Horrified and stunned. What a brave horse. How on earth she made it home...

Thanks for this and the Mufhasa updates.

Again no intention of watching the race but I did see the saddest picture... a shot of Mufhasa from behind looking a million miles from the rest of the field.

"We got to the half mile (800m) and he was trying to clear his wind. His breathing obviously wasn’t right and he was struggling soon after. There’s a problem, it’s a shame.” - M. Rodd

Okay I have just spent half an hour watching videos of his owners after he won Horse of the Year both times, of some of his wins... need to dry tears and be on with the day. Honest to God he gets me so emotional it is embarrassing. :o

Was looking at the piece on Indikator in the Rotorua Cup in the Informant and had to see who else was nominated (Villifye!) and noticed a familiar name listed in a couple of races including the Rotorua Stakes...

Is Pinzaara gonna run and if so which race?

How exciting!

She'll run in the Rotorua Stakes if she makes the field, but that looks a longshot - she needs four horses to scratch. :(

But it's that race or nothing. She won't run in the other race. If she misses out on this field, she'll wait for another race next weekend.

Well I hope they scratch!

Looks like she's in!!!!!

Wow there are some pretty big names she's up against BUT she has shown how tough she can be... hope she does really well!!!!!!

SO excited for you!

edit - Or maybe she didn't get in (?!).

She didn't, unfortunately. :( It's confusing the way they list the fields on the site. All the horses with (Bx) next to their name need other horses to be scratched to make it in. Only 14 were allowed to run in that race.

But we're trying again this week! The field is nowhere near as tough, but she has a lot of weight on her back this time.

Just looked and wow that is going to be one huge field!

Hope she wins!!!!! :) BEST of luck.

No jockey listed yet... will Sam have the mount?

If you're going (and forgive me for not being able to keep track of which place is near or far) please blow a kiss to Military Move for me (when no one is looking, of course). :D

GOOD LUCK!

Sam was originally going to ride, but the trainer has decided to reduce that big weight a bit by going for a young jockey, Dylan Turner. His weight allowance means she'll only carry 56, instead of 59.

I probably will be going. :)

Hope she wins for you!

Oh my God ed am I reading the live tab results right.... did Belfast Lad really just win? If so that is awesome!!!!!!

Man he has raced so many times I'm almost afraid to look to see how many starts he's had (close to 100?).

Haha, he did win! 11 wins now for him from 93 starts.

Not today for Pinzaara. Time for a well-deserved winter break. Looking forward to seeing her back in a few months.

Well congrats to you for having such a nice horse and cannot wait to see her again after her break. :)

Thanks for the Belfast Lad info. Maybe there is hope for Yin Yang Master yet. :D

Tough field for The Hombre but he seems to do pretty well with Opie onboard.

Will be happy if Postman's Daughter wins this one but oh I hope the big boy does well!

Are you going?

Yep, I was there! Postman's Daughter was amazing - SO easy. Not today for The Hombre. :(

Will check results and watch replay in a bit but happy to hear she won!

Another day for The Hombre.

Oh, and did you see that old Belfast Lad did it again down in Wanganui? :D

Oh my God ed I had no idea! Just watched it and wow that was a super nice win for him, wasn't it?

Looked like someone speeded up the film on Chapinta there at the end and oh I do love that Thorn Prince... what a fun horse to watch.

Belfast Lad though... so happy for him and for his connections. What a nice win that was!

Trying to get caught up somewhat and just read about the hole at Ellerslie.... wow that is weird. Were you there?

So happy to read that Buckles is okay. :)

I wasn't here - had to go in to work. I was horrified to hear about this. It was just so, so lucky that Buckles and Rogan weren't hurt. And how many thousands of horses have run over that patch of grass over the years? Terrifying.

They're saying the hole might have been dug and covered up back in the 1960s - how?! The racetrack's been there since 1874. I don't understand. And how could no one have noticed it? Some people have got some explaining to do.

It's lucky there's no racing there for a few months now - that gives them time to sort this hole out and make sure there are no others like it.

Also, I'm considering getting involved with a small share in another horse. :) This one:
http://nzb.co.nz/sales/pedigree.cfm?sale_id=166&lot=360

Spin 'N Grin was a brilliant filly. I saw her win the G2 Eight Carat at Ellerslie, and she was sensational that day. So she was a favourite of mine. And Darci, of course, is an amazing sire - Artistic, Super Easy, Recite, Nashville...

So I'm very tempted!

EDIT: Aw, the shares have all been sold. :( Disappointing.

Aww sorry about that, ed.

How is Ms. Pinzaara?

Welcome back, Fritzy Boy! Was surprised to see his name in the entries for the weekend.

Pinzaara's still enjoying her winter break. It can only be a couple more weeks before she comes back into training, though. I think Stephen McKee will give us an update soon.

Great to see Fritzy back! But a tough race for him - huge weight on his back, and against some talented horses.

Looking forward to going up to Ruakaka tomorrow. Some really nice fields. It's great to see G2 winner ***** Willow (haha, censored again) back in action, and some horses later in the day have already won impressively during the winter at Ruakaka so far - particularly The Rich Lister and Candle In The Wind. Should be really good.

Aw, Fritzy was so brave, but just too much weight on his back today. But he was close.

Some spectacular performances at Ruakaka today - Candle In The Wind and Zabinella in particular. Amazing efforts by both.

Pretty cool that Zennista won!

Yeah, very cool! Good mare. They're aiming at a similar race in a couple of weeks now - the Grafton Cup.

Mixed feelings about this - http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times...for-Kiwi-champ
I love watching him run when he's at his best, but I really hope they look after him and know when to stop. He's done so much for them already.

Completely agree with you. VERY mixed feelings.

I just heard Bruce Almighty is retired and is now working at Matamata Racecourse as a companion pony. :)

Oh that is awesome!!! So happy to hear it. :)

Bruce winning the Waikato Times Gold Cup at about a million to 1 (30/1?), just because. Hope he enjoys his new career!



Read about Cauthen on the Informant and just watched his win at Te Rapa.... very nice!

Yeah, excellent win. He's heading to Melbourne for the Caulfield Guineas, I think.

For absolutely no reason I was thinking of Coniston Bluebird last night... whatever happened to him?

Ah, one of the weirdest Derby winners ever! His career after the Derby reads 17:0-0-0. :zz: He hasn't raced since 3 Dec 2011, so I guess he's been retired now.

Oh my God I had no idea he didn't win again!

Yeah I remember how really surprised, to use a nice word :D, you were after that one!

Haha, definitely. Of the 17 Derby winners I can remember seeing, I'd rate him... 17th best.

Look who's back this weekend! http://www.nzracing.co.nz/News/8933/...t-Ruakaka.aspx

I was thinking about going. That news made the decision a whole lot easier.

Oh! :tro: :cool: I don't know I was so surprised to see his name but I was!

Wish I were going!

It would be great to see him win. But it's a nice field, and he's going to have to carry 64kg! :eek: That's 141 pounds.

Oh wow that is crazy!

You know how much I love this horse and I know you do too but wow Pus$y Willow with MDP up is a scary thought!

(Scary good!).

I remember reading something about Rogan Norvall last year (around the time he was coming back from his injuries) and could have sworn he said that a. Veyron is his favorite horses (awww) and b. that Veyron has taken Sir Slicks place now as the peoples champion.

Is he that popular a horse in NZ? I hope so!

I think that's probably true, yeah.

His connections are so likeable and hard-working, and they hadn't really had that much success before Veyron came along. I don't think there's anyone in NZ racing who isn't happy for them. And they've taken such good care of the horse as well, which is always so good to see. He probably hasn't captured the attention of the mainstream public yet, the way Seachange, Xcellent, Jimmy Choux and especially Sunline did, but all the racing fans adore him.

Couple of really nicely bred 2yos running at Ruakaka on Saturday too. All Decked Out is the son of Diamond Deck, who's a three-quarter sister to Lonhro. And Diamond Deck was pretty good herself despite her career being cut short by injury, winning the G3 Gold Trail Stakes.

And Big Voices is a half-sister to stakes winner Mygoodgrace, who I always really liked.

Thanks for that. I hadn't heard any of these names before.

Have a fantastic time!

All Decked Out was impressive!

Just too much weight on Veyron's back today. But he tried hard and should improve next time.

Saw this on Facebook today...

Awwww what a sweet picture! So glad you posted it. She looks good. :)



Sad about Dancing Chief.

I did watch All Decked Outs race... very nice.

Nice winner in Veyron's race (I just blanked out... Alergio?) and yes too much weight. He broke nicely but just looked like he was getting tired.

Read about the incident at Wanganui and wow... amazed that everyone lived through that.

What's next? Any good races coming up next weekend?