U be the judge

I own and love my mare National Gallery, and admit to being a passionate harness racing breeder and owner. I wear my heart on my sleeve where my " girls " are concerned. On Monday January 23 2012 National Gallery competed in Race 7 Drawn 7 at Geelong Vic. She was $1.40 favourite.
I am upset at the treatment handed out to her by a couple of opposing drivers. She was blocked when making her run and then had another horse gallop in front of her, narrowly avoiding a collision.
In my opinion the Stewards report does not address the tactical blocking by other runners to the $1.40 favourite nor my serious concerns as to the welfare of these valuable mares if this type of tactic is allowed to continue.
The reputation of the industry suffers when this type of activity continues unchecked.
I would be interested in comments from other passionate participants.
The replay of the race can be viewed on harness.org .au under "results " for Jan 23 @ Geelong.

Looked to be taken to the rear by her driver & needed some luck to get past all those other horses.
Congrat's on the win she looks an extremely nice mare.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie

I own and love my mare National Gallery, and admit to being a passionate harness racing breeder and owner. I wear my heart on my sleeve where my " girls " are concerned. On Monday January 23 2012 National Gallery competed in Race 7 Drawn 7 at Geelong Vic. She was $1.40 favourite.
I am upset at the treatment handed out to her by a couple of opposing drivers. She was blocked when making her run and then had another horse gallop in front of her, narrowly avoiding a collision.
In my opinion the Stewards report does not address the tactical blocking by other runners to the $1.40 favourite nor my serious concerns as to the welfare of these valuable mares if this type of tactic is allowed to continue.
The reputation of the industry suffers when this type of activity continues unchecked.
I would be interested in comments from other passionate participants.
The replay of the race can be viewed on harness.org .au under "results " for Jan 23 @ Geelong.

Watched it as clear as the replay could show & im with you Anne,IMO the driver of the horse that gallops in front of you looks to lifts his hands prior to it breaking up, maybe it was going rough but it did not look like it was. IMO they were out to beat you & tried what they could , she was simply better than them. Well done.

Hi Anne, on face value I cannot fault any of the other drivers tactics and your driver did a great job to miss the galloper, keep her balanced and win for you. Nothing in there to suggest anything else but competitive race driving. Lovely mare, good luck with her.

By the by if you ever wanted to query the driving performances of other drivers, check out Newcastle on 2/9/11, R1 No.5, River Valley Romance. You wont believe what the horse had to deal with, the courage it and its driver showed and the injustice it was dished up. Furthermore if you read the stewards report (which I cannot seem to access now) you would die laughing. I let the replay speak for itself.

Hi Anne
I just watched the race a few times , and to be fair i cant see what you are referring to.

Your horse drew wide and was snagged back a the start. Your driver then elected to go 3 wide and other drivers elected to come out in front of you as is their right and as happens in every race every day. Your driver then elected to go 4 and 5 wide as the 3 wide train wasnt going anywhere. Your horse was then way too good.

i think you may be reading too much into things, but maybe you know things I dont!

I have just watched the run of your horse in the race you have concerns with.
I have to agree with ROOSTERS as how the race was run.
I can see no problems at all with how each of the drivers drove their respective horses during the race. The stewards report for the race is IMO accurate to events during the race.
I can see nothing untoward with respect to this race or the relevant Stewards report.
Accordingly I cannot agree with any of your concerns regarding the race at Geelong Race 7 23 january 2012.

Hi Anne. Gee shes a nice mare. Dominant win! Regarding the interference, are you suggesting the stablemates? Do you also own Scottish Glamour?

Quote:

Originally Posted by broncobrad

By the by if you ever wanted to query the driving performances of other drivers, check out Newcastle on 2/9/11, R1 No.5, River Valley Romance. You wont believe what the horse had to deal with, the courage it and its driver showed and the injustice it was dished up. Furthermore if you read the stewards report (which I cannot seem to access now) you would die laughing. I let the replay speak for itself.

I watched this replay and was waiting, other than putting his horse under a bit of pressure to get to the top. Handing up - nothing unusual there... But then at the 500m what the. Hanging out and closing down. Mind you i have been warned about taking inside runs going into a turn. Not making excuses for the driver shifting back down, there is no legitimate excuse for that .

Writing about drivers not respecting others on the track with them, try Race 4 Maitland 7/01/12. Going into the 1st turn. River Valley Romance the offender this time. Whos Escaped on the receiving end.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucky Camilla"s Lovechild

Hi Anne. Gee shes a nice mare. Dominant win! Regarding the interference, are you suggesting the stablemates? Do you also own Scottish Glamour?

I guess I was disappointed that runners pulled out and went nowhere. In my opinion it appeared to be a blocking tactic rather that giving their own horse every chance. They could even have got on the back of the favourite for a trail into the race. And yes, we do own Scottish Glamour.

Quote:

Originally Posted by roosters

Hi Anne
I just watched the race a few times , and to be fair i cant see what you are referring to.

Your horse drew wide and was snagged back a the start. Your driver then elected to go 3 wide and other drivers elected to come out in front of you as is their right and as happens in every race every day. Your driver then elected to go 4 and 5 wide as the 3 wide train wasnt going anywhere. Your horse was then way too good.

i think you may be reading too much into things, but maybe you know things I dont!

Totally agree with this, I saw zero "team driving". The horse that galloped seem to do so of its own accord. First it's head started to bob, race a bit roughly and then gallop when Chris Immediately steered it off the track out of National Gallery's way. If he wanted to interfere with your horse Anne, he would have stayed in the same line and pulled straight back into it.
I did not see driver Chris Alford of the galloping horse "raise his arms" to "cause" it to gallop.

Thanks for posting about your mare, it would be great to get more from owners on here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie

I guess I was disappointed that runners pulled out and went nowhere. In my opinion it appeared to be a blocking tactic rather that giving their own horse every chance. They could even have got on the back of the favourite for a trail into the race. And yes, we do own Scottish Glamour.

Just because you are favourite doesnt mean the rest of the field need to stand aside and just let you do as you please. In a mile race they had to come out in front of you. If they didnt, then questions deserve to be asked by the stewards.

I think you are simply seeing things that just are not there. There are 100's of smelly races. This just isnt one of them

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie

I guess I was disappointed that runners pulled out and went nowhere.

This is frustrating absolutely, But not against the rules.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie

I guess I was disappointed that runners pulled out and went nowhere. In my opinion it appeared to be a blocking tactic rather that giving their own horse every chance. They could even have got on the back of the favourite for a trail into the race. And yes, we do own Scottish Glamour.

Thought so. She beat us at the Ballarat trials last year when the Tubbs had her. I've been following her since.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NormanS

I watched this replay and was waiting, other than putting his horse under a bit of pressure to get to the top. Handing up - nothing unusual there... But then at the 500m what the. Hanging out and closing down. Mind you i have been warned about taking inside runs going into a turn. Not making excuses for the driver shifting back down, there is no legitimate excuse for that .

The driver responsible was suspended.

I'm only six months removed from a three year stint in the States (NY) ... I'm not involved in the industry other than as a fan of the sport. The glaring difference is the professionalism of the drivers. We have great drivers here too but there's way too many bad ones carrying our hard earned. Now I was spoiled, Yonkers mostly and the Meadowlands but if there was races which involved stablemates (not as common) you never saw the kind of tactics you see here. Those guys were out there to win. As professional drivers racing for serious $$$ that was their job. It's so blatantly obvious here, how they get away with it is beyond me. I also don't understand how their owners put up with it.

How many drivers here have agents, getting them drives, doing form etc ?

If the $$$ at Menangle is on the up and up and elsewhere, how long before the number of drivers able to perform at the "top" is restricted. If Melton race on Fridays, why can't Sugar, Lang, Alford, Douglas etc be at Menangle on Saturday and vice versa I guess. Way too much family ties and too many far better drivers not driving enough.

Want to improve the industry, get professional. Up and coming drivers can learn their craft elsewhere.

[

Quote:

QUOTE=Harold Parker;16235]How many drivers here have agents, getting them drives, doing form etc ?

If the $$$ at Menangle is on the up and up and elsewhere, how long before the number of drivers able to perform at the "top" is restricted. If Melton race on Fridays, why can't Sugar, Lang, Alford, Douglas etc be at Menangle on Saturday and vice versa I guess. Way too much family ties and too many far better drivers not driving enough.

Want to improve the industry, get professional. Up and coming drivers can learn their craft elsewhere.[/QUOTE]

Robert the race in question was at Geelong......not Melton, not Menangle and definitley not Yonkers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harold Parker

How many drivers here have agents, getting them drives, doing form etc ?

If the $$$ at Menangle is on the up and up and elsewhere, how long before the number of drivers able to perform at the "top" is restricted. If Melton race on Fridays, why can't Sugar, Lang, Alford, Douglas etc be at Menangle on Saturday and vice versa I guess. Way too much family ties and too many far better drivers not driving enough.

Want to improve the industry, get professional. Up and coming drivers can learn their craft elsewhere.

If you want to kill off harness racing, this is the way to do it. If I am correct in thinking you want a 'bank' of proffesional drivers for the metro tracks, nothing else will develope a culture of 'team driving' than this IMO. The great thing about Australian Harness Racing is that it is not American Harness Racing. And if a driver is deemed to be not up to the standard of metropolitan drivers, we have the stewards to police it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NormanS

Writing about drivers not respecting others on the track with them, try Race 4 Maitland 7/01/12. Going into the 1st turn. River Valley Romance the offender this time. Whos Escaped on the receiving end.

Norman thanks for taking the time to have a look at that race I'd mentioned and Scott you are right in saying the offender was suspended,. What I was trying to point out to Bonnie who felt agrieved at the treatment her horse was allegedly copping, was nothing in respect of what River Valley Romance had to deal with. I don't want to get on here and be picking apart every little thing I see that I think is a bit rough but in this case I have to (and by the way I have no vested interest whatsoever). RVR pushed for the lead unnsuccessfully, tries to slot in 1/1, but the death horse kicks up (twice), holds RVR out and and he eventually rolls to the lead. Then Franco Bulgari who missed the start badly takes off on mission impossible to put more pressure on RVR, so RVR has to take a sit 'cos the speed is unsustainable. Then as you saw, the leader hangs out on final top turn and RVR goes for the run and gets smashed, and with no head-on vision I don't know if there was room or not. But this I do know - death horse compounds badly, stood down 1 trial, Francos' driver gets 14 days and well beaten along with the other leader Goodbye Fella all cricket pitches behind. Those horses odds were 40/1, 105/1 and 114/1. RVR was $2.20 fav and he gave his drive every possible given what he had to endure. The pictures say it all.

Checked out the Maitland race and RVR was the offender this time and Halverson gets 6 weeks. I don't know what was going through his mind but as I pointed out in a previous thread "Times and Margins" the same thing happened out at Parkes twice on 11/1/12. Drivers taking the front legs of horses without sufficient room. As Kevin Newman said ... Cardinal Sin, no excuse, never ever

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harold Parker

How many drivers here have agents, getting them drives, doing form etc ?

If the $$$ at Menangle is on the up and up and elsewhere, how long before the number of drivers able to perform at the "top" is restricted. If Melton race on Fridays, why can't Sugar, Lang, Alford, Douglas etc be at Menangle on Saturday and vice versa I guess. Way too much family ties and too many far better drivers not driving enough.

Want to improve the industry, get professional. Up and coming drivers can learn their craft elsewhere.

Sorry Robert, you are wrong on this one. Take away real competition as it stands and what will be left. A sport without soul. Harness racing endures because of its grassroots base. Look at the crowds that have been turning out in all of the bush cups in recent weeks. That Maitland crowd when McCarthy dominated was massive. These are great social occassions that bring all walks of people to them. The locals like nothing more than trying to beat the city slickers when they bring their stars with them. Friendships and networking develops. There are young reinspersons out there that hone their craft in the bush and refine them in town. There is a place for them. Their hunger and desire is what fuels the sport. Go and have a good look at some of the youngsters. My only problem with them is the stewards need to be tough on them and get the message across that safety is their highest responsibility. They are P-Platers are should be handled accordingly.

And whilst you were talking about competition maybe you could give Coles and Woolworths a call. They have a great business model. Eventually there will only be two horse races and nobody to watch them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by broncobrad

Norman thanks for taking the time ....

No problems, the Fact that it was RVR was what reminded me of the maitland incident. My interpretation of the thread was drivers have to respect everyone else on the track. Be they favourites or not. Yes we do race tighter here than in other parts of the world, but thats still no excuse for taking anothers legs. Sorry if i was going down the wrong path.