What a joke!! Eliminating raiding horse because they are too good for the Kzn bunch!! Really...that is exactly the reason South Africa is going down the drain real fast! Why the heck do owners keep racing horses who finish nearer to last than first anyway! Some horses are just not good enough or dont have the will to race, so surely the trainer must tell the owner that the horse is no good instead of "protecting" the owner just for the sake of having a horse running! Unfortunately this rule is going to result in Kzn racing standards going for a ball of shite! Utterely ridiculous! What is happening to the once proud sport of kings in this country!!!
I don't believe in protecting KZN but sometimes we don't look at what is right in front of us.
Are there no MR 74 races in JHB & CPT? So the raiding trainers horses are not good enough for their own centres?
The CPT trainers can't fill their own fields but want to raid low MR races in PE & kzn? Makes sense, we all want race horses to end up in a choice of 5 yards.....
So in effect PE should have a card full of horses raiding from CPT and the PE trainers should raid Kimberley.
Interesting listening to a top 10 trainer this am saying he has nothing against this and agreed that without your smaller owner and trainer racing will collapse as it is in Cape Town he said. Losing a small trainer there every few months. You have 5/6 trainers with 100-200 horses and don't want to run horses against each other therefore small fields. That is where the problem lies when you take away the smaller guys. Anyway not going into another conversation about this, I know what I know is right but interesting to see that a top guy sees it the same way. He sees the bigger picture in my eyes.
Craig we will agree to disagree on this. If racing moderate horses in a protected environment will keep some trainers in business, well who am I to say you are short sighted? A question I do have regarding all these mules racing - how are the owners in terms of paying their bills? How many "deals" have been done, and how many of thes mules are replaced on a regular basis by the owners?
OTA, one thing about smaller owners is that most love their 1-2 horses and pay to have them looked after well. I am not saying that big owners don't but when you have 10/ 20+ then you don't have the personal contact that a small owner and trainer has with a particular horse and I have got some owners with 20% or so that are the first to pay. I know some very big owners with some trainers who are really battling because they haven't been paid. Do you want to get rid of this smaller owner who maybe has a mr 60 that they bred/ bought and still want to race. Get rid of them and they are far less likely to come back. Racing has to have smaller owners and trainers.
Craig, whilst we disagree, u do have very good reasoning in your argument. I suppose the question is about the programme and have a fund to split oversubscribed races. Based upon the number of noms there, you should always have full fields and reserves.
Interesting fact is that up here in Gauteng we only have about 40 horses rated above 92. The vast majority are rated lower than 72....
One thing that does effect this debate is the fact that good horses are better for turnover than weak horses . That's been proven time after time. And turnover pays stakes. But, like u say, it's the Owners prerogative if he wants to purservere with a weak horse. I just don't understand why that weak horse needs protection.....
You are correct though. If we get rid of the weak horses, there won't be racing.....
So its a 50/50 debate. ....
The following user(s) said Thank You: Craig Eudey, Pirhobeta
Louis,at a quick glance through it only affects 48 races until the end of the year. Not a huge amount. My biggest worry is losing the small owner and trainer. This game and animals we love will go too. Most smaller KZN owners don't want to race anywhere else but here. I am sure the same for you up there. Remember in the old days(and is this a reason for the change/regression some call it in racing these days?) you could only have 40 boxes each in Summerveld. I don't know but racing was thriving with many trainers( UK style :lol: ) but no other gambling. Difficult
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