Sporting Post this week. Lance Benson
Recession? What Recession?
Let’s Just Have Another Party
After being thrown dead over the weekend with multiple adjectival orgasms on Tellytrack, we quickly returned to mother earth with a bang at Fairview on Monday with the starting stall circus, to which, I suppose, we should really be accustomed by now. I hope the back-slapping over the international jockey test, an admittedly fine concept and wonderful idea in principle, subsides quickly and the innovative Hassen Adams gets his wishes granted of a unified front for horseracing. That is, if it’s not already too late.
How on earth, I wonder, did horseracing contrive to lose the world-class corporate skills of a man of the ilk of the eloquent blue and silver –grey tenacious temperate tiger that is Mr Adams? Taking the winner’s podium after his famous silks had been carried to victory in the Grade 2 sprint feature at Kenilworth on Sunday and for the umpteenth time this season, Hassen Adams unselfishly utilised a portion of his five minutes of fame to call on his former fellow directors and racing folk to bury the hatchet and to pull together as one – and even apologised for raising the issue. Please don’t pull any punches Mr Adams – you seem to be the only person of any consequence who is prepared to say anything that isn’t sugar coated in the cavernous and bleak public domain that casts a gigantic dark shadow over the sport of kings. If it wasn’t for you, we could be bluffed into believing that everything is just hunky-dory. Maybe it has something to do with the innate confidence and inner strength that comes from a proven corporate track record or from the fact that you are one of a handful of men who both have the means and the will to put your money where your heart is – and invest in rather than talk the core business – thoroughbred racehorses. Whatever Mr Adams was alluding to, it is patently obvious from reading the Scotfree Racing Website, that SA Horseracing is going through a tumultuous and uncertain period of discovery, in-fighting, jostling for territory and consequent change on a scale never witnessed before. The bottom line is that the ordinary punter and owner is gatvol – sick and tired - of having the wool pulled over his eyes. In spite of what certain of the suited smiling ego trippers may want to believe, the game is no man’s personal play area- no matter who you are, who you may know or how big your bank balance is.
Good Golly
Am I backward or does everything in racing seem to happen arse about face? I sat down on Friday afternoon determined to enjoy the international jockey test but my positive attitude was quickly dampened and wrong-footed when I realised that Tellytrack’s king of the ring and the master of the on-course microphone had been confined to studio desk duty in the Rivonia offices. Who on earth sabotaged the duty roster on what was potentially one of the big horseracing entertainment evenings of the year? Lights, weekend, great jockeys, pretty horseracing female presenters from a far-flung land and Dave Mollett is not on course! If Molly had even a half tank of juice in his Porsche he should have been there on course to add his invaluable skills, milk the occasion and optimise our entertainment. Let’s be frank – you either have the magnetic x-factor or you don’t and Molly is a bundle of no- bulldust energy and a real salt-of-the-earth punter who just happens to have the charisma that seperates the likes of Robbie Williams from the also rans like Steve Hofmeyer. And what makes him so pleasant is that he is not a bloody eye specialist. The show eventually got on the road and after the syrupy adjectives and verbal diahorea – hell, they really overdo it sometimes - we were shown a brief introduction of the jockey teams on a split screen – seriously we shared this breaking moment and highlight on a split-screen with Neil Pretorius’ suggested PA perm and then broke away to a Cheltenham race. This went on for what felt like forever - until the national anthems were played without any sound. My mute button was off for once – there really was no sound. The situation improved vastly at Kenilworth on Sunday as we were, in a nice touch, at least allowed to hear the anthems – even though I noted with disappointment that not a single jockey on display appeared to even try and mouth the words to the national tune. Then of course we had to break away regularly to watch an Ngong race with a R648 trifecta pool running on it. I often wonder if anybody has considered the fact that for every one on-course punter, there must be 500 guys in front of the television set somewhere. The couch, whether it be at home or in a tote, is where most of the customer base is sitting. Yet this whole international jockey test was a non-entity as an entertainment exercise by Tellytrack. Where was the camaraderie and competitive spirit that the presenters kept raving about? Where was the roving camera at the scale and in the jockey room as we see in Dubai and Hong Kong picking up the emotions and excitement? No, rather split the screen and let us listen to some waffle while watching an obscure race from another continent.
The Fooled Channel
So if you were sitting at home trying to absorb the international jockey test atmosphere, you probably landed up switching to some real entertainment on another channel. For all its good intentions, it really was poorly marketed for the potential on-course market too. The RA Chairman claimed that ‘it had all been put together in eight weeks...’ Surely that was enough time to have printed a few posters for our totes and cafes – and what about exotic food stalls or other side-shows representing the countries of the various participants? On what was a beautiful Sunday at Kenilworth, I believe that there was a fair crowd of largely, dare I say it, Coloured families enjoying the old faithful, the jumping castle. Sadly one almost gets the idea that the real action was the huge private party for anybody of influence in racing a few floors up from that jumping castle. I have never seen so many guys in ties, particularly in a recession, in the Kenilworth parade ring on a Sunday afternoon – ever. I hope they all flew economy class – stakes are under pressure, you know..... And then they all dived into the jockey team photograph. Pity for Joe Public – if he didn’t catch a signed peak cap he had to watch from the sidelines while the usual suspects hogged the limelight and got the treasured keepsake of a photograph with legends like Kieron Fallon and Christophe Soumillion. But this sport has to look after the important people, you know...bugger Joe Public and his six bucks.
Start- Ling
After the glamour, excitement, hype, smiles and back-slapping of the weekend, the new week started on a less than hilarious comical lowpoint at Fairview on Monday. After a loose horse had delayed the first race, the second race start became a circus. I recall writing an email some six weeks ago to Phumelela and the NHRA asking them for a comment on the condition of the stalls in the Eastern Cape and the noticeable regular problems. I have never received a reply – it’s one of those situations – we supply the equipment, they supply the staff. So nobody quite gives a damn. After a false start when the banks of stalls were opening out of sync, the second race eventually went off all of twenty three minutes late. Don’t they test the stalls before the meeting? When he arrived at Fairview earlier in the day jockey Kelvin Jupp could not have guessed that he would be sitting on a horse intriguingly named My Face – for so long just to run a sixty second sprint. And one has also got to feel for the connections of the Caesour filly Lucilla, who was withdrawn, for, wait for it – delaying the start! The tabonline website added to the woes of the afternoon by taking forever to post the result and the minimum PA dividend going forward. In fact the race from Compiegne France, which was shown after the PE race, had its dividends called and declared before our local race. No apologies, no explanations – just an exasperated Shaheen Shaw trying to sound very positive. The revised race times eventually breezed through at around 14h30. In a competitive world, is this the way to treat one’s customers? The problem for me lies in the fact that our leaders chase the glamour and soft functions – be seen sipping champers, shaking hands and hobnobbing with the stars. It beats the hell out of sitting down and strategising a customer retention programme, plotting a desperately needed way forward for Tellytrack and sorting out those Fairview starting stalls. As a Tellytrack presenter said two weeks ago when previewing the Cape Premier Sale – “The Cape is such a great place to be at this time of the year – even the jockeys will want to entertain their punters down there.....” That’s a story for next week but maybe I take this thing too seriously... or am I just out of touch with the modern way of thinking?
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