Bob you make no sense in this post and with the greatest of respect come across as a bleeding liberal without having or divulging the facts. There are many yards with owners who do not pay or who pay irregularly. This places an entire yard under financial pressure because the tight margins mean that if only one or two owners don't pay there's not enough to go around. Mark Sham has shown how helpful the NHA are in assisting with non-payers. What happens when there really isnt enough to pay the grooms? You can be sure that if the grooms havent been paid, then that yard is behind in noms fees, is behind with the rest of the staff, feed merchant ( if he still has tick ), is behind on the vets, farriers, physios and every other service provider. There's probably an old car needing attention, a bond or rental thats behind, school fees that haven't been paid and very little food in the house.
Bremner paid her grooms who choose to strike in support of one of their own who stabbed one of the horses in the stable. It's a total different scenario. The constant in this is the NHA who sit back and do nothing while swanning around hosting an Asian Racing Conference in Africa that is subsidised by industry money. That's where the problem lies.
Last edit: 5 years 3 months ago by Over the Air.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Sweet Coetzee
Would like to get the actual facts in this case as many sides to a story?
Would agree that the industry is under huge pressure and we have extremes on both sides.
One where we have a chain of events where owners battling to pay training fees plus extortionate vet fees on mediocre horses.
This has a rippling effect to all parties.
At the other end we have massive amounts of money paid into special events which are again totally disproportionate to a grooms wage.
Eg a ticket for ARC 2020 vs grooms rate.
They say a game for Kings and "others" and sadly plenty "others".
Slightly off topic but what I find amazing is.. I brought 3 new owners into the game, we bought a horse the trainer chose, a year ago, it’s run quite well but everyone wants out as we never hear from him, it’s no fun whatsoever besides me trying to get interactive on a group.. they were all keen to buy another horse but now all will be out once this one is done and yes they all pay their share every month and the horse has paid a few bills itself but it’s as boring a can be without any effort to entertain or even make it half fun. I can’t even tell when the horse will run again or how it took it’s last run... I’m sorry to say, a lot of racing’s problems lie with the racing people themselves!
Point being; racing people don’t seem to think they are struggling or there are hard times as they treat clients like they are easily replaced!
Good luck to the grooms and trainers with the strike.
As you say Sharky, slightly off the topic but makes a good topic.
Would have to say with Louis Goosen we are never short of communication.
It might not always be what we want to hear and always difficult to keep a syndicate together when its just pay pay but in our case its been financially related rather than being kept in the dark.
If grooms are not getting paid...well then I can’t blame them for wanting to strike..Trainers who want to train horses must see that they have ample cash flow.
This scenario is happening all over SA in many businesses not only racing. Violence should never be the answer but it seems to be the only way to get any response in this country , sad state of affairs.
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