SCOTIA ON THE WEEKEND [ A MUST READ ].

Good morning to the CLAN and scotia must share his "racing experience" with you.

Well, as I am sure you are aware, Thursday at the big "T" was a disaster from a punters perspective and I can hardly comprehend the disappointment for owners, trainers and jockeys?

I arrived before the first race, but no power, the load shedding was planned between 10.00 and 14.00, and the generator was broken???

So we had some food via the gas hot-plates and many double whisky's to pass the time.

The power goes on just after 14.00 and the first 2 races are cancelled .We run the 3rd and keeping in line with Mrs Scotia's rational, I punt "Blue Tooth" as I have just got a new phone, but later put the lot on Kauto Star and broke even for the day!

Back to the story, we then have another power cut and then wait to 16.00 to be informed the meeting has been postponed to a date to be announced?

I then pack up, pay my bill, which I have to calculate due to having no till printout, I had no idea how much individual drinks cost, but will not be drinking soda water again!

I then "walk" down the escalators and pass a place called "SILKS" buzzing with slot machines and full power via a generator!!!!! I have not played a slot machine for 10yrs, for obvious reasons and was appalled where the priorities are.

I then had to drive back to Pretoria in 2nd gear due to the traffic.

So where do we go from here? as Stan the man would say.

Well I picture the scenario this morning, "URGENT EMERGENCY MEETING " with the top brass of P and the RA, with lets say, Marcus Jooste in the chair? not sure of the hierarchy in these circles?

He starts the closed door meeting with "WTF [ what the f**k ] happened yesterday"? and at the same time throws a telephone or some other object against the wall to get everyone's attention!

I might not like Jooste, due to his RA election involvement, however for a man to get to his position, I am sure he is no sissy and can convey a heavy message when required?

So he starts the meeting with "lets BRAINSTORM" and a hand goes up and says " sorry sir, I think we should have night racing during the day"? He then tells everyone to SHUT UP and says thank God I have a guest speaker from A.B.C. " what do you say scotia"?

"Thank you Mr Jooste" lets consider the following, we live in Africa and we expect power cuts planned or unplanned.

Horse racing was here before power so what did they do?

Flag start [ a bit difficult for flat racing ] , so mechanical starting pens with a lever? or operated by a stand alone battery or small generator, good, so we can start the race!

The finish? no photo or timing? we can use a stop watch or declare no time taken, in addition with Hawkeye and Clyde we hardly need a camera to accept the call and the official result.

What about the bets?, bookies wrote tickets long before computers and who does not have a cell phone to call in bets? In fact, I used my laptop for most of the day with a battery concern, but not serious.

Food can be salad/ cold meat based, etc, etc and I am only touching the tip of the iceberg to ensure racing can go ahead without power or with the minimum of power and if required a few strategically placed smaller placed generators [ serviced and ready for use] this is considering we don't have the main generator repaired?

I will leave you to get your act together for future unplanned circumstances, thank you for your time and look forward to our next race meeting.

Remember the pick "5" on Sat, "we thank you for making it easier Mr Jooste"

Good punting and may the POWER be with you!

SCOTIA .

A well constructed, logical post,Scotia.
Thats why you should have been involved in the racing hierachy, Scotia.
(But your ABC connection makes you a no-no, irrespective of your business and racing acumen.)
And for that you can thank your Mr. Jooste !

Thanks cuckoo, a bit positive feedback on my post makes it all worth while.

If I was sober when hitting the keys last night, I would have also told them not to worry about the camera/tellytrack as I spent many years with a transistor radio glued to my ear with a bad reception listening to horse racing.

Have plenty more ideas, but will leave them some to figure out themselves?

I look forward to the new action plan being put in place "in the event of Power Loss. we have implemented the following measures to ensure your race day experience has the minimum of disruptions".

KEEP RACING ALIVE, AGAINST ALL ODDS.

Hey Scotia,

Well Done.

But the Pick 5 is today, not Sat.

Enjoy

Actually, it's still a Pick 6.

The PA is a 6 leg exotic

Cheers Wally, just to clarify, yesterdays meeting is now on next Tuesday and the carry-over pick 6 is on Saturday "the BIG race meeting", the first leg has "MERLENE DE LAGO" which then makes it a pick 5?

Thanks Scotia.

With Rat Burana in the 7th and Our Giant and Stratos in the 9th, we are halfway there.

Maybe Thundering Jet and Smart Banker in the 6th and we are almost Home and Hosed.