Whilst travelling the country doing photofinish work at various New Zealand race tracks I tend to often stop along the way and check out the second hand shops for old racing books.

Over the last few months I've found a number of books that I have duplicate copies of but I have bought these in case any others might be interested in them. The books include many collectors items and some rare and unobtainable items.

If you are doing a bit of late Christmas shopping for someone interested in New Zealand racing you should check out a new book written by Charlotte Dawson called Winners Circle.

The book focuses on the thrills and glamor of horse racing and shows how to become involved in ownership or breeding and highlights the experiences of owners, breeders and trainers.

Winners Circle begins with a look the yearling sales at Karaka and goes right through to the stars of last season's Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch Cup Carnivals.

Winners Circle is available at a reduced price of $25.00 and can be obtained from :
Winners Circle Publishing Ltd
PO Box 37-147 Parnell
Auckland

or

Ph 0800 242474 or email annie@winnerscircle.co.nz

When you look back through contemporary Australian music you find that you keep coming back to four young people from Melbourne who called themselves The Seekers.

Judith Durham, Keith Potger, Athol Guy and Bruce Woodley began life as a folk and gospel group and worked their way to England singing on a cruise ship. When they got there they appeared on BBC TV's 'Tonight Show' and within six weeks were on televisions prestigious 'Sunday Night at the Palladium' show.

The Seekers teamed up with Tim Springfield, brother of Dusty, who wrote many memorable songs for them including their first UK number 1 hit 'I'll Never Find Another You'. The song, recorded at Abbey Road in glorious 2 track mono,went to number one all around the world and was The Seekers made history by becoming the first Australian band to crack the US charts (number 3).

He's been to Hell and back has Meat Loaf, and some would say, he took a few of us with him.

The former 150 kg rocker has trimmed down to a nearly respectable 110 kg, had a nervous breakdown, bankruptcy, divorce and pretty well everything else along the way.

Not that you'd know it from his Sunday night concert at Western Springs.

From the opening song  Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back) from Bat II to the closing bars of the encore Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf and band, with the Auckland Philharmonia thrown in for good measure, took the sell out crowd on a journey through 25 years on rock history.

On February 14th 2004 David Bowie played a concert at The Caketin in Wellington as part of his Reality Tour.

I went.

The support act was Brook Fraser who's old man used to play for the All Blacks so she gets a leg in to the big time.

She's probably OK, but as any support act will tell you, you don't get the full PA, you don't get the lights and you don't get the anything more than polite applause.

9.00 pm, it's starts persisting down - the storm that flooded the bottom half of the North Island had begun.

There's no big screen, but there's a huge stage backdrop that is an enormous LCD screen and it's awesome. It's dark now, it's raining, we all know the bands about to start playing and then we hear the opening notes of Rebel Rebel.

Out Now

Featuring The Smash Hits of Leo M, Rob MacAnulty, Falcon, Darren Tyquin and more...

Full Track Listing

The high rollers and battlers of the racing game mix and mingle in the 32nd edition of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Annual.

The dominant champion of recent years Sunline is farewelled; Tit For Taat is hailed as the new Horse of the Year; Lance O'Sullivan is applauded for winning his 12th jockey's premiership; a rapidly maturing Michael Walker takes a final apprentice title and records another century of wins.

All the thrills, emotion and glitz of the flat racing season are recorded and steeplechaser Golden Flare emerges with a special place in jumping history.

On the training scene Paul O'Sullivan wins his first solo premiership, Colin Jillings achieves and Ellerslie milestone and Mark Walker leads the way with his two-year-olds.

Over in Australia the Sydney and Adelaide Cups fall to New Zealand horses and transtasman trainer Graeme Rogerson provides a winning Kiwi flavour to the world's richest race for two-year-olds.

As always, the 2003 edition also includes all the vital statistics for the racing purist.

The book is available from leading bookstores or direct from Dave Bradford Publishing Ltd, P.O.Box 11-096, Ellerslie, Auckland, New Zealand email bradford.publishing@xtra.co.nz

Champion horses and champion people abound in this 31st edition of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Annual.

The exploits of Sunline, Ethereal, St Steven, Lance O'Sullivan, Sheila Laxon and Scott Seamer are related in the gripping style which has become synonymous with New Zealand's longest running and most colourful racing book.

It's back.

By popular demand here it is again, even bigger, brighter and better than before.

Due to complex circumstances the plug was pulled on the Harness Racing Annual after the 1994 edition.

The series of Harness Racing Annuals was until then, continuous since 1994, and Ron Bisman has long been associated with it's editorial content. Thankfully he has been levered out of retirement by Alan Meadows, of Meadowset Graphics, and now we can once more enjoy this fabulous resource.

Thankfully the new edition catches up with all the important statistics from 1994 until today so the chain remains unbroken.

The resurrection has been assisted in no small part by Harness Racing New Zealand and a selection of supportive sponsors and advertisers to whom we should all be profoundly grateful.

Not only in this annual will you find a complete rundown of the 1997/98 season, but also concise overviews and the most vital statistics of 1994/95, 1995/96 and 1996/97.

Such important data as the Horse of the Year polls, Group Race winners, premiership leaders, major sales results and the record breakers are all included in this publication.

As in previous editions of the NZ Harness Racing Annual the 1997/98 season is covered in word and illustration in such detail as to provide a comprehensive record of almost everything of significance in relation to the Harness code in New Zealand.

This, in anyone's view, is what constitutes a true "annual". The facts and figures, the horses, the horsemen, the owners, the sales, the administrators and the newsmakers in general.

As always the photographers have produced an outstanding array of illustrations. Positive beyond doubt that one picture is worth a thousand words, I can promise you that this annual surpasses it's previous high standards.

You can obtain your copy of the "Harness Racing Annual 1998" by phoning 0800 Annual.