially when the "good post" is in itself not relevant to the topic per say. We have a thread open for all the miscellaneous posts or if you want to start a new topic then feel free. With these options available it's unnecessary to sidetrack issues.
Tony I don't know if this belongs on this thread but by what you've said in your previous thread it not okay to like or dislike someone else's post but it okay to defame and accuse certain newcastle trainers of being drug cheats,which in turn is the reason prize money is stagnating. (by the way I don't know a Newcastle trainer). I find it quite sad when people write and slander people on social media with no proof ,but as soon as the posters that won't to be positive about our sport we get our posts deleted