Funding to Save Racing in SA.

easy wrote: and i will not go to a trainer that charges R5k a month

You own Leboana , the horse in kimberley? prinsloo charge 5k a month?



How confusing your statements if its true

Would be interesting to know the other 23 horses you own's names

Fantatic Easy, my track record is for all to see and I pride myself on the incredible horseman and woman I have surrounded myself with over the years.
The fact remains in a free market system one can make deals, it is your choice, with whom and what you please. I choose not to use a trainer that charges me R5000 a month as I choose not to use a trainer that charges me R12000 a month. :huh: :oops:
For your interest most of my dogs have come from their mothers and fathers but never the SPCA. I do however support their efforts as do I many other animal and human charities on a monthly basis.
My dogs eat very well, thank you, as do all my animals. They also sleep comfortably, me a different story, as there is not much space on my bed. (thats my dogs Im talking about)
Their are many good horseman out there that will offer you discounts, like in any business, for promt payment and quantity, now if you are a habitual late payer just maybe it wont be offered. :ohmy:
The fact that you are an animal lover like myself I salute you, but I will not be dictated to by the NHRA (unless I feel its for the good of the game) or anyone. Still think think your idea is ludicrous. Sorry

This can't be real surely......the NHRA cannot get anything right and yet people should hand them more responsibility???

I would like to know which oversight group in racing is actually working? More importantly you want to invent more rules when the current ones aren't policed properly...makes sense

For how long have Vets been charging 300-800% mark-up on injections and no oversight committee has done anything about it? The only time you see the rules invoked is when a trainer is caught only because the vets get offended by anyone taking away their opportunity to pillage. Why has racing not got its own contracted vets funded by racing with flat rates?

I have no problem with my training bills and I do not have 5k a month trainers but why must all responsibility fall on owners?

Stop all bookmakers and the tote will fund plenty but noooo let the owner pay and the jocks and some trainers punt through their punters at the bookies and pocket the undeclared earnings with nothing going back.

I strongly suggest that 5% is taken out of the gross betting pools and then you can pay trainers, grooms and jocks whatever you want.

Easy, I can assure you that when my good lady and I are on a crusade and are looking for assistance.... Neigh is always the first one to stick up his hand...

My opinion when reading your 'rules' is it is a little bit like Socialism..great concept but the people aare flawed. NHRA are a toothless, inept body with a severe case of apathy... they need 800% mark up vet treatment .

I believe Tigershark is probably on the right track.... but that would just mean us punters start paying the wages :blink:

I admit I don't know how where the moneys subtracted from the 'gross' betting pools go - which percentage goes where ? But I think TS's idea of taking out something from the pools to cater for the 'workers' in Racing is not a bad idea in principle; yes the punters would then be contributing to the wages, but we / they already contribute to something - tax, Phumelela's coffers and I'm sure a lot of other 'costs' - without blinking an eye?

And personally I would also be very reluctant for the NHA to be handling the financials of my racing affairs - oh I forgot, I don't have any racing affairs anymore

From, my affair with racing is so expensive I can't afford a mistress. .... :ohmy:

Tigershark wrote: From, my affair with racing is so expensive I can't afford a mistress. .... :ohmy:

hmmmm...u get mistress I take baseball bat to your cajones.... you have a lovely wife n chilluns

but then again if yoh know syt looking for sugar daddy......hint wink nudge....

this is an interesting read.. the plebs like myself are not that well familiar with the in and outs of the trainers/owners daily lifes when it comes to owning a horse..

that being said.. here my 2c..just a mere showerthought.. What if.. We just eliminate Horseracing completely out of SA.. and start a fresh with GreyHound racing.. Those race tracks are smaller so u could probably fit like 3 maybe 4 in normal horse track.. have them the same venues as now. surely it'll cost less to run and maintain. and in a perfect world everything could be done right learn from previous mistakes made during horseracing era..

I don't Pay Tienie R5000

Stop Bookmakers = I fully agree and have mentioned it on air 30 times here in the UK where the situation is far worse.

Over here i pay from £38 to £42 a day training and then when its within a month of racing it goes up to £ 50 a day…..

I said the NHRA because they the only ones BUT i agree and said they have issues…..but i believe a governing body could do this.

Trainers would agree to a standard basic fee BUT straight after the meeting they would do deals…..

Even at R8000 a month that figure is just too low.

The common thread running through this particular thread is this:

The present 'business model' of running & funding racing does not really appear to be working any longer.

With each passing week more and more of the burden is falling on the owner and punter.

How are they responding?

As both an owner and a punter I can only comment insofar as to how it affects me. And this is how I have reacted :

Ownership - At a time in my life when I could probably afford to be a bigger owner than ever before I choose not to be for the following reasons:

1.) I cannot even begin to compete against the handful of 'industrial strength' owners who dominate our market and acquire most of the better bred yearlings at, frankly, mostly pretty ridiculous prices given stakes on offer. I came into racing in an era when even the mega wealthy of that time would not have contemplated running strings of the size that we see today. It would have been deemed an act of rank stupidity.

2.) The social side of racing (outside of the big days) has died. So 'going to the races' is no longer on my radar.

3.) I battle to see where the 'fun' is in spending a lot of money each month for very little activity and sometimes even less communication.

4.) After 44 years 'in the game' and 40 years since buying my first horse ( a share) I find the sport more untrustworthy than ever. That's a by product of indifferent policing.

5.) The latest scam of adding spurious levies to yearling purchases almost guarantees I will not put up my hand again at sales time. This nonsense is akin to making me pay a nomination fee for the July on a yearling three years in advance when I have just bought a sprinter!!!

Punting - I punt pennies on horses and pounds on sport. Why?

1.) Because I cannot trust the form of local horses. The UK is an altogether different matter and I remain utterly amazed that so few have latched on to that fact.

2.) I am not prepared to fund the confiscatory tote takeouts. In which betting universe can you back a horse for a place and get a nil dividend if and when it places?

3.) It is no fault of mine that the operators have failed dismally to attract funding from sources other than the punters. By comparison - how would, for example, Manchester United fare if their funding was dependent solely on gate takings? Could they just continue cranking ticket prices? Hmmmm.

4.) The perception that bookmakers are to blame is wildly misguided. Bookmakers flourish because of three unique marketing angles:

a. They offer credit.
b. They enable the punter to formulate a betting strategy KNOWING what the financial outcome will be IN ADVANCE.
c. They offer a service which the punter WANTS at a price that is reasonable. (Given my relatively high betting volume I AM NOT PREPARED to contribute more than 3% of my winning bets to the industry when I am required to contribute NOTHING from my winning sports bets ).

It may come as a surprise to operators but many punters are not as stupid as they are deemed to be and will inevitably seek out the best deal to suit themselves. It's called 'self interest'. My role is not to be a slavish funder of the industry but to consume & enjoy its product at a price which I alone deem to be fair.

I can assure you that if bookmakers were outlawed from racing I would simply stop punting on that activity or seek out a 'bucket shop'. Period. It is naive to believe that I would revert to the tote because I would not. So there would go yet another income stream which, in my case, amounts to a quite considerable sum of money each year. To say nothing of what my losing bets are doing for the odds layers.

Probably the worst of my mistakes has been to stay with this stricken vessel long after most sensible people took to the lifeboats.

There are many great answers and suggestions , however LG has got part of the solution "
he sad reality is that there just isn't the money available. Already Owners are funding a portion of stakes through noms and acceptances fees."

That's right why do they not take the Noms and Acceptance fees away from the RA and support the grooms with these funds .

Why does a non profit organisation like the RA have millions in the bank , but grooms cant buy bread. Trainers pay for what they get. We understand that we can not raise training fees , the operators dont change stakes because of some agreement signed twenty years ago .

But the RA can go bail out Telly Track from a disaster and non support of the new streaming service , by paying R69.00 per month per owner . There was an add or free subscription to the 500th entry or sign up. After 3 months I think they were on about 50 Signed up , all of a sudden in step the RA with there 900 data base and every one looks good.

Its easy let the RA become a company that is not supported by all of these other charges born by the owners. Lets see how strong the RA is without Nom and Acptance fees , I think the amount last year was R 11 Million , Louis could your grooms not do with that money? But the trick is will Larry give you the Fees? I dont think so.

Garrick

i also spend pennies on racing and pounds on sport

unlike you though I'm sick…..i love horse racing as a sport and as a spectacle, i love the fact that 50% of my best friends I've met through this wonderful sport.

The answer is not easy to find, my thoughts are based on knowing that many in the industry are struggling and ultimately the horse ends up losing out.

Savas re i used NHRA simply as a illustration but replace the name NHRA with Tawny and Greg Blanks company and racing takes a turn to the positive.

It should be a privilege to own a horse. I should NEVER be able to own as many as i do. BUT i can and i try to support my trainers where i can over and above fees.

If this sport is going to continue it needs an over haul…..of that there is no doubt.

and for sure to stop another 10 trainers handing in their license in the next 6 months things need to change pretty quick