it would not be hearsay proving the lack of security at training centres
it would not be hearsay proving the poor state of the greyville turf track and offering an outside unbiased solution
it would not be hearsay proving the lack of security at training centres
it would not be hearsay proving the poor state of the greyville turf track and offering an outside unbiased solution
Dilligaf
Security is a huge issue. We cannot expect the rest of the Country to be crime ridden and that same criminals will not migrate to racing, where huge money is involved. Easy knows the inside story of what happened to Trip Tease going into the Computaform. He was out here in SA at the time. And during same trip.....He was also let into Summerveld when the Trainer or Assistant were not there....He owns some horses stabled there...
Bottom line - if you want to be competitive in Racing, make sure your security is top class. ...
At present, my 42u IT cabinet and contents therein, which stands in my office , costs about R200k. That's DEALER Price, because i am one, with my other company specialising in the field of electronic security.
Further, we as an industry cannot be lulled into believing that all is well , playing our fiddles, whilst Rome burns. Sure, the majority of horses can cope with a poor racing surface. However, there are those runners that cannot. The bottom line remains that we must remain objective and that we must make improvements where necessary. We must not regress or stagnate. If it's not right, then we must fix it. Simple.
What I can tell you though, is that racing is a very emotional game. We love horses and we can blow things out of proportion at times, make things seem a lot worse than what they actually are. But, imho, the fact that Snaith horses returned home fine does not make the Greyville Racing surface good.
But, I do believe that GC will definitely make an effort to implement improvements. I am of the unqualified opinion that the type of grass which will knit and grow well enough for Racing at KZN climate and sea level is the needle in the haystack....
It is not my place to have written what i observed in your stable and at summer veld.
What i will say is that IF anyone want to get to a horse they CAN……
My challenge of Sporting Post should not be looked at as something offensive but rather as a challenge for greatness.
Anyways you heard it from Louis here. What you are hearing is how distraught my mate was when his horse was gotten at. How bewildered he was when things just don't add up and how he told me
"watch after i put in cctv how the horses start running well"
Dilligaf
The Operators provide basic Security, such as gate control and a roaming Security guard or two. I think that we cannot expect much more from them. However, we often refer to "the dogs barking" when it comes to first timers etc. Now how can security help u there ? Is this not from your own grooms maybe ?
So I believe that we as Trainers are mutually responsible for Security and controls in our yards. Lets look at a few points -
1 ) When Easy is allowed onto Summerveld whilst the Trainer nor the Assistant is not there, this must be reported and the Trainer must follow it up. It should not happen.
2) However, when a horse like Trip Tease wins the Durban dash in his first run back, receives no injections after the race and then suddenly has a swelling around his jugular vein 3 days before his next final prep run for the Computaform, we are extremely alarmed.
3) We become more than extremely alarmed when this is on the back of 3 months of the worst possible form that the yard can have..
4 ) We go to the greatest aid that any racing person and Trainer can have, Formgrids, to look at our bigger picture. We find that this "virus" only effects our fancied and or form runners....The long shots run as expected. ..
5 ) Bloods are poor but cannot tell us much. We are a yard that has always dealt in and subscribed to a holistic approach to our horses. So we go to quantum physics and analyse individual hair samples in order to identify this "virus". We find traces of benzene in ALL of our main runners. We are concerned that this could be environmental or from our Teff supplier. So we test the rest of the yard, the babies. ....And find NO TRACE of benzene. Still confused, we go to our mate Johan Janse van Vuuren and take samples from 3 of his horses, from 3 different yards of his. NO TRACE of benzine.
So we also take sample from Steve Moffat - NO TRACE of benzene !
6) I am most embarrassed as we are very experienced in the CCTV game, but have not repaired our own system since the lightning strike of December. So no recordings !
7) We pay much higher than the required wage rate of Minister Olifant, dept. Agriculture. We increase again in March. We are paying the highest on average at Vaal. ...yet we have a strike and demands for more....we are taken aback by this sudden development. We had increased our yard size from 32 to 70. We had to employ extra staff. And now the majority are no longer our old tried and trusted. We go through a tough time with staff. Our right hand man of 15 years is threatened to be murdered....The majority of grooms are scared out of their wits but will not talk. ..Welcome to Africa !
8 )We see horses running worse and worse and cannot do anything about it. It's a matter of time before we close shop !
9) We sell my Prado, enlist some super cops who work with the Hawks. First we do some polygraph tests. We identify the groom who held Trip Tease for the injection. Whilst we await the investigating team, 6 grooms suddenly resign/dissappear. ( I offered R10k CASH to anyone who brought in facts in order for us to catch the guy who injected Trip Tease - I actually bring the money I cash and show it to them all - here, it's yours, just come to me privately and tell me who etc. Nothing.
10) Our old, solid grooms suspect the groom who we found guilty on the polygraph. However, they are excluded. They are not "in the loop", so cannot help us. They were threatened with death during the strike. ..
11) The investigating team arrive. Let me put it this way, these guys are all black men, ex SAP, and I definitely would not mess with them..they arrive on the Wednesday. They are thorough and they are not sympathetic. They narrow it down to the same groom who we found on polygraph. But he has run away. We are on his trail, even right now.
12) Strange changes occur. They start investigating on the Wednesday. By the Saturday, I advise Brett Parker to have a bet on his filly Trisha Dupont. She wins well over 2200m. On Tuesday we have 2 winners. All of our tests by the following week show no traces of benzene. ....
13) Easy was out from UK during this time, just before the investigators. I bring him racing. Our first two runners are 16 to 1 and 20 to 1. I tell him that they are quartet bankers. They run 2nd and 3rd. Our next three runners on the day are in single figures and have obvious chances...they run down field. Easy is a very close, old mate. He sees what I am going through. He sees the facts.
14) We upgraded our CCTV system, big time...to say the least. And what happened since all of this ?
- I kept Bonnie Dawn quiet for Mike Whittstock. He got 25 to 1 in the morning. Easy got same for us in UK. She won well.
- We are back to our normal form.
- for example, we labelled Patrina today for places. Mike had a good bet. Even though today was a weak field, how was this form reversal possible ?
I have no reason to lie to you. Everything that I have told u here is true.
The bottom line is that Trainers had better start taking security very seriously !
Because CCTV cameras, connectivity and a proper security plan is definitely the best cure for virus that I have ever seen !
And when we find the groom that held Trip Tease for the injection, we will get to the top...to the guy who injected, then to the guy who supplied the stuff, to the top. And we surely don't need to take prisoners. ...or should we ?
And we WILL find him !
Last edit: 8 years 11 months ago by Bob Brogan.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Craig Eudey, Floyd, LSU
WHEN will a journalist pretend to be a sheiks wife and get into a stable and pretend to inject a horse and thenBLOW the whole lot up????
BTW
one thing Louis forgot to mention……..
When i was there I asked him the following:
J : " why don't you get a sample from your horses and send it to the NHA/NHRA to have it tested and verified"
L: They will NEVER do that"
J: " why tell them the story about T Tease and they must surely help"
L "never , they will suspect that I'm simply using them to ""test"" a new substance I'm administering and that i want to see if it will pass the tests they have in place"
J "FFS so the powers that be can't be asked to assist because they don't trust anyone"
L "what can i say…."
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