Racing in Cape Town

Tigershark Wrote:

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> In one breath the CPT trainers nominate 30 horses
> for an 8 race card
>

To be fair, that disaster nomination was an exception so at some point that can't be what defines Cape racing in it's entirety.

> All small owners and cheap horses and none of the
> owners are breeders........
>

I think big owners is a strength for Cape racing. It have always been a venue of choice for the well heeled, we should probably be happy and not sad about that. But it's also an expensive place to race, and more so when opportunity and stakes are factored into it so one would expect it NOT to be the happy hunting ground for small owners.

Really, the big missing link for the Cape is they lost their PUNTERS. It's fine to have owners, and really big owners often are not gamblers as they are already gambling with millions in terms of bloodstock and fees. Cape racing doesn't seem to need more owners or horses. They need races and gambling turnover. But for the most part tote venues are shitholes, telebetting turnover seems to get chalked up to the Durban scoreboard and the Cape has had no money reinvested in maintenance, let alone improvements for punter.

At the same time, Cape Town will lose it's big owners if it doesnt start to look competitive with other centres. At least it should appear that they are not falling further and further behind.

Maybe they should invest in some better cameras and start building a better image of themselves. Up the ante in terms of crap handicaps and inject a air of superiority. It isn't really a place for cheap anyway, so they should identify their strong points, and run with it. It's pointless have a race for 11 cannon fodder horses, if your local betting public isn't keen on betting on just any two flies on a wet window anyway. Post me 3c for the advice LOL.

I agree with Jack as far as the Cape being above OK as far as the investment in horses and the ownership thereof is concerned.... but the investment in betting and tote infrastructure is of major concern..... and who the hell is going to fund it.....:S..... If the Cape are placing their eggs in the Phumalela basket they are going to have a poor omelett.....P have done very little for punters in their own back yard .....so how can they get the waining betting turnovers in the Cape to improve......:S

Jack, all I was pointing out is;

1. CPT is the perfect example of where huge owners race however without the punter what is it really worth? I am both owner & punter so this is important to me.

2. The Cape trainers had a good season, well done, with stock & support like that what other result could there be? I enjoy the small trainers & owners achieving beyond expectation, Corne Spies for example, who had a great season as well as others. Brett Crawford having a July favourite so soon after starting his own operation. Just tired of hearing that the Cape trainers cleaned up & that they are the best..... bull, there are plenty good trainers out there.

I dont know why it is so expensive to race in CPT, the feed is definately cheaper than Durban where you cannot grow half of it......

If CPT racing is for the elite & so elite that punters dont support it what is that saying about the future of WC racing???

Going back to the year 1988 and to quote another article to show how Natal a sitting duck for raiders;

The 1987/88 racing season will long be remembered at the Cape.It was the most successful ever, at home and away.Few visitors came for the summer season ,most feeling that they did not have the horses, and so the plums went to the Cape.But it was during the Natal winter season that the Cape really showed it's strength to it's richer rivals.

Between the first week of May and the first week of August 25 feature races carrying stakes of R50,000 to R400,000 were run in Natal. The Cape won 21 of them and all but one of the richest. As if this were not enough, it also helped itself liberally to lesser feature races and bread and butter races.

Needless to say, champion trainer Terence Millard played the biggest part in this rout of the best from Natal and Transvaal, winning 12 of these races, but other Cape trainers made their contribution too. Peter Kannemeyer,Eric Sands,Ralph and Guy Rixon, Alan Higgins and Piet Steyn.

The Cape's overall superiority is no new thing, it has been displayed in Natal for many seasons now, and one wonders why.
UNQUOTE.

Sadly Natal racing has been facing this onslaught from the Cape and Tvl for decades now and as i pointed out in another thread the last Natal trainer to win the Durban July was 20 years ago in 1992.

Now jury, ask yourselves what was to happen if Natal racing was to disappear from the radar?Where will the Cape raid then?
One must really feel for the KZN trainers and owners and their determination to survive in difficult times.

Mike, no visiting trainers have ever won in the Cape..... tell me, is the publication you are quoting from, 1988, still going???

Great stories, from your articles one would deduce that 24 years on, Cape Town was the centre of racing now in South Africa.......

This is just what I have said before.Statistics can be used to and for you depending on what you want to see. I wonder how long it took Mikesack to find that specific year? I remember a year or two before that I think where Terence Millard won 1 race up here and it was a dead heat if I am completely right. Cape Town has big buying power and most of the big studs support the Cape trainers with there unsold horses or well bred horses they want back. Just look at the Trainers who train for the studs or the owners of the studs. Mr Jooste excuded. Why send your horses to Kzn and Jhb when you have the Cape on your doorstep. The same happens here and Jhb with the local breeders but probably only 1 (Summerhill) is in the top 10 comercial breeders and the rest Cape. Ps has Mike De Kock not won at least 2 Julys since moving to Summerveld?

@ Tigershark

It was the South African Racehorse and i don't think it is around any more.

Well I stand by my point..>as we stand right now everybody is just hoping racing in Cape Town will survive..>based on the current model they will not unless owners are happy to pay trainers to keep their horses in boxes looking pretty..I only have 3 horses in Cape Town so for me its not too bad..@JD my investment in racing is derived by myself and I also started out in this world with Zero ..in fact Negative...NOBODY will pay for horses unless they race I don't care how wealthy they are...unless there is a business intervention in Cape Town racing will die

Horse Racing in Cape Town has absolutely no risk of disappearing but it does face a set of strategic choices that will determine its course into the future. Unlike in the case of the corporatism of Phum, which I naively still believe was engineered for the right reasons (for the good of racing in the region) in a time when there were few other choices, I can and do sympathise with those that feel we made some wrong choices along the way but who knew better so I guess we paid our school fees and have learnt from our mistakes, let’s move on?

In the case of Cape Town (and in fact Durban) I wish members and stakeholders wisdom, patience, tact and insight – racing is at a crossroads in its history and the tracks that members and your leaders choose to lay down now will lead to a station of your own design. It is an exciting and challenging prospect as well as one loaded with responsibility for you will be the architects of racing’s future. I have every confidence that you will be better informed by the decisions that went before you and hope and expect a combined effort to explore and challenge every available avenue to secure the best possible deal for racing going forward. After all, it’s in all of our interests.

This thread has explored possible solutions our deal by design offered the following proposals in addressing stakes:

Stakes

The Problem:
• Gold Circle’s core operations have sustained significant losses over the past few years despite
cost saving initiatives. As a result, stakes have been used to “balance the books” and have suffered considerably;

The Demerger Solution:
• The Demerger Agreement sets out that 26% of the national stakes pool be set aside for Western
Cape Region (“WCR”), effectively matching the stakes set aside under the Gold Circle structure.
In the result WCR will only increase stakes if the national stakes pool increases;

Our Solution (NEWCO):
• NEWCO will contract to increasing stakes by 10% per year for 3 years regardless of the economic
Performance of NEWCO and thereafter a stakes revenue levy agreement will need to be negotiated.

Further to this in response to the WC board’s questions we responded to add the following:

Further to this we would agree to allocate a higher proportion of the increase in year one to the WC stakes to ensure that the average stakes per race are equal for both regions. Our intention is to agree a revenue linked formula for calculating stakes after the first three years with the WC and KZN Boards. In our view, the predictability of the earnings for the first three years (which in our view would be the turnaround years) is low; hence we would have thought that the WC Board would have preferred the stakes to be guaranteed for this period – perhaps agreement could be reached on the existing allocations basis providing some sort of minimum? If the WC Board would prefer for the stakes to be income linked from day one then we would definitely accommodate this (we would also consider a formula that would mirror the current deal on the table – that is to say that the Western Cape stakes would be 26% of the Phumelela region’s national pool, including the Western Cape region)

@teamwildracing..what a mouthful..so where does that differ from what I am saying, and who is "we"?

mikesack Wrote:

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> @ Tigershark
>
> It was the South African Racehorse and i don't
> think it is around any more.


Written by Rupert Langerman, probably the best racing journo this country has ever had. "Recondite" when he wrote for the Cape Times and the SA Racehorse.
In over 40 years of passionate crusading for the sport he never pulled punches or curried favour.
As a result he was treated like a leper by the CT race clubs. He is now happily retired and couldn't give a rat's arse about the sport that was his "life" for so many years.
The "Langerman", once the best juvenile race in CT when run over the 1500m Milnerton near bend but now just another race at Kenilworth, was named after his grandfather.
Unfortunately horseracing journalism was sold down the river in pursuit of the "King's Shilling". However, given the piss-poor salaries offered by newspapers whose editors regarded the space afforded fields as a waste of space, the deals were a benefit to the industry.
So even if the current crop of journos are weary of biting the hand that feeds, the spin-off is that racing has a decent profile in most dailies.
So lay off Dave Thisel the like. They don't have many options.

Oscar you posted:
“I fear that if nothing is done within the next year, Cape racing could disappear. Unless a large organization willing to make significant losses takes over then it will be no more”

I don't share this fear, and I don't believe that an organization necessarily needs to step in to save cape racing.

GC has more than sufficient financial resources to endure, continues to post a profit and even failing its own extensive capital resources I very much doubt the leadership and membership would ever allow racing to disappear.

My point is rather to highlight that GC has several choices, choices that can now be made with money in the bank and choices that can benefit from perfect hindsight of similar decisions taken in racing over the last 10 years.

As to who “we” are, much has been said about who we might be but unfortunately I cannot, for now, set the record straight however I can say the following,

It is important to note that the deal being proposed is not a Purple Capital deal as perceived by members. Purple Capital through is wholly owned subsidiary, Powerbet Gaming, is leading the deal on behalf of a consortium of investors, who will be revealed in due course once the deal progresses. In the result, Purple Capital and its 1 300 odd shareholders will only retain a minority stake in Powerbet Gaming of around 22%. The ultimate shareholders of Powerbet Gaming will comprise a number of influential individuals with a long history in horse racing in South Africa, various Black Empowered structures (comprising Gold Circle employees and the labour force in racing in the region) and Gold Circle members.

Sorry another mouthful hope that helps.