Insider trading continues unabated

Mac wrote: Guys, trainers don't really know. If they did they would be driving Ferrari's and sipping umbrella cocktails with trophy girlfriends. What trainers do know is that the condition of their horses' bones, muscles and teeth appear to be good. They can tell you if their horses are eating well and seem happy.

MdK said Alboran Sea would much prefer 1200m. That 1000m performance was the best I have seen for a long time.

...what they do know though is that a horse that wins its best races over 2400m should not be entered in a 1000m race when it returns from a rest - That's if you read the Rules and apply them

The Jockey club of today are a far cry from the days of yore :lol:

When was the last time a trainer got his horse suspended for inconsistent running? Has it happened in the last decade? I agree with Neigh, the Jockey club are a bunch of toothless useless

When it comes to form information more trainers should embrace technology which is easy to use and easy to set up.

I see that not many local trainers have Twitter accounts, and those that do aren't exactly active users either. I used to follow as many as I could but if none of them post then what's the point.

A short tweet in real time done from the training track about a horse running a few days later would go a long way to helping out the horse's backers and followers.

That would help to get rid of any 'surprises'...

true Rob, South AFrica is behind in the use of modern social technology. Much can be achieved in the way information flows by adopting this approach - by using it responsibly.

I have a facebook page which anyone can read I think? It has my comments on all my runners.

Problem with facebook pages are if you have a lot of active FB friends you will miss posts from pages

Same happens on Twitter , if your not active at the right time you never notice posts and tweets

With websites you always know where to find them

Don wrote: horses can't be fit and at peak for every race they run, and most are being pointed towards some feature and have the leading up races running at below peak. So, the gallop story within reason, I can understand. Most punters can work this out for themselves surely?

Don, you seem a very decent and reasonable person so I am going to write this confident in the (hoping!! lol) knowledge that you will take it the right way I am not having a dig, just trying to emphasise my point as best I can.

Don, if you think the way the quoted post sounds then you will struggle with the "Rush" concept imho. There is a huge difference between a punter, say me, and someone with a sound knowledge of racing, say many on here I study a card. I take that card for granted and that all horses will be trying to win the particular race in which they are participating. Very few punters have, or want to make, the time and/or racing knowledge to look for ulterior motives in a race which may affect performance.

Now, being a regular punter I know it happens but, using the prep for other races as an example, it is not something I ever look at. I don't even really think about it (Carter R10 today for example). What I generally will look at is a trainer's comments and that is why the likes of the Shams, LG, Craig, Ziets, Alexanders, Mike Bass, Joey Ramsden etc are absolutely invaluable. They say, for example, a horse will need the run I take it and put a line through the horse. Or is a prep run. Or will perform better over this d. Etc. Thank you very much, hugely appreciated and helpful. My God, it can save a lot of time let alone money! I accept they will not get it right all the time but they do get it right close on all the time. A comment on tv 3 minutes before a race starts is no help at all!

Too frequently those with a good knowledge of racing assume a punter understands and can function around what the former considers to be the basics. We most definitely can not. We want all the necessary information easily available to us and right in our faces, we then feel it is us against the puzzle and there you have it, your punter is in the making. That will not happen if someone is told they have to look in 10 different places for relevant info, then make assumptions as to which horses will try to win and which will just be a waste of money etc.

"Rush" is simply 99% certain to fail unless there is a radically different approach which takes the above on board and fundamental changes are made. Make it easy and people might come but, right now, there seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding of this. And, as an aside, you do not attract young people to racing by doing an advert showing 5 (?) men of 50 (?) years plus telling you something is a "rush". Get DJ Rap Man to do it and you might grab their attention a little more lol

I do not want to write an essay, or a bigger one lol, so I am hoping that is more than enough to make my point. I have said before so many times, racing will die without complete transparency, it may die anyway but at least if it is transparent then it has something of a fighting chance.

Oh PS. Stables Smith, Greeff, Bremner, Snaith, L Erasmus etc etc etc get a punter friendly website or just take 5 minutes to post on ABC or you are helping to kill the "sport" you seemingly love. Racing Authorities... be open and honest in all things. explain, listen, investigate, take action, discuss/debate etc or you are helping to kill the "sport" you seemingly love.

Wow, sorry guys, I sure can waffle on sometimes...

Craig...your FB page is certainly up-to-date. However, I have found that quite a few local ( KZN ) trainers were/are on Twitter but never go/went on it and used it.

I used to follow two but gave up a long time ago.

websites mostly have run of the mill comments and with twitter your followers will need you to be more informative

Well put Englander....

On a local ( KZN ) note maybe GC could show more initiative.

I receive a txt msg from them before each KZN meeting showing me their selection for the day and a recommended PA. Who knows where they pick these selections from ? It could be the tea lady for all I know.

So.........why not use the same tech ( ie a mobile phone ) and dispatch a staff member to the training tracks ( I know for instance that Sheldon Peters is at Summerveld quite a few mornings ) and get them to have a quick chat to any available ( and willing ) trainers about their upcoming runners' chances and this information can be easily tweeted or FB'd...

To the expected riposte that it's too expensive/can't be done yada yada yada...well the tech is available and it's done in other countries...

Colors... not being rude bud but it is exactly that type of post in response which gets us nowhere. Get a website or websites going and then you push for better info rather than run of the mill stuff. Steps bud steps. You can't start from a pessimistic outlook. And... rather the type of run of the mill stuff the mentioned sites/people give than nowt, I find them all very helpful.

with due respect guys 90 percent of the punting population haven't got access to all these wonderful social media, laptops etc ..the blame lies squarely on the operators who have journalists who are to fcuking lazy to get to training centres or at the very least pick up the phone and contact trainers jockeys etc..this information can be made available through the most popular and most used raceguide THE DAILY NEWSPAPERS and if the punter cant afford it it is put up on the wall in the tab outlets..then you can have an email base a cell phone base that it can be sent to punters directly and put up on all the social media outlets...you see when I brought this up a few years ago the answer I got was some of my owners want to get on first so its a bad idea ...this trainer has about 12 winners a year ... until vee moodley and his crew realise that we have to go the hong kong route the local turnover on horseracing will continue to have negative growth and stakes will remain the same ...it isn't rocket science