Calling Dave Scott and Others

Dave,

Thank you for sending me that email i am going to post it below if that is ok because i would like to use it to illustrate a point. If you feel that it is wrong to post it then delete it.

"Good afternoon Sloop/Easy

Just wanted to say I seen your post on freeracer and was dying to go to the Arc, but it was just a bit heavy financially from SA.
I do have it on my bucket list for next year and after reading your post, will have to give it priority.
We did have a great time at Kempton on Boxing Day in the Betfair box when Kauto won and at Cheltenham when it did not.

However I will be the big 60 next October and your post has probably convinced me its the place to go

txs

Dave Scott"

I copied and pasted this email because i think that we really need to look at the bigger picture in SA and often the bigger picture requires a bit of a "baby step"

I find it mind boggling that a piece that i wrote from the heart with a few spelling mistakes (as i do) made it into Dave Scotts brain and has inspired him to go the most wonderful racing experience i have ever had and feel it for himself.

Wether Charl/Steve/Dave/Larry/Brett M or anyone else cares or not racing is bigger than all of us BUT it is also what BROUGHT us together.

Come on all you fuckers ask yourself the following question how many of your current list of friends you met through racing?
Be honest and write down 20 memorable things in your life from the last 10 years and have a look at how many are racing related?

Racing is me and i am racing. I dont need approval from Markus Jooste or Phumelela, nor do i give a continental fuck about the new ATC bet.

NOTHING ZERO FUCKALL NADA will ever stop me loving this sport, Loving the competitors both animal and human, loving the dynamics.

GUYS of it was not for racing we would all be on a different forum? maybe talking about fishing or trainspotting FUCK that !!,i would rather be here talking about a sport that has been part of my life for 33 years, 33 years man that is a long time. I am sure its the same time for Charl and Dave and Steve and tom and dick and harry, damm it the names DONT matter. Its the bigger picture boys and its the small steps that will take us there.

If i can by writing a few words inspire Dave to got to Longchamp next year imagine what all of us clever okes could do. We could all inspire 1 person to go racing that would be great. Then irrespective of what the "others" did to "ruin" our sport we could one day die knowing that we passed on something that will in turn be passed on to others.

Dave I dont have any beef with you, i like Charl and i like Steve and his site. I also like ABC BUT I LOVE racing and i am extremely glad that you are going to the Prix De L'Arc De Triomphe next year. I to will be there, with my same friends hopefully but my girlfriend will also be there and if our IVF is succesful then our newborn will also be there because there is no greater sport and i found the greatest stage.Enjoy it, i did.

So i summary Racing SA/The RA/Phumelela and GC could and should be doing more for racing. Sacking Julie for showing emotion was a SIN. How do we topple them? Well we do it 1 small step at a time, and that step is done by intriducing new peolpe. We do it from INSIDE, slowly quietly. Why, its obvious why? We will always be there for racing, all racing folk if they really care will continue. If they cut stakes by 75% tomorrow there would still be horse racing. It would be a catastrphe but it would survvie and the bastards that enforced that 75% cut would eventually be outed and WE will rebuild again.

@easy:

Encore! No convincing....natural and from the heart!

Yes, the picture may seem bigger with its individual montages...but the total is larger than all of us together!

Morning easy thanks for the post, for your info over the next few weeks we are taking many new faces racing with us and hopefully they will also get the bug.
I must try and get one of the tickets you had for next year or maybe 2 if Magic is coming

good racing!

Sloop nice post .

Common denominator amongst Steve - Jess - Brett - Scotia - Charl

They all love racing . They have different views . THEY ARE DIFFERENT PEOPLE . But the end result is the same . They love the sport and they passionate no doubt about that . I admire people like this .

Getting people to the racetrack is difficult as it is . No more fighting over who is right and who is wrong . You guys are all right just have different approaches . Bury the hatchet and lets work together and forget the past as we all make mistakes at some point in our life . Together you all would be a force to be reckoned with .

Great post easy, you are correct no matter what happens racing will survive. I hope the powers that be read your post

Easy, I've just finished reading Ruffian's biography and thought I'd share a quote I really enjoyed and which more or less sums up my obsession with horses and racing:-

In the end, no matter how astonishing their numbers, great horses were remembered for something more than numbers: It was a feeling that they gave you, a belief in something bigger than yourself. They were a reminder – if only for an instant – that some bright, wordless magic still existed in the world – Jane Schwartz

And a follow up to my little posting above. While standing in the queue at Longchamp after the races Sunday to catch a cab to the airport I/we started chatting to people around us. The Queue BTW as 300m Long and growing. So we had a long wait before our turn arrived. I was chatting to one of the UK's leading Independent Rails Bookmakers. This man has pitches at 9 of the top race courses in the UK and stands shoulder to shoulder with Ladcrookes etc.

The conversation was about the tote Monopoly in France and how it assisted racing in thriving vs the UK model with Bookies and exchanges and a paltry tote. We both put our point s across very well, much like many on this and other forums are doing about various tote bets (atc) and the open bet.

We both stood our ground up to a certain point and then i HIT the front and he had NO come back.
I said to him that the TOTE is good becasue the average man in the street , does not care about tote take out? What % a bookmaker prices up to? What the money goes to? The average man in the street wants to play a little and have the chance to win a lot!!! The TOTE is the only operator that facilitates this. think about how easy it is to explain a PA to a novice or 1st time bettor? Or a trifecta?

I then said to this bookmaker, if the tote in the UK was the ONLY place to bet then our stakes in the UK for a maiden would not be in the region of £1600 for the winner! Which ever way we cut this thing a stronger tote = stronger prizemoney BUT also stronger facilities, free racecards, cheap access to the course and other things that the French have shown me can and do work.

Of course the HKJC have also proven that this system works.

This bloke was silent, then he said to me, "mate i cant argue with you, you make perfect sense. I now see it from the other side"

Guys, money sorts out all problems. We need to grow the tote pools and find a way to get money back into racing from the bookmakers. Pay up or dont offer our sport as a betting medium. Of course some will go underground but that is why the police and the fraud squad exist.

A tote ONLY system is the WAY for SA and the UK. I would not even bat an eyelid if that was the case and they took 40% out of every rand and put the same % as they do now back into racing.

Morning Easy, plenty posted on this subject and as long as the Tote/P ignore their customer, (sorry ex customer) concens it will not happen.