Maybe I'm smoking my socks????

Wonderful Tangles - A perfect example of what a large group of punters probably feel. You are fortunate enough to have access to technology and this forum to air your views. Imagine how thousands of voiceless others feel

You know the irony of the crying about bookmakers is Bettingworld - Lets use the excuse of bookmakers stealing punting rands then advertise Bettingworld - SA's largest bookmaker????????????????

What am I missing?

The operators have a product which they get for free from the owners,they also have the punter who they think are mugs and who are so desperate that they will punt on two flies running down a wall There main objective is to get the punters money out of their pockets and into the totes.Even this they cannot achieve and they wonder why and scratch their heads in dismay ,losing revenue and interest to other forms of gambling,and people are gambling the worse the economy the more we gamble.PLEASE GET WITH THE PROGRAM,OFFER A DECENT SERVICE

The shareholders and the price of the share is there only concern,local racing is like a dead weight like a ball and chain attached to their leg,we cannot have accountants running racing,and i have nothing against them we do need them but thats why most people think that its a boring job because one of the only thing that gets their pulse rate going is the bottom line

Sabre I might have mixed parastal and monopoly (Eskom is an example of both) but you understood where I was going.

Oh absolutely. I'm no fan of monopolies, just dislike government more, a lot more.

probably the wrong place to post this but i like this thread

An extract from the Greg Blank profile on SP


What ideas do you have to compete with casinos? Obviously, if we could combine with casinos would be great. But, they have the edge on us in terms of customer care. There is no customer care in horse racing. For all the money that I spend with Phumelela I hardly get anything back. If I had to spend half that money with casinos, I would be getting free holidays and other stuff. The casino’s put time, effort and money into nurturing their good patrons. From my experience Phumelela are shocking with their customer care.

hibernia Wrote:

---

> probably the wrong place to post this but i like
> this thread
>
> An extract from the Greg Blank profile on SP
>
>
> What ideas do you have to compete with casinos?
> Obviously, if we could combine with casinos would
> be great. But, they have the edge on us in terms
> of customer care. There is no customer care in
> horse racing. For all the money that I spend with
> Phumelela I hardly get anything back. If I had to
> spend half that money with casinos, I would be
> getting free holidays and other stuff. The
> casino’s put time, effort and money into
> nurturing their good patrons. From my experience
> Phumelela are shocking with their customer care.


Old news hey, 99% of us (except Titch) have been saying that for years..()

Some great posts here. Just wish you'd given the topic a more appropriate title, Tommy, because you're definitely not smoking your socks.

Wish I could contribute to a greater extent, but my wings were once clipped by the then head of P - who laughed all the way to the bank when he retired - when I once ventured to offer some mild, constructive criticism, in print. My then 20 year career as a racing administrator practically blew up in my face.

It's ironic, though, that what seems to be emerging is the advocation of a management system which harks back to the days of the racing clubs, when there were no shareholders to answer to and when a very healthy sense of competition between the various racing clubs prevailed. Let's give credit where it's due - a great deal has been accomplished in turning The Big T (a description coined by the late Sandy Christie, who was a stickler for perfection, even to running his hand across the tops of the toilet partitions in the then Silver Ring, to check for dust, on his Saturday morning tour of inspection) into a pleasant and modern racing venue. The problem is that racing has become such a nepotistic pursuit, preaching soley to the converted (though well done to Robert Garner and his team for getting a front page picture of Europa Point into this morning's Citizen) that nobody seems to know about the pleasures which can be derived from participation.

From a betting point of view racing faces a fierce uphill battle to stay afloat and that very real threat exists that Escalado horses (remember them?) might replace the real thing. But if the Racing Association (or the Racing Trust - whoever the responsibility rests with) would only get off its butt and establish a PR arm for the sport of racing, there might still be a chance of survival. For goodness sake; get out there and tell people what horse racing is all about. It's terrific that Clyde Basel and his team have got many more young people coming to the course for the big events - and especially young Black people. They want somewhere they can go to show off their bling. But I'll bet most of them don't even have a bet on the horses when they do go to the track and wouldn't know a forelock from a fetlock. Educate, dammit. Spend some money teaching them how things work. Show them what a great heritage racing has had, over the years, and how it has developed alongside the great history of this potentially fantastic country of ours. Tell them how Black jockeys were the heroes of early Cape racing. Encourage them to get involved in ownership syndicates, but try not to teach them the gracious art of losing before they experience the thrill of winning.

There are just so many initiatives to be explored. Let's find some new Marina Maponyas to stand alongside Mary Slack in the winner's box. And let's thank God that racing still has people with the passion and foresight of Mary Slack, and journalists of the calibre and enthusiasm of Robyn Louw, to drive it forward.

You are correct James, the title does not befit the content of the posts here and thanks for another excellent contribution.

The real, but ignored danger to horse racing is that the very methods that have been used to finance our sport is being hijacked.

Soon, the majority owner of the tote will be a company whose first responsibility is to their shareholders and their responsibility to the sport will reside in a contractual financial split. In the mean time, the tote is developing soccer and other sports that will dwarf horse racing very soon. Already the role out of totes is catering to positions that work for soccer.

Somehow, the management of horse racing has made a concerted effort to turn players away from bookmakers. Well, the fact is that many bookmaking venues are now only offering horse racing as an after thought. In fact, there are bookmakers who do not offer horse racing at all.

As far as I can see, is that the demise of the racing club, where those clubs were groups of people with the interests of racing at heart, has left racing without a voice or a direction. At one time, people with large investments in the sport also contributed to the direction of the sport of horse racing. Now, a horse racing enthusiast should wonder that if a decision has to be made about horse racing, whether the outcome will be for the soccer, or for the horse race.

So I wonder, will horse racing survive as although the people who started it did it at their own expense an built it to what it eventually became, it might now only be allowed to exist while it makes a buck, and something else that makes a bigger buck may take its spot at the trough.

Took me a while to read this thread but very worth it!

Racing is lucky to have some very staunch supporters both from a punting and ownership viewpoint. If that were not the case it woulda gone bung a few years ago. The real problem they face is that the support is definitely not from youngsters so the medium to long term viability is suspect. The authorities running the industry have made NO attempt of any real value to keep their current supporters happy nor to attract new customers. The share dividend paid year after year is their only focus whilst they milk the poor old cow to death.

Talk about strangling the goose that lays the golden eggs...this will go down as a business school case study of note!

I wonder why is it that ppl form queues for lotto tickets when the odds of winning a pick6 are a fraction of winning a lotto jackpot. Could it be lack of education or perceptions of crookedness. horse racing is perceived to be for the 'connected' and everyone else is just loser. 9/10 ppl who don't bet on horses will tell you that the game is crooked/ results are fixed. what does horse racing do to dispel that perception...??? same faces on the stage on big race days does not help either.......