a totally unbiased article in sp regarding my sanctuary by robyn louw

do you actually think that robert garner can spell marketing?

pirates Wrote:

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> do you actually think that robert garner can spell
> marketing?


To the best of my knowledge he's not involved in the marketing of events for Phumelela... another confusing portfolio...:S

Promoting racing in the racing media is like promoting "holidays TO Spain".......IN Spain.............preaching to the converted! -

WE can! wait for it, exciting things happening for the July. (well, we're trying - to reach a new market, as well as captivate the existing one - easier said than done!!)

ps, anyone heard anything further about the 'inquiry' ?

boys when do the penny drop for every one?

the reason the local racing is no promote is simple. phumelela dont want it to succeed. simple. for every rand spend on local racing, the takeout is better for phumelela on oversea racing and soccer bets. so if you have 100 rand to spend phumelela prefer the spend to be else where to local racing.

capice?

we think phumelela do terrible job of marketing. the share holders think they do fantastic job.....(td)

@Mac - Gold Crest, huh ? Thanks, I'll give them a bash.

@Optimist - I didn't realise it was the prawns. Thanks, that helps.

Erm, the truth is that I wanted a catchy alliterative phrase to sum up the betting, the big race days and the on-course 'gimmicks' for want of a better word. Prawns just worked nicely with parties and Pick Sixes. I could just as easily have said the Jackpot, the J&B and the Jumping Castles. Sorry. I was trying to be clever. I obviously failed !!

Anyway, the point was that we seem to forget the point. Which IMHO is the horse. And seriously, I know folks think I'm a bunny hugger (I am, I confess), but that's not the reason this upsets me so much.

If you go and look at sites like the Legends Fb page, or talk to racing enthusiasts the world over, they don't remember what they ate the day Horse Chestnut won the Met, or Sea Cottage and Jollify deadheated in the July, or Secretariat won the Belmont by 30 lengths or Franki Dettori won a full card, or Anton Marcus won on Jay Peg despite the saddle slipping, or Zenyatta ran that horrible awful unfair second at her last start. People remember the horses and the people and how they made them feel. Because that feeling is pure magic. And you only get that magic at the races. That's why the die hard enthusiasts keep coming back - they're hoping for another little bit of magic.

We seem to focus on everything else. And I don't just mean the prawns (()). We don't look at a horse, we look at a catalogue page. We don't sell a racehorse, we sell 'a lifestyle'. Our trainers send us bills, not updates. We worry about the take-out, not whether the stalls are going to open.

I can obviously only speak for myself here, but in my experience (and this is a figure of speech again) it's a long time between lunches. You buy (or breed) a yearling. It takes flipping ages to see your horse run (if it ever does). When it finally gets to the track, it might not even win. In fact, it probably won't. And there will be vet bills and heart break and disappointment almost every step of the way. But to be honest, that doesn't really matter. The day my horse finally gets to the parade ring, I forget all that and for just a few minutes, I feel on top of the world. And whether I've got a first timer, a maiden, a superstar, a battling MR60 or whatever, I've invested an illogical, inexplicable, entirely ridiculous amount of myself into the process. It goes beyond time, effort, cash, hopes, dreams etc. It's ridiculous and entirely out of proportion with the actual event, but there it is. It means a huge amount. I've paid my dues and I've 'earned' my 5 seconds in the sun. So it is important that everything works. It's important that whether my horse finishes first or last, he comes home safe. Because then I might come back another day (because horse owners are fantastic at lying to themselves and will find any excuse to convince themselves that next time we might do better!). Same goes for the trainer. He's had to beg and plead with the owner to buy the horse, invested hours of early mornings watching for any sign of ability, nursing the odd lump, bump and snotty nose, put up with months of griping from the owner, fought with jockeys, grooms, feed merchants etc. This is his moment too. And the jockey, who may, just as an example, be an appie who likes and believes in the horse and is hoping that this might be the horse that will finally get him noticed. He's had to beg and plead for the ride and is dying to get out there and prove himself. And the breeder, with the first season sire, desperate for the first runners to make a splash. And the R2 minimum punter standing in the tote, trying to decide whether to have yet another bet, or perhaps put his money back in his pocket while he still has enough for a loaf of bread for his kids tonight.

There is a huge amount riding on every horse and every race, no matter which angle you're looking at it.

Sure, you might say, but that's showbiz and you've just got to man-up and take it on the chin and come back another day. And that is a valid point. It's not a game for sissies. But imagine it's that owner's last horse, the battling trainer's best client, the punter's last rand. Now it all looks a little different, doesn't it?

So it's important that we get it right. That's why incidents like My Sanctuary's are such a big deal. Because they have very real and serious repercussions.

The jockey could have been hurt (ok, he wasn't, but it is no fun being in the stalls on a panicky horse). My Santuary WAS hurt. The owner has been paying for months and was (perhaps) expecting a pay day, but most importantly, they wanted to see their pride and joy be able to go out there and do their best. Now she's run an unsatisfactory 3rd, suffered an epistaxis and has a 3 month suspension, which will cost the owner more money. And who knows what long term effects this might have her on her career. The trainer is disappointed, the jockey is disappointed and has probably had a bit of a fright, and it's fairly clear the punting public are disappointed. The rest of the days runners have had their schedules disrupted. Some of the races were rescheduled, but some were not. Everyone loses.

I'm sorry to be the dragon lady again, but you just cannot see this happening anywhere else, can you? Seriously, just for a second, can you picture this happening to Frankel? Or Black Caviar? Or in the Kentucky Derby or the Melbourne Cup or the Dubai World Cup? They would (rightly) have been an international laughing stock. But it doesn't happen to them. And they're working with all the same raw material we are. So is it not reasonable to kick up a fuss when we somehow stuff up the way we do? I mean, we're not talking rocket science here, or anything wildly out of the ordinary. These are our day to day jobs.

The NHA are quick to fine people for transgressing the rules. And that's fine. But surely there should be repercussions for them too? And for the operators if / when they stuff up? I don't think that's unfair ?

Sure, perhaps it is unkind to point fingers and make a fuss. I'd like to think that people do strive to do their jobs well simply for the pure satisfaction from a job well done and that when things go wrong they go home and feel very very bad about it, but to be honest, most of us do our jobs because we are scared of our boss ! In this case, the 'boss' is our customer. If you define the customer as everyone who plays a role in getting a horse to the track, then 'the boss' is the breeder, the owner, the trainer, the jockey, the groom, and the punter. And we should be scared of upsetting them, because if they're not happy, well, we're all out of a job.

Therefore I stand by my point. I truly don't think that most people expect to win every time - we are aware that we are gambling. But no one likes to feel they're being taken for a mug. We may be gambling, but we do at least want to know we're getting a fair shot. So you can have as many parties, Pick Sixes and prawns (()) as you like, but until we can guarantee that the basics work and that everyone is getting their fair shot, we're going to keep losing people to the game. And from what we keep reading everywhere, it sounds as though that's not something that racing can afford right now.

robyn your control of the english language is on a par with barack obamas public speaking simply top class the way you write keep it up

spot on.

Sus absolutely brilliantly written, bought tears to my eyes. I am not kidding u have got some serious skills.

zsuz, you certainly paint the picture so vividly - and you are of course 100% correct - keep it up (tu)

Suz you should consider doing this for a living instead of spending time on " this silly, stupid, negative forum"


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Ps was good meeting you again last week (tu)