in 20yrs will SA racing exist?

Well said Sheza!! Like you, I will continue and forever buy into horses etc.....AND on the contrary I have a big group of friends who think racing is awesome. I am dead honest when I say our "group" of racing buddies started off just 3 of us. Now we have a syndicate of 12 members, and it would be 40+ members if the numbers allowed it. We always have an awesome time winning/losing at our box (3A at Greyville) and there has not been 1 single meeting for at least the last 4 years where our box has been empty, NOT ONCE!!

We have held a few youth night racing events at Greyville with a lot of succes, and each time the turnout was bigger than the previous event. Look at Ali Cohen, the new commentator. He is only 24/25 I think, and his mates are all into racing and work for Sportsbooks such as Hollywood etc. Bookie's son's such as the Fourie's, Rowleys, Weybrow etc etc... I could go on with examples for ever.....

@Soodum .... boet I really think you need to re-think your perspective on Racing. Come spend a week with me and I will turn your opinion around totally!!

Soodum,great debating point. We have just had the sales in Newmarket and its still as busy even though we are in financial meltdown in UK.Im sure your racing will have its ups and downs.I have never been to a SA track,but we have some lovely tracks in UK like Goodwood,Sandown,Ascot and Chester.Maybe your authorities need to upgrade your facilities.Are they bad?
Dont forget Soodum your going to be an OLDTIMER one day and i hope you will share your info (

on a very very small scale - (unless we have a major fuel crisis and people have to use horses for transport!!) - Racing is like flying kites - Fun but unfashionable - The current generation have very little interest in the industry and unless there is a flash of lightning to create new addicts shrinkage will occur - Tough economic times are brewing and people will more likely slash punting money - I read somewhere that the foreign income on betting is basically keeping local racing going - If that is true then the beginning of the end is here - If you had 5 million to invest(for your children) in the long term would you buy Phumelela shares or Kruger Rands/Property?

The fact that so many horses are now owned by so few (relatively) is a worry, but it is interesting that six months ago I was told by Vee Moodley - who should know these things - that there are currently more horses in training in SA than there have ever been before. Now 20 years is a long time, but despite the moans and groans about stakes, vets bills, racecourse closures, poor facilities etc., the industry is not doing too badly at all, considering the econimic climate.

Things will doubtless change over the next two decades, but it will take an unforeseen cataclysm for SA racing to be dead by then.

Racing will still be going in 20yrs time. As Magiclips said something has to go seriously wrong in this country for it to stop. HTH I agree with you we need positive people to help racing. I cannot understand why people who say they love racing and have its best interests at heart keep only seeing and complaining about the apparent negative sides of it. They are shooting themselves in the foot by complaining to anyone who will listen and putting them off racing. As Monty Python said 'look at the bright side of life' not only every negative you can dig up!

ShezaPunter Wrote:

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> I don't have any mates/fellow punters my
> age, n it drives ppl mad when I put on 232!!LOL

I drive my wife up the wall when i switch over to 232, maybe it has to do with us not being home

There are a lot of negatives, but some people seem to delight in looking for the smallest things to endlessly complain about. If necessary, they drag something up from years ago or even just plain invent "problems."

Fortunately, with most of us the love of the game wins through and it's heartening that so many of the posts on this board are of the "Horse A will beat Horse B" variety, which is what it's all about.-D

I applaud people on these groups and on telly track who go on about getting people into racing. But just dragging people to horse racing and saying "look there, how awesome is that?" probably won't work.

Over there years I've met distinct types of people who are attracted to the sport. One bunch are actuarial types who look at everything in percentages and probabilities, who took to punting very young, came well and followed up by becoming owners. Another bunch are people who take risks as entrepreneurs and approach racing in the same way. The last group is like my wife, they know gamblers are nuts and they think its all about good looking horses, stallions, foals, and jockeys and trainers and anyone who works with horses.

Of course there must be other groups and types. Someone must have analized the punting masses? As a business, have we ever targeted our marketing? It may be a dangerous thing to do, we know that gambling is addictive

I wonder sometimes if we remember that owners and punters are quite distinct groups. They do overlap and I would think that the majority of owners do punt and that the majority of punters do not own. But most of what I've read lumps them together most of the time under the heading of "racing". But until we separate them, and look after each appropriately, then the business of racing will struggle with complaints and unhappy "customers".

I think the punter is more endangered than the owner from a 20 year view. It's a competition thing.

The answer to this thread,is I believe,yes.Will the model that makes it run now .look the same ....not likely IMO.
Racing pre 90's was simple...no other form of gambling was legal so all punting was directed at racing ,and Bookmakers who were not licenced to take bets on any other sport were beholden to the racing industry...operating as allowed.....taking win bets only on course and taking the open bet in Tattersalls,when totes were closed(generally 1 hour before the first race on any raceday.
If the law had stayed the same,all would be rosy as racing would probably have been able to bully the bookies over the open bet.
THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WAS BASED ON STAKES COMING FROM A MONOPOLISED PRODUCT and the punters got what was left.......no concern for value.....punters value was "you are lucky to be able to bet at all"!

Then the law changed and other forms of gambling were legalised,bookmakers were no longer part of the racing industry as horseracing became just 1 of their products and racing lost control of the essence of the business model.....the punters now had a choice and could compare value.
Racing's attempt to survive was not based on good business planning but on litigation and protection.....FAILED.

Plan B.....non-existent.What racing needed to do was to establish negotiating tools in their war with bookmakers for the open bet ................Tellytrack....how many bookmaker venues would survive without live picture/ commentary? and a fixed price tote(commonly known as an exchange,and acknowledged,as such,by the Gambling Review Commission).They already had contracts with Betfair and could have done some kind of JV.
That opportunity has been lost because exchanges will shortly be licenced without Saftote help.

What is facing the present financial model,in the future,though,makes the open bet look like childsplay:
It has been established that racing has no intellectual rights to the product so imagine when,lets say Betfair,realise that they could introduce pool betting for its subscribers and run it ,very profitably,with a take out of less than half of Saftote(They can..... I have developed a skeleton model )How long before Saftote are crippled as their dividends fail,by comparison.
So the answer is,racing will probably survive but who controls it may well be very different,and the prizemoney may need to be obtained from alternate sources.
This is the short version......I could write chapters on the subject.........lol

the question should be is will SA still exist or for that matter the world because if the Republicans win the US elections next year then you can bet your bottom dollar that which ever candidate becomes President they will be attacking Iran within months. If that happens then thats that because North Korea will get involved and we will all be toast.

C 'n C is in a jolly mood this morning. Seruiously, though, is there any real chance that any of those boneheaded Republican candidates can ever win an election? I hope not, not merely in order to avoid an apocalypse, but because I wouldn't let any one of them run an ice cream stand, let alone the USA. Hopefully, the American public hasn't yet forgotten the last Republican clown who sat in the Oval Office.

I have a few theories of my own on what the W in George W actually stands for...

magic

Americans are the easist people to fool. Just tell them that if you dont do this or that then something will happen to you. Whoever wins the Republican candidatecy will start there scare mongerring in the opening line of his/her acceptance speech.