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Columnists, Features, Louis Goosen NEWS

A worrying state of affairs!

Published by charl on June 23, 2009

COLUMNIST Louis Goosen paints a worrying picture of the present state of racing and in this, his latest edition of “What’s The Story”, accuses racing’s administrators of being “inept and arrogant”.

The changes to the Vaal’s sand track are farcical and have resulted in the going being the worst in the history of the track. Just a few millimetres of rain resulted in last week’s sand meeting being abandoned after the third race.

Racing is in crisis and it’s not the state of the going that has created this crisis. In fact, it would be a huge relief if this was the main problem facing our beloved industry. But, it’s the Vaal Sand which highlights the type of inept and arrogant management which runs the racing side of the industry. They will do anything other than the right thing, it seems, as soon as there is effort and money involved.

The biggest problem facing owners and trainers right now, are the costs of keeping racehorses versus the returns. Whilst we all know that racing is not an investment and that there are no guarantees, the fact of the matter at present is that when owners are lucky enough to crack a competitive racehorse, racing opportunities are few and far between.

Nothing is more frustrating than your horse being extremely well and running a close up 2nd or 3rd, only to find that the next available race over a similar course, distance and class is some two months away.

The fundamental principle here, is that racing as we know it, must be run independently from Phumela Gaming and Leisure (PGL’s) other interests, by passionate specialists in the field.

It is quite obvious that PGL’s current management structures just cannot do the job. Under this management racing is continually being diluted resulting in racing shrinking and sinking very quickly, into obscurity. The racing industry as we know it is going and will soon be gone, or at best, be a shadow of its former glory.

Whilst upper management are focusing on betting turnovers and overseas markets, the local product is in trouble. For example, 4 years ago, we had 182 meetings for the year in Gauteng. These included Bloemfontein. When Bloem was closed in 2005, we were promised that the Bloem meetings would be held at Vaal. This promise, as with many others made by PGL, was broken.

In 2008, we had 126 meetings in Gauteng. In 2009, we had 128 meetings. That is a reduction in racing opportunities of 54 race meetings, about 488 races or nearly 7000 runs for horses. This represents a 30% reduction in racing opportunities.

And if the above is not enough, the field sizes have reduced. Vaal Sand 1200m races have only 12 runners, maximum. Vaal Sand 1450 has only 14. Vaal Turf Inner and Outer, due to the division of the straight, are now limited to 14 runners over 1000m races and 12 runners over 1200m races.

Turffontein’s Inner Course is limited to 14 runners over 1000m races and 12 runners over 1200m races. These field size reductions further complicate matters, making it virtually impossible to stay in racing, for the normal majority of owners and trainers.

The bottom line is that good horses will always make it, even though limited racing opportunities result in quite some difficulty when it comes to placing them correctly, timeously and beneficially in terms of racing and weights and taking them through the divisions, as such.

As for the bad horses, well it’s time to take stock and retire them. But, which horses are the “bad” ones? We must be very careful not to fall into the hole dug by Racing’s management, whereby any horse which is not catered for, is declared as being “bad”. The simple rule here must be supply and demand. We must evaluate the horses in training and then decide which levels we cater for, because we cannot simply eliminate large numbers of horses for the sake of pleasing Racing’s incompetent management.

These horses belong to owners. These are the horses that we have bred in SA and which owners have gone out and purchased and then paid training fees for.

I assembled and studied the figures of all horses in Gauteng, which have been nominated since January 2009, together with their merit rating categories and the numbers and percentages of each group.

The figures show that the two biggest groups of horses in training are those merit rated 64 to 68 and 59 to 63, which each add up to 14% of horses in Gauteng racing, a total of 28%. When you spread a merit rated 68 race, the bottom weight of 52kg equals a merit rating of 52. Add the 11% of horses merit rated 54 to 58 and you now have a total of 9% of all Gauteng horses being within the realms of merit rated 68 races.

The twist comes when you review the racing programme.

During the 3 month period of May, June and July, some 257 races were programmed for Gauteng. Only 24 races were programmed as being MR68 and below, over all distances. This results in only 9.3% of races programmed for 39% of the racing population, whilst the remaining 61% of Racing’s population receive 90.7% of the races.

PGL’s racing management will tell you that the above figures are distorted simply because most of the abovementioned group in the MR 68 category could run in the MR 72 or divided handicaps, which split downwards at acceptances. What they won’t tell you is that class counts and the higher the class, the more difficult the race. And when they make this statement, they must not forget to add the 12% of horses which are merit rated from 69 to 73.

Now, they are talking about 51% of Gauteng horses…

The above highlights why a large percentage of Gauteng’s owners are being neglected. Surely, the cost of owning these racehorses is now just not worth the trouble. Again, we are not talking about horses which should not be in racing. These are real horses which are in training, being paid for by their owners, whose only sins were to invest in the sport of kings, after reading a multitude of promising adverts from TBA and its breeders.

This is why we declare that owning a racehorse is more expensive now than ever before in the history of racing. And this has nothing to do with the world’s economic crisis, recession or inflation. The average competitive horse, which should cost about R5000, now costs some R10000 per month to keep. This is due to a vast reduction in racing and stakes earning opportunities and this again is due to the inefficient management of PGL’s racing department. The old saying, “time is money” quickly becomes a reality when your ready to run racehorse is eliminated or not catered for or stands in his stable, receiving top class food, water and care.

Holy Kimberley

And should Gauteng trainers/ owners decide to nominate their MR68 horses in Kimberley in order to keep them racing and earning, they find themselves somewhere between a rock and a hard place. Kimberley trainers are afforded protection akin to that which was last seen when PW was waving his finger and crossing the rubicon.

Owners are forced to sever ties with their Gauteng based trainer simply because every Kimberley trainer has the privilege of having two guaranteed runners in each race, irrespective of merit rating. Only after Kimberley trainers have declared their runners, may Gauteng based runners be accepted into any Kimberley race. The Kimberley based horse, with a paltry 35 MR is guaranteed a run ahead of the Gauteng based horse, merit rated at 68 in a MR 68 race! Very few Gauteng horses get into Kimberley races. This is not seen by most, as they are eliminated before the racecard is printed.

This results in a scenario which really hurts and compromises owners, trainers and indeed, racing - 39% of horses in Gauteng are poorly catered for in Gauteng. Should their trainers nominate in Kimberley, to race for half the stakes, they have little chance of getting in. Racing is compromised by this situation, simply because it is nonsensical in racing and handicapping terms to allow a MR 40 horse to get into a race ahead of a MR 68 horse when the race is a MR 68 handicap race. This is fraud and unfair practice, surely.

The Kimberley issue of guaranteed runners is in an advanced stage of going to Court and the less said on the matter, the better, as by time of publishing this article, the matter could already have become sub judicae. For the record, the plaintiffs will be The Vaal Trainers Club and I am personally involved, together with many owners and trainers. Any and all additional support from owners and trainers is welcome, as the RA Directors are currently sitting on the fence, because they have a Chapter in Kimberley…. Pity that fairness, free enterprise, logic, legality and prejudice are not higher up on their agenda….

There are a host of other problems facing racing and these will definitely be highlighted in this series on racing. Two examples are the appalling state of the Vaal Racecourse, with everything rusting and falling to pieces and the brilliant decision to close the totes at 5:30pm in order to save on staff overtimes, even whilst the ever intrusive overseas racing is taking place on Tellytrack………supposedly creating turnover.

Whilst you may feel obligated to point out that there is a world economic crisis and we must slow down on spending and sit tight, there may just be others who will question the decision to spend more than R40 million on lights at Turffontein and an extra R80 000 per night meeting, in terms of operating costs, just so that we can stage 15 night meetings per season.

PGL must be congratulated for keeping their heads above water. Their business interests are diverse. However the foundation or core industry, the one that put them there and the one that brings punters in, is racing, here at home, at grassroot level.

The problems of racing in S.A under PGL appear to stem solely from the racing department’s management structures. There is an imbalance, with too much emphasis and authority from the financial side and no real balance on the sales and marketing side.

Having said the above, it must be noted that excellent efforts are being made by the Racing Association. The Jockey’s International and the new parade ring at Turffontein are just two RA initiatives that readily spring to mind, whilst not forgetting the regular communications from RA, together with their top class facilities and regular after-race meeting socials. Without their efforts, we would have none of these.

In contrast, the PGL racing boys see only the bottom line and nothing else. 14 runners is the best field size for optimum turnover. That’s why there are reserve runners, it suits their bottom line. But this simply means that those horses as well as others, were accepted to run, but never got the run. There were eliminations. Horses never got in. They stand in their stables on racedays, whilst their owners pay the keep.

The Virgin Group is an excellent comparison. Surrounded by financial genius, Richard Branson remains the leader, the icon and arguably as admired and well known worldwide as our own Madiba, albeit for different reasons. The financial boys in the Virgin Group are unknown and in the background.

In terms of PGL’s racing department, then, we shouldn’t even know who the financial boys are. We should be familiar with the marketing man, who would be our icon, our Branson, the one who has a plan to increase turnovers, to make racing the showpiece it should be. At present, PGL is being run by the financial boys, it appears, simply because the marketing man, the passionate leader of racing, has not yet stood up and been noticed.

The only reason racing has survived is simply because of the rich resources and history which PGL took over, from the outset. Just imagine what Branson would do with this industry, which even has its very own TV channel! There would be an increase in overtimes for tote staff, they would certainly never have to close at 5:30pm….More like 24 hour totes with an additional drive thru facility! And just like the Virgin Group, every single division of the brand will be built up, nurtured and developed. SA Racing would never be diminished, diluted or degraded. It would be paramount, the customer would be king and turnovers would be increased.

There can be no doubt that a top class marketing man could do much more for racing with the R40 million, not forgetting the extra running costs of R80 000 per night meeting. And the marketing man would surely have canvassed all role players and punters first, before spending this exorbitant amount of money on lights and night racing.

Clyde Basel’s recent job hop to PGL from Racing Association is actually a heavy blow to racing operations. As I understand it, Clyde will be out there selling and marketing. He will be trying to sell Turffontein’s name to Coca Cola, so that we can have ‘Coca Cola Turffontein’. Apparently, some of this turnover will come into the stakes pot. He is not going to specifically market racing to the public and he is not going to specifically develop turnover nor is he going to enhance the racing portfolio as such. Moreover, he is not an executive director of PGL and the imbalance, therefore, will still exist. What we have is R40 million set aside for lights and we don’t have 1 litre of paint to tidy up rusted railings and poles, we have starting stalls waiting for ‘quotes’ to be repaired, since February and many other minor but essential projects turned down, as these are ‘not in the budget.’

Those are all racing related problems. Probably the time has come for PGL to concentrate on their vast array of other interests and to hand the racing department over to the racing people, to be run by racing people who are passionate about racing and who understand the game, at all levels.

This is why Clyde Basel’s exodus into asset sales is a blow to racing. The RA, who are elected by owners and who protect the interests of owners should be running the entire racing process. And Clyde with his wealth of racing experience and knowledge would be the key person in this regard, as would Larry Wainstein. Both men are so passionate about racing that they are always refreshing and exciting to deal with, which is completely the opposite of when you deal with PGL’s racing men, who, in turn, seem morbid and entirely controlled by figures and finances and bottom lines.

With racing in the hands of the actual role players, the next step would be to put a proper, no nonsense 5 year marketing plan into action, specifically for racing. And then racing will survive because there will be a balance! But, until then, we will fight on.

That’s the story… from the heart.

Headline photo:

About 30 000 vehicles pass this sign board on the highway past Vaal on a daily basis. What an image!
I submitted this photo to PGL’s racing management in January. The sign board still looks the same…

LOUIS GOOSEN’S ‘WHAT’S THE STORY’ IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY FOURIE’S SPORTING CLUB, BEST PRICES, BEST SERVICE. TRY US!

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH OF PHUMELELA RESPONDS TO LOUIS GOOSEN: Click here.