Yeah, extremely careless. Hopefully he'll learn from that.

I had such a fun day at the Avondale trials today! Beautifully sunny day, and I can walk there from where I live. Viadana, Brave Centaur, O'Marilyn, Little Wonder and Prince Mambo all ran really nice trials, and there were some impressive efforts from younger horses as well. Exciting time of year. :)

How awesome! I would be thrilled to see those horses in person!

Ed I've been wanting to ask your thoughts on the whole David Walker debacle but wasn't sure if that would be appropriate or not with your new position.

Anyway would love to hear how it's all going over over there... if you cannot or don't want to comment I understand!

It's a terrible thing to do if the allegations are proven - grossly unfair on the owners and trainers of the horses he rode.

But I also don't like the head to head bet. It can be exploited in the way Walker allegedly did, and it could also lead to horses being pushed and ridden aggressively even when they're tired and out of contention in a race.

In more positive news, the first 3yo stakes races of the season on Saturday!

Nice fields. I'm going to be closely watching Niki Piki Milo and Avisto in the Fillies Stakes and Eletist, Hilarious Honour and Bel Sorriso in the Guineas.

But I'll be working at Ellerslie on Saturday - the big jumping races there. Not a huge fan of jumps, but there are some other nice races on the card there too.

Thanks for your insight re the jockey stuff and yea, there are indeed (some nice fields on Saturday). I will weep tears of joy if Postman's Daughter wins!

Rising Romance on Saturday... :)

http://www.racingandsports.com.au/en...&meeting=47087

Finally catching up... nice to see that both Fix and Weissmuller won. :)

I see that Wattle Bay is back (on Wednesday).Been a long time now... had he been injured? Any idea?

Great performances by both. So happy to see Fix back in top form. Very nice stakes win by Avisto as well.

That's a good question about Wattle Bay! Hasn't raced since October last year. I'll see what I can find out. :)

Some wonderful names in action on Saturday - Puccini, Vespa, Antonio Lombardo, Albany Reunion, Little Wonder, Prince Mambo.

Spring is in the air. :)

Thanks in advance for anything you happened to hear or see on Wattle Bay. :)

Just great fields, as usual, and I love Puccini and Sangster and half that very large field to death but you know who I'm excited about? Miss Selby.

That was a really nice win last week, wasn't it?

Will you be going this weekend?

Nice to read about the good trials for both Bounding and Veyron. :{>:

Yeah, that was a wonderful win by Miss Selby. She looks like she's bigger and better as a four-year-old! Definitely a big rival for Puccini on Saturday.

I'll probably go up to Ruakaka on Saturday. I've actually got the day off work, but I'm excited about seeing that 3yo race.

It sounds like Wattle Bay may have been sidelined with an injury, but I'm not sure exactly what it was. He's about to make his comeback now - tough field, with El Pescado in there! But he's got some respect at 16-1.

Nice run by Wattle Bay! He should improve on that too.

Aaah, El Pescado lost his undefeated record by a nose! And he ran such a great race too. :( But that was a really good run by the winner as well, and they were way ahead of the rest.

Aaagh God that was sooo close!

... and yes, what a nice run from Wattle Bay. :) Glad he's back.

A shame reading about Danny Holidays Ekraar filly on nzracing... :(

PUCCINI!!!!!

That was awesome! So happy to see him looking great again. Disappointing run from Miss Selby and geez I do wish Sangster would win one!

Meant to tell you how much I enjoyed your Wee Biskit piece... just thought it was really nicely done. :)

Not to be too impatient or anything but when do we get he field for the Windsor Park Plate? Cannot wait for that one.

Have only watched the Puccini replay but looking forward to Vespa et al.

Yeah, so good to see Puccini back! And lovely wins by Vespa and Moozoon.

Great to hear that Puccini is staying in NZ for another race before Melbourne - the Livamol (Spring) Classic. :)

Windsor Park Plate fields will come out two days from now. Can't wait!

We have Hastings fields! Another terrific line-up for the Windsor Park Plate:



Also a great field for the G3 Gold Trail, featuring the return of O'Marilyn...


Also Blizzard and Addictive Habit (unlikely to run in the Windsor Park Plate) clash in the Classic Prelude, and Bounding makes her comeback in the Winning Edge Cup! :D

Oh my God I cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, a 7 year ban...

http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/jockey...ars-2014091910

It's a big sentence. I do feel a bit sorry for him, because apparently he has financial trouble, but it was a really terrible thing to do. I guess they're using him as an example to discourage others from doing anything like it ever again.

O'Marilyn! WOW. :eek:

That was the best performance by a 3yo in NZ so far this season, and by a long way.

Very nice from Darci's Dream at Riccarton. She's a lot better than I thought she was!

Pure Champion!

Ed I am so confused... I want to watch this one first but what's up with the replays? They appear fine for the first 4 races and it's like they cease to exist. :confused:

That's not good! Annoying. Hopefully the rest will be put up soon.

I hope so. You know where you click on the results for a specific race and it says overview / dividends / video? Strange how the video part is completely missing!

I did just watch O'Marilyn and WOW. :) That was a gutsy ride from Sam!

Also watched Darci's Dream and a few others (was going to say Chumana's race but I suppose I should remember it from the winner, Victoryshallbemine, instead of her awesome blaze, huh? :D ).

Surprised to see Amun Ra running against older horses at Matamata but maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Hope he does well. I really do hope he ends up being all that!

That is a bit surprising, but when I talked to the trainer last week he said he needed to give the horse another run before the Hawke's Bay Guineas on October 4 - his plans were messed around by the cancellation of the trials last week.

The rest of the replays seem to be there now. :)

They are and thanks. Watched most of them... beautiful win by Pure Champion and, of course, I Do was great but that was really nice to see Soriano with such a great run (too)!

Lovely fields for the 3yo stakes races at Ellerslie on Saturday! I just hope the track dries out a bit.

Looks like fun!

Great noms for the Livamol Classic (!!!), just watched the Amun Ra race (which I really should call Busta's race... nice win for him. Disappointed though although he did break awkwardly, huh?), shame about Nigelissima... not a career ending injury though, right?

What do you think, ed... has Veyron had enough now? Starting to wonder... :confused:

I'm starting to wonder too. I'll give him one more chance to prove he's still got it.

Nigelissima will be fine. :) Just a pulled muscle.

Exciting photo finish in the first of the day at Ellerslie! Six lengths back to third.

Whoa, Avisto and Volkstok'n'barrell were so impressive today. Especially Volkstok.

I just watched that one... VERY nice!

Also just read your piece in the Informant and am so happy there are big plans for Soriano especially!

http://www.theinformant.co.nz/racing...or-Classic-bid

(Noms for the Livamol are crazy good)!

Almost had a heart attack cause when I looked at the NZ Racing site and seeing a Sangster win pic! I mean that was a truly nice 2nd behind The Cleaner on Friday night but I thought well wait did he go home and race again already (and win!)?! :D

Ha, I noticed that as well! But that was a really nice race for him behind The Cleaner. I hope he does win another one soon.

Wow, I'm getting to write about so many great horses in my preview articles for this week's newspaper - Puccini, Stratocaster, Fix, Silent Achiever, Bounding... I can't believe I'm getting paid to do it!

Aw. :(

http://www.theinformant.co.nz/racing...lined-by-virus

It was nice to be the first one to report this, but I wish it hadn't happened. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

I continue to read your stuff (and smile when I see your name) all the time. I'm so happy for you.

Great job (always). Your passion and enthusiasm shine through. :)

(... and yeah that is a shame about Albany Reunion. Get better!).

Opie... what on earth is going on? I was surprised to read about his... do we call it a break?

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm not sure about this break for Opie either. He's done it a couple of times before, said he might not be back and then come back a few months later. But that was always in the winter, when it was harder to keep his weight down and the racing wasn't that good anyway. This a bit different. But I hope we see him again soon.

Arrived at the track. :) It's freezing! But a beautiful sunny day.