Feel free to use this thread to discuss this weekends racing, provide tips etc...

Race 6 - Lexus Newmarket Handicap (1200 METRES)
Of $1,000,000.1st $600,000, 2nd $180,000, 3rd $90,000, 4th $45,000, 5th $25,000, 6th $20,000, 7th $20,000, 8th $20,000 GROUP 1
Handicap, Minimum Weight 46kg, Maidens at time of entry are ineligible, Apprentices cannot claim.

Field Limit: 24
01 MOMENT OF CHANGE 58kg
02 LANKAN RUPEE 56.5kg
03 SAMAREADY 56kg
04 SHAMEXPRESS 56kg
05 FONTELINA 55.5kg
06 SPIRIT OF BOOM 55.5kg
07 AERONAUTICAL 53.5kg
08 GENERAL TRUCE 53.5kg
09 ARINOSA 53kg
10 PAGO ROCK 53kg
11 UNPRETENTIOUS 53kg
12 KNOYDART 52.5kg
13 ADAMANTIUM19 52kg
14 AFRICAN PULSE 52kg
15 ALBRECHT 52kg
16 EMMALENE 52kg
17 FLAMBERGE 52kg
18 HAPPY GALAXY 52kg
19 KARACATIS 52kg
20 MISTER MILTON 52kg
21 SHAMAL WIND 52kg
22 BERNABEU 50kg
23 BOUND FOR EARTH 50kg
24 BRILLIANT BISC 50kg
25 FAST ’N’ ROCKING 50kg
26 GREGERS 50kg
27 ICONIC 50kg
28 LION OF BELFORT 50kg
29 SIDESTEP 50kg
30 THERMAL CURRENT 50kg
31 VA PENSIERO 50kg


Looking forward to this race big time, this is going to be a proper old school Newmarket.

I'm on Adamantium @ $151.00, and Shamal Wind @ $21.00.

Leave me out of the favs.

Study: Internet Trolls Are Also Terrible In Real Life;

Internet trolls and video game griefers are just as broken in real life as you've always suspected, according to a new psychology paper by Canadian researchers. It turns out that the same folks who love to disrupt online conversations for the "lulz" are likely to also exhibit some pretty nasty personality traits in general.

Two online studies led by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba established "strong positive associations" between "online commenting frequency, trolling enjoyment, and troll identity, pointing to a common construct underlying the measures," the researchers wrote in an abstract of their paper.

The upshot was that although Internet trolls are a small minority of overall Internet participants, those respondents to the team's surveys who self-identified as enjoying disrupting online communities also scored highly in the "Dark Tetrad" of personality traits, the researchers found.

"[T]rolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, using both enjoyment ratings and identity scores," they wrote. Which is to say, the respondents who identified themselves as trolls also indicated that they enjoy making others suffer, lack remorse and empathy, and have no problem with manipulating and lying to people to achieve their ends.

Online Trolling Dark Tetrad

The fourth trait of the Dark Tetrad is narcissism, which was also displayed in buckets by respondents who cited "trolling" as their favorite activity when commenting online, as indicated in the graph at right.

Slate's Chris Mooney, who dissected the study last week, noted that the authors "found that the relationship between sadism and trolling was the strongest, and that indeed, sadists appear to troll because they find it pleasurable."

Indeed, as the abstract notes:

"Of all personality measures, sadism showed the most robust associations with trolling and, importantly, the relationship was specific to trolling behavior. Enjoyment of other online activities, such as chatting and debating, was unrelated to sadism. Thus cyber-trolling appears to be an Internet manifestation of everyday sadism."

The good news is that really dedicated trolls appear to be fairly uncommon in the online world, at least in terms of their numbers if not their output. As Mooney noted, the researchers found that just 58.7 percent of survey respondents who said they used the Internet also indicated that they commented in online forums. Of those, just 5.6 percent said they enjoyed trolling.

Still, the fact that even that small number of people self-identified as trolls is pretty disturbing, when you consider the survey hoops they had to jump through to convince the researchers they were dead serious about how much they loved being despicable jerks on the Internet.

Here are some of the questions asked by Buckels and her colleagues in their Global Assessment of Internet Trolling, or GAIT survey tool for identifying the truly trollish, as cited by Slate:

I have sent people to shock websites for the lulz.
I like to troll people in forums or the comments section of websites.
I enjoy griefing other players in multiplayer games.
The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt.

So can anything be done about the troll problem? Short of eliminating commenting and other forms of interactive participation with users, which some websites have done, there really isn't much that can be done, according to Buckels.

"Because the behaviors are intrinsically motivating for sadists, comment moderators will likely have a difficult time curbing trolling with punishments (e.g., banning users)," Slate quoted her as saying. "Ultimately, the allure of trolling may be too strong for sadists, who presumably have limited opportunities to express their sadistic interests in a socially-desirable manner."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2453609,00.asp


For more info, on how to Be a Jerk on a forum, see below...

Not long now, the black is swelling with horses, the weather has been atrocious for the last month and plenty of meetings lost, but our passion has not wavered..

let's relive last years festival highlights..

http://youtu.be/SAYA1sWHPz4

got any mail Patsy..??

Who wants to go first..?

I'm all ears..

Race 6 - 4:30PM VILLIERS STAKES (1550 METRES)
Of $175,000.1st $105,000, 2nd $35,000, 3rd $17,500, 4th $8,750, 5th $3,500, 6th $1,750, 7th $1,750, 8th $1,750, Starter Subsidy $200 GROUP 2
Quality, Minimum Weight 53kg, Three-Years-Old and Upwards, Apprentices cannot claim.


1-1203151246 COUP AY TEE (NZ) Chris Waller Jason Collett 5 59kg 103
2-11124x023x WESTERN SYMBOL (NZ) Gai Waterhouse Tommy Berry 13 59kg 103
3-420x068653 ALMA’S FURY Paul Murray Blake Shinn 4 58kg 101
4-6442115x77 DESTINY’S KISS Joseph Pride Christian Reith 7 56kg 97
5-305313x625 SAID COM (NZ) Chris Waller Hugh Bowman 2 55.5kg 96
6-2305x077x8 MONTON Ron Quinton 1 55kg 95
7-70503x1389 STRIKE THE STARS (NZ) Anthony Cummings Glyn Schofield 6 55kg 95
8-12205x5210 NINTH LEGION Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes Peter Robl 11 54.5kg 94
9-6519x03974 SCREAM MACHINE Jason Coyle Adam Hyeronimus 14 54.5kg 94
10-4386013812 LISTEN SON Tony Gollan Ms Kathy O’Hara 3 54kg 93
11-3x2163x313 SYSMO (FR) Tony McEvoy James McDonald 9 54kg 93
12-53731x4032 TAXMEIFYOUCAN Gregory Hickman Tim Clark 8 53kg 90
13-x39316x056 LIMES Peter Snowden 10 53kg 87
14-332731x511 ABSALON Sam Kavanagh Brenton Avdulla 12 53kg 86

Looks an ok race this year, not flashy but looks like it's worth looking for value..

I've liked Ninth Legion this prep, did my money cold on him last start where he was never a hope with being locked away and blocked for running, start prior was much more how he is really progressing, don't think the 1550m is a problem for him as he was strong on the line last start. He is $10 & $3.65 on 365 and that represents excellent ew value imo

Only 2 horses have raced on the Kenso here before..
Western Symbol - 1 start for 1 win
Monton - 1 start for 1 win

not sure there is anything in that but might pay to keep one of them in your multiples.

Taxmeifyoucan looks a nice ruffy for multi's also...I say ruffy because in my ratings he is a 15-1 shot but markets have him around $7, I expect he will drift out to $12 by jump time.

Like Safeguard and Jaquinot bay in the last..
Pleiades in race 5
And I think we will finally see a return to the winners enclosure for Maluckyday in race 4, expect he will be much closer to the pace tomorrow in a small field.

anyone like anything else this weekend, it's traditionally a good weekend for the punt with a lot of people enjoying the weather, cricket etc...

happy puntin'

These are my selections for today..even though I generally don't like betting there, today looks a good un'


race1) PSYCHOLOGIST
race2) PENGLAI XIANZI
race3) LET ME GO
race4) SEISMOS
race5) LORD KANALOA***
race6) BEAUTY FLAME
race7) MOONLIGHT CLOUD
race8) MILITARY ATTACK
race9) CANNY FRANCO
race10) CAPE CANAVERAL

I think Lord Kanaloa just wins, barrier not that big a worry, there are some B graders in the race and he should still be too good imo.

Loving this on this site, some of the video's are excellent, the trick tracks: Taunton is awesome.

well done R&S great stuff.

http://www.racingandsports.tv/tricky-tracks-taunton-v-N2Q#.Upk7ZI2Kwxw

enjoy..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNfmmaTZlWU

2013 Japan Cup (G1) - preview
15 Nov 2013 | Japan Racing Association
The 33rd Japan Cup looks like it will produce another winner from the home team for the eighth straight year with just three ageing horses from overseas – who have just one win among them this season – set to enter in the Japan Racing Association's international showpiece.

Last season's Japan Cup – the JRA's richest race with a purse of 521 million yen, of which 250 million yen goes to the winner – pitted then reigning JRA Horse of the Year Orfevre against French filly Solemia in a rematch of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The year before, the Japan Cup featured another Arc winner in Danedream, who was coming off victory at Longchamp in record time.

But to the disappointment of Japanese fans hoping for a firsthand look at world-class competition, the upcoming Japan Cup on Nov. 24 at Tokyo Racecourse managed to only draw a pair of Irish-bred 6-year-olds in Joshua Tree and Simenon, and 7-year-old Dunaden of France. Of the three, only Joshua Tree – who ran to 10th place in the 2010 Japan Cup and lagged way behind Orfevre and this year's Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) champion Kizuna in this year's Arc at 13th – has won in 2013, the Oct. 27 Canadian International at Woodbine.

The foreign trio will have its work cut out against a strong group of 19 local nominations, including defending champion Gentildonna, four-time Grade 1 titlist Gold Ship as well as Tenno Sho (Autumn) and Japanese Derby winner Eishin Flash. While the popular Orfevre and Kizuna have opted to pass on the Japan Cup to focus on their recovery from the Arc, the domestic contingency should still be a tall order for Joshua Tree, Simenon and Dunaden.

They will be counted on to break a long dry spell in the 2,400-meter Japan Cup for the visitors, who last won in 2005 when the Lanfranco Dettori-ridden Alkaased shattered the race record that still stands at 2 minutes, 22.1 seconds. Before that, Falbrav was the most recent winner from abroad in 2002 with Pilsudski scoring in 1997. A total of 14 foreign horses have lifted the Japan Cup in the race's history, but a bulk of those victories came in the early years, when Japanese-bred horses were still struggling to hold their own against their counterparts from around the world.

As winner of the Canadian International, Joshua Tree is eligible for an 80 million yen winning bonus in the Japan Cup. Among the expected full field of 18, he is the only one to qualify for a bonus.

The JRA created the Japan Cup in 1981, driven by the goal to raise the level of Japanese racing to world-class standards. The Japan Cup has always been held in late November over 12 furlongs at the Fuchu track, apart from 2002 when it was run at Nakayama due to renovation work at Tokyo. Along with the Arima Kinen (the Grand Prix), the two Tenno Sho races and the Triple Crown series, the Japan Cup remains one of the highlights on the JRA calendar, having brought to the country many of the biggest names in world racing - both human and equine.

The inaugural Japan Cup was open to only horses from North America and Asia before Europe and Oceania joined the guest list the following year. In 1992, the Japan Cup became the JRA's first Grade 1 race approved by the International Cataloguing Standards and from 1999 to 2005, it was a part of the Emirates World Racing Championship, then the game's preeminent global tour.

With a thin foreign contingency and Orfevre, Kizuna and last month's fall Tenno Sho champion Just a Way absent, all eyes will be on 2012 Horse of the Year Gentildonna and her 4-year-old rival Gold Ship.

Filly's Triple Crown champion Gentildonna was nothing short of superb last season, winning six of seven starts as she became the first 3-year-old filly to win the Japan Cup and was named the year's top thoroughbred. The Deep Impact daughter, however, has yet to win this season, having raced only three times – starting with the March 30 Dubai Sheema Classic (second), June 23 Takarazuka Kinen (third) and the Oct. 27 Tenno Sho (Autumn), in which she finished a distant second to Just a Way who will not run in the Japan Cup.

Gentildonna won't have the 4 kg allowance she enjoyed as a 3-year-old filly a year ago but at 55 kg, the weight assignment shouldn't deter her from running her best race. While the Sei Ishizaka-trained filly went under the wire four lengths behind Just a Way in the Tenno Sho (Autumn), she did it under a load of 56 kg, traveling in second position to Tokei Halo who set a frenetic pace on the tough going and wound up 10th. Daiwa Falcon, Red Spada and Danon Ballade trailed Gentildonna, but were fried and finished 15th through 17th in order.

After three consecutive defeats, the reins have been passed on from long-time chief jockey Yasunari Iwata to Ryan Moore, who won the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in 2010 and 2011 in Japan aboard Snow Fairy. Moore will have the monumental task of not only trying to guide Gentildonna to her first victory of the season as the expected first choice, but also in making her the first repeat winner of the Japan Cup.

Gold Ship hammered Gentildonna in their only meeting to date in this year's Takarazuka Kinen, when the colt won by more than three lengths. The Stay Gold son tripped up in his first start of the autumn, the Oct. 6 Kyoto Daishoten where he finished fifth, but his trainer Naosuke Sugai isn't concerned about his shape for the Japan Cup or for the year-ending Arima Kinen.

“Likes us, this will be Gentildonna's second start of the fall so I'm sure she'll be better than last time,” Sugai said of the filly who placed third in the Takarazuka Kinen. “There will be horses from abroad this time, as well as other Grade 1 winners in Japan. We'll find out soon enough where we are at the moment, but we're looking forward to it.”

Six-year-old Eishin Flash could steal the show from the aforementioned two, being in the most consistent form of his career. This season, the Hideaki Fujiwara-trained horse was third in the Tenno Sho (Autumn), the Grade 2 Sankei Osaka Hai and the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong, and won the Mainichi Okan.

Tokyo Racecourse boasts the best and largest facilities of the 10 JRA venues. The track was originally built in 1933 and since then, has been transformed into a state-of-the-art home to Japan's most prestigious races including the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), Yasuda Kinen, Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) and the Tenno Sho (Autumn).

The oval occupies an area of nearly 200 acres and measures just short of 2,120 meters in circumference. The left-handed track undulates throughout, with a gentle downward slope along the backstretch followed by more ups and downs going into the final bend. The home stretch spanning more than half a kilometer is truly punishing, with the course rising 2 meters over the last 140 meters.