Should They Hand In Their Licenses?

In Kentucky, we have an expression that goes like this: money makes the mare go. In other words, spend some money on a stallion nomination and your mare will give you a runner.

With regards to trainers in KZN, the same applies: spend some money on some better stock and they will do better. They crap horses to train.

money money money makes anything work better and if SAF racing had a bigger customer base with a bigger income pool administered better etc etc perhaps the trainers and their owners and breeders in KZN could afford better quality coverings for their mares. Boring same old same old. Where are the strategic thinkers in racing??? no doubt too busy eating steak and dreaming of giant marshmallows!!lol

Surely the demise on racing in Natal, to the point where the province can no longer find a single runner to make the july field must lie eslewhere?

I suppose we'll be told that things are going great in KZN after Outcome won the Garden Province Stakes. Never mind that she filled our annual quota of Gr 1 winners by doing so.

In terms of quality of horseflesh, the two provinces which fall under Gold Circle's jurisdiction are as far apart as Mars and Pluto. Just why this should be the case is something I have tried to find an answer to for years, as Sporting Post readers are all too painfully aware!

I suspect there are several reasons, but to comment that it's because the big owners are brassing KZN stables is to avoid the issue. The real question is, WHY are they brassing the KZN stables? Sadly, I think the answer is all too obvious. If you were investing millions into the best horseflesh you could find, would you have it trained in a province which can churn out one Gr 1 winner every year and barely get a starter (year in and year out, nowadays) in its own biggest race?

It's a sad state of affairs. I'm not so sure the climate has all that much to do with it, either. I have heard of climate change, yes, and there is undoubtedly something to it, but has the weather really changed that much from the days when KZN horses ran rampant through one big race after another?

Not really. Durban summers have always been kak...!

maybe just maybe the trainers in natal who do have the buying power and there are plenty who do are just not up to it,and maybe just maybe these owners should sit back stop being blinded and look elsewhere,unfortunately bullshit baffles brains in racing and many owners who are hugely successful business people are clueless in racing,,anyway i thank the lord that we have trainers that are not up to it because it is a lot easier to have winners..so quite frankly long may it last

Agreed, Pirates. Given the sort of horses I have an interest in, Gr 1 races are so far away they may as well be in the next galaxy. At least we can win the occasional minor race in KZN, just as much as we only win minor races in other provinces.

Nevertheless, the fact that KZN racing has sunk like the Titanic is worrying and remains without a satisfactory explanation.

Hee hee good one Magic however I must add that its not only KZN racing on the verge of hitting the ice block..its racing in general in this country..more pressure on owners and trainers and the powers that be sit back and watch..they really need someone in there fast to restructure this game financially starting with stakes.

For my penny, its not so much the quality of horseflesh, more the case of being at the wrong place.... be it climate or whatever
I mean look at Soldiers Field , Dunford , Al Nitak, Flight Alert to name a few.
When they relocated to GP / WC, they became 'different horses'.
Kzn do have quality in limitation, but they cannot run consistently ,if based their.
Even satelite yards don't have quality runners that are based permanently their ..