Acceptances for Menangle

[racefair]

What are Belinda McCarthy's credentials? Has she trained a winner? How can the owners of these horses have any confidence in her? We heard so many times that Luke's success was due to his horsemanship. Can this be learnt and passed on so quickly? I can recall some guys going on about his knack for identifying horses, driving style etc. etc. If she has similar success, is it due to her horsemanship or something else?

[Greg Hando]

Bindy is a very good horse person in her own right as far as horsemanship goes but training i don't know what experience she may have.

[mightymo]

As far as Sixpence goes, we are contemplating sending her to QLD after Fri night. Previously when she went to QLD she was under the care of John Mccarthy so that is one option. Alternatively, I have horses in Victoria with Maree Caldow in particular, so that is another option.

[gregcattell]

B McCarthy must have training experience to have A Grade trainers licence

[Triple V]

Belinda is indeed a very capable horsewomen, having been around them since way back before she could climb out of her baby pram unassisted. I find it interesting that over the years these sorts of questions were not levelled at other equally capable female trainers such as Crystal Peacock, Susan Hunter, Sonja Mahar, Emma Stewart & Kerry-Anne Turner, all of whom have at one time or another taken over stables of horses from Trainers that had experienced or otherwise were in the process of doing time on the sidelines and all of whom, just like Belinda has done, did so at the time quite legally and at all times within the structure of the rules as they are/were written.
The fact is that all the horses were transferred to Belinda whilst Luke was not in fact disqualified and a reading of the rules mentions transfers from a disqualified trainer only. It is cut & dried in that respect. It may be a technicality but like Geoff Small's nothing short of inspired 'blood is not part of the cardio-vascular system' defence which took the specific wording of a rule to task and beat it...similarly the rules pertaining to transfers also stand applied as written. Before some of you decide to surge forward and shoot the messenger here....ask any half decent legal counsel to read the rules, they will tell you exactly the same. Whether ethically/morally/in the spirit of the rule etc. it is subsequently viewed by others as being right, wrong or indifferent....is totally immaterial. Legally at the time it was done it is/was allowable. As much as they might wish they could, HRNSW can't move the goalposts after the ball is kicked.

[Triple V]

......although, despite there being nothing in the National Rules that prevents this, a mate of mine just told me that there's actually something in the NSW 'Local Rules' which pertains to this sort of situation & might prevent it? The plot thickens. Am waiting for it to be e-mailed to me.

[Triple V]

...and here it is. Sorry, tried to cut & paste but the font is all stuffed up.
From the looks of it, NSW 'Local Rule' 636 ? for anyone who can look it up + HRA Rule 259 (i) also???

This one's right up VOR's alley...if he can tear himself away from the Shek Ki Superb Roasted Pigeon at Fat Siu Lau's.

NB. Just edited 251 (i) to 259 (i) ...as 251 (i) is to do with being drunk.
259 is the applicable one apparently.
Will go have a look at them anyway.

[broncobrad]

IMO he is just unlucky getting this positive.
The trainers job is to win? To do this they must walk a line and always push the limits. What is the big deal, it's not like he was fixing race's with the stewards.

Is this the most idiotic comment ever posted???

What jurisdiction do you operate in? Tombstone ??

You are asking us to accept the lesser of two evils. I am happy for Wyatt to clean up both evils and apply his own brand of justice.

[aussiebreno]

...and here it is. Sorry, tried to cut & paste but the font is all stuffed up.
From the looks of it, NSW 'Local Rule' 636 ? for anyone who can look it up + HRA Rule 259 (i) also???

This one's right up VOR's alley...if he can tear himself away from the Shek Ki Superb Roasted Pigeon at Fat Siu Lau's.

NB. Just edited 251 (i) to 259 (i) ...as 251 (i) is to do with being drunk.
259 is the applicable one apparently.
Will go have a look at them anyway.

Does 251 (i) also apply to posters on this forum

[Triple V]

jamie, i don't know a lot about the other partners that you mentioned and so it's difficult to make comment. Luke was getting horses from very experienced trainers such as heath, day etc. How could an owner expect belinda to do a better job than these trainers?
[vvv] geeze, i'm not going to buy into that one jett. i'm usually not at all adverse to firing in my two bob's worth but forgive me this time around as that's a 24 carat gold ome in spinner /does my arse look fat in these jeans style question. I'm on a hiding to nothing whatever i say in reply. all i will say is that i've known belinda & her family since she was a very young kid & i was still at school and i also know neil and lizzy. I greatly respect all of them as horsemen/horsewomen and as people in general.

if these owners were to be consistent then they would move them on from belinda who doesn't have a record or the skills and capabilities of these guys. . .that's unless there are other things at play in the mccarthy business that extend beyond general conditioning.
[vvv] is that a wind up or do you honestly think that belinda is just some dipsy bird who sits back and drinks cups of tea and plays with the baby and reads the women's weekly all day whilst all around her the business of running a racing stable occurs? Gimme a break. She no more sits back and watches the world go by than her mother has ever done with the day to day running of golden gait stud or than anne hancock ever did when brian's stable was at the height of its powers. Behind every successful man there's a women holding it all together. Lynne fitzpatrick is the same for paul. Maree caldow the same for john. Don't sell those harness racing ladies short mate. They're more often than not the ones holding it all together both in the foreground and in the background.

the performance of these horses over the coming weeks will provide for some interesting analysis.
[vvv] that's a very reasonable thing to be watching. No doubt you will not be alone in your vigil.

1. If belinda retains them. . My forecast would be that they perform to a similar level even though belinda doesn't have luke's skills or capabilities.
If this is the case, then it might suggest that luke's incredible results are due to things beyond that training alone. A point that not many can accept.
2. The horses move stable.. My forecast is that they will go backwards and the pundits will come out with some garbage that it's due to lukes facilities, scales, professionalism etc. Or something to that effect.

[vvv] in your eagerness to bag what you perceive to be belinda's compartive horsemenship capabilities...like many others you have roared right on by the the single biggest loss to that stable right now. it will not be belinda training them instead of luke that will make the difference to their results. Rather it will be the very significant loss of luke also driving them. Matt rue is an excellent driver, so don't get me wrong there, i'd put him up in a heartbeat...but he can of course only drive one horse at a time & quite often they had a couple to go in each race, luke on 1, matt on the other. Luke's services in the bike will be sorely missed i would expect.

so then if luke moved them to belinda's name ahead of time he was managing his risk around losing his license. Nothing wrong with that. . He's just too smart for everybody in this game.
[vvv] there is absolutely no requirement upon participants to read the rules any more no any less harshly than word for word exactly as they are written. the rules are the rules are the rules are the rules....and they are to be observed by participants as written and to be enforced by regulatory in the same manner.
it wasn't so long ago that the rules pertaining to another area were written in such a way as to allow a smart lionel hutz style law talkin' guy to get geoff small out from under a pretty fair charge by way of simply deliniating the blood system from the cardiovascular system, a successful defence which saw the wording of the rule changed.
in the same way that you only find out how good your insurance policy is when you make a claim, you only find out how good the rules of harness racing are when they're challenged. Rightly or wrongly, depending on your point of view, i expect this will be challenged. It might sound a bit odd right now...but even this, as unfortunate as it is...it will in fact amount to progress in the longer term just as the wording of the cardiovascular/blood system rules were changed so future lionel hutz's couldn't skip out via the same door.

vvv