Topics From The Week

'Winning Ways' was particularly instructive this week with the guests being senior management from Phumelela. Naturally the whole issue of stakes was raised amongst other matters. Although the gentlemen concerned proffered conciliatory responses to the deteriorating earnings/keep aspects of racehorse ownership they certainly surprised me by pointing out that the 'full up' signs were the order of the day regarding the numbers in training. Whether these owners are actually paying is another matter...........

I couldn't help but notice the ''we're amazed' expression that flitted across the face of the speaker when telling us this. Clearly Phumelela need be in no hurry to 'right the stakes ship' when numbers suggest that owners are soldiering on at any price. Insofar as ownership is concerned it certainly pays the operators to adopt a tacit 'divide and rule' approach to owners. The latter are either too busy, too apathetic or simply too unconcerned about the manner in which they subsidise the sport on an INCREASING basis with each passing year to actually do anything about it.

As ridiculous as this next concept might sound : Imagine if everything were linked to stakes : ie wages, keep, vets bills etc. I doubt if any Phumelela manager, vet, trainer or forage merchant has taken a salary cut in the last year.........!

Also mentioned was the rise in sports betting and the expanding role that the tote was playing in this arena. One wonders how long ( if it has not already happened ) it will be before soccer and rugby bodies come knocking for a fee or royalty from the operator for the use of their product for what appears to be Phumelela/Gold's present exclusive benefit.

The programme nevertheless reminded me once again how many misconceptions could be nipped in the bud if the operators took the trouble to regularly communicate with their customer base.

Hey Garrick,i have to pay a license to take soccer bets in the UK,...

I keep bringing these figures up..William Hill stated that horse racing used to make up 90% of their business,now they say it only makes up 30%

was there any talk about the demerger on the programme?

To be fair, there was no representative of Golden Circle on the program, so maybe it was not the place to discuss the merger.

But,......As per normal, no sensitive questions asked - don't rock that boat; I would have thought the following question would be relevant:

What percentage of the pools on foreign racing makes its way to the stakes pot and how does it compare with the percentage of the local racing pools?

They did however mention that they are being held up by the Eastern Cape Gambling Board in their attempts to have only one 'racing centre' in the Eastern Cape and that hopefully they would be able to convince them to remove this 'stumbling block'.

On the positive side, Mr Davis is actively pursuing the installation of a Polytrack at Turrfontein - once the track has been proven at Randjies - wonder what will happen if it proves to be a failure and have a negative effect on the horses - 'sorry boys, but someone had to be the guinea pigs'?

Also no mention made of the status of having racing at Randjies - so all in all a lot of back slapping and not a lot else - just my opinion

Perhaps they should have asked about the enormous rebates given to international players to bet on our tote. So large are the rebates that these players need only break square on their bets to show a huge profit all in. Imagine if the tote offered you 10% back on all your bets at the end of the month ?

Mariner Wrote:

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> Perhaps they should have asked about the enormous
> rebates given to international players to bet on
> our tote. So large are the rebates that these
> players need only break square on their bets to
> show a huge profit all in. Imagine if the tote
> offered you 10% back on all your bets at the end
> of the month ?


Any details? who pays the rebates/countries etc?

In this country the tote gives back certain big punters about 2.5% of turnover by listing them as a tote agent. To lure overseas clients they offered massive rebates on turnover. So these overseas clients can turnover 5 million rand in a month, break square and get a rebate of 500k for example. I suppose we've all prostituted ourselves in business one way or another over the years, so its tough to criticise.