Don't study too hard for Pmb racing 11/2

We woud not have raced at Scottsville today, rain or no rain. At 10am the traffic was backed up to Cato Ridge. Hard to race without horses and the poor jockeys would not have been able to "see"after the first race anyway. Poor fish!!!

Because we believe the weather forecasters. It's pissing in Durban

im very near clairwood and besides a short downpour this morning weather overcast but no rain..spoke to a jockey who rode work at clairwood and he said they could have raced at clwood...cat nairac has said before that it costs gold circle to host a meeting so the abandonement a great option for them..secondly i know for a fact that meetings been abandoned by a person lying on his backside in bed without actually going to the track to inspect and that meeting could DEFINITLY HAVE GONE AHEAD ..

Very funny, George. By the way, what's hindsight got to do with anything? Nobody said they should have scheduled today's racing at Clairwood because it was going to rain in Pmb!

Thirsty, race meetings cannot be abandoned because the forecast is for rain. Not many weeks ago a Clairwood meeting was abandoned, with part of the official Gold Circle press release informing us that "rain was forecast throughout the day" or words to that effect. Durban didn't get one drop of rain that whole day.

PS: It has now stopped pissing in Durban. It may or may not start again before long, but that is not really the point. The point is that Scottsville has become a goat track. Pen reading of 22 = mudbath. Face it. You can't compare the place to Clairwood or Greyville, let alone Kenilworth, that can cope with more rain in one day than Scottsville seems to be able to handle in a month.

There's a problem with the going at Scottsville that has nothing at all to do with whether it is raining right now in Durban or Timbuktoo. The debate is not specifically about today's meeting. It is about Scottsville generally. Trainers and jockeys and others have been moaning about the state of the track for years now. Maybe it would be too expensive to fix the problem, but an admission that there is a problem in the first place would be a good start and it wouldn't even cost anything!

Who would want George Furness' job?

Scottsville may not be a bowling green, but is it as bad as everybody says??

A while ago a meeting was held to discuss matters with the trainers (at Scottsville itself) and only Corinne Bestel pitched, if I remember correctly.

Pirates' point about meetings profitability needs to be looked at in the bigger picture of maintaining momentum and punter interest and not only in the sense of teh maths and a few rands that can be saved....where do you think our punters are sitting right now in a wet Durban??? Not at the movies but at Sun Coast, Golden Horse and Sibaya....

george, if that's where the punters really are, then they are ready to have a bet. how will you ever get their money if you offer nothing for them to bet on.

True Greenbroek.

But my point was that we would hardly sabotage a meeting merely to save money as Pirates is suggesting........that is why we are sometimes beholden to the forces of nature and not management of GC manipulating things to balance the books- nothing could be further from reality!

Doom and gloom descends on our offices when meetings are lost - it is not just about punters - ever thought about temporary staff - catering, maintenance, grounds, security , tellers ........they all lose and we are talking about our sport, while for them it's about feeding kids and keeping the wolf from the door their livelihood!

Problem is nobody really knows and understands what goes on. Too much assuming by the uninformed.

Grumpy I may be, although I prefer to think of it as fed up, but I am still waiting for a few points to be clarified. Namely:

1) Why is it possible to relocate race meetings from one course to another on some days, and not on others?

2) Why are meetings sometimes postponed, but not always?

3) If trainers wanted yesterday's meeting to be moved to Clairwood as early as last week, before the latest round of wet weather, does that not tell us what they think of the racing surface at Scottsville even when it is officially raceable?

4) I may be stupid, but I am not blind. Nor is Pirates or anybody else who can see (or feel, in the case of jockeys) the monumental kick-up that we get at Scottsville even when the pen reading is in the low 20s. Has anybody in the Gold Circle hierarchy noticed this (if not they must be about the only ones), do they care, or can't they afford to fix it? If it's the latter, why don't they come out and say so. We are not idiots, we know times are tight and that money doesn't grow on trees.

Sadly, the absurd GC policy of never responding to criticism, so poorly defended by Michel Nairac in his interview with Laff a few weeks ago, doubtless means that we will probably still be waiting for an official response long after our grandchilden have died of old age.

Spanners here!I recall some meetings being cancelled becos jockeys refuse to ride in underfoot conditions!

I know, Catsmug. Maybe the more times we say it, the more chance of an answer of some sort other than "we're doing our best" or "it's not our fault it rained."

However, pigs may fly before that happens. Or at the very least Vidrik Thurling, who takes the opposite view to Nairac when it comes to responding to criticism, needs to become Gold Circle's CEO.

MAGIC.... I am glad we agree that money is tight and times are tough but let's try and address some of yr questions...

1.As one consideration ....our Outside Broadcast van is rigged at Scottsville the day before - it takes 8 hours plus to set it up... Then staffing etc ? So moving the meet to Clairwood at the drop of a hat is not the simple matter it may seem.
2.Their are agreements in place with Phumelela and some meetings can be accomdodated and others not - the whole programming issue is a balancing act.
3. Believe me Graeme Hawkins is on top of things and is a man who both understands and is empathetic to trainer needs but there are two sides to the coin - what suits one trainer doesn't suit another. We are issuing a press release today based on a decision made a week ago to move three March racemeetings away from Scottsville to give it a 3 week breather to recover. It should also be noted that sponsor considerations also come into play eg Kay Makan, Natal Carbineers Raceday that only happen in Pmburg.
4. The Pen is obviously a guage only and comparisons between tracks are often meaningless in view of differing soil and coverings. Scottsville uses bark fines as opposed to sand at Greyville and Clairwood - so the kickback will be more noticeable at Scotties, surely?
I feel GC deserve a lot more credit than what we are getting and staging racemeetings and planning programmes are not just about drawing up schedules and hoping for the best.
Regards

Thanks, George, for a proper and informative answer. Rarer than hens' teeth in this business of ours, sadly, but much appreciated when it happens.

However, to return to the Scottsville issue once again, the fact that three meetings are being moved to allow the track to recover is surely an admission that the course cannot handle all the meetings that are scheduled for it, despite the two tracks. Furthermore, on the subject of the kickback, I don't remember it being as bad as this in years gone by, but maybe I'm getting forgetful in my old age....er, what was I talking about....?