How do owners survive in Cape Town?

A Programming Group determines the racing programme - handicappers and trainers mainly. RA also sits in I believe. I am interested in how they determine the types of races to put on. I guess horse population (stayers, sprinters, maidens, MR etc.) and horses nominated over a certain distance plays a big role.

Its a good question Homer..I would also like to know what % of the total turnover of bets Cape Town racing brings in (excluding the Met and Queens Plate).

Is it actually worth having horseracing in Cape Town at all without those two meetings?

How do you think the big owners must feel about Cape racing,that have invested millions,eg Marsh Shirtlif that love the game.When do they decide its not viable,and move on,what then?

I spoke to a breeder yesterday and about 60% of owners in W/Cape are foreigners - mostly British. Surely in terms of pounds it is cheap to race in Cape Town and once a year (summer) they come out for a month or two and watch their horses race. So I guess for them having a meeting during winter once every 2 weeks does not matter - but what about SA owners. Some of them race exclusively in the W/Cape.

I would like to see the figures - W/Cape turnovers versus E/Cape turnovers. I would think E/Cape beats W/Cape and they do not even have the Met and Queens Plate.

Absolute crap that 60% of Cape owners are foreigners. Just look what Adams and Jooste own. I would put the figure at around 10% at best.

Watch this space in the next 1- 2 years and see where the POWERHOUSE of racing will be......in Cape Town!The best course, best yearling sale,best horses as has been the case for the past few years,biggest owners,of the top trainers,best breeders and best 2 races in the country......

Agree Hotline 100%. I expect the Queens Plate to become the biggest race in the country and being WFA rightly so.

Hotline - I guess we are all allowed to dream...

There is a big difference between the type of owners who can own 20 horses and the other type who also loves horseracing but can only own 1 or 2 or even shares.

My experience as a micro owner, owning a horse in CT makes no sense if you are going to compare. The program becomes hostile as your horse progresses. My trainers over the years have often been reluctant to race at Durbanville and were happy for horses to sit in the box rather than run even in small fields.

Relatively speaking, the training fees have been higher (CT is a costly place) while the ability to earn has been lower both from the amount of stakes and the amount of race opportunity.

Other than hoping to fluke a good horse, I don't even consider the profitability of it but it still makes sense to try and minimize losses.

I appreciate Hotline's enthusiasm and his local loyalty. But while the yards are over following in CT I am going to experiment to see if it really is easier elsewhere. Who knows, maybe I can break square LOL. (of the latest 7 trainers I have raced with, 5 communicated via email only & then after the card had been printed, I must confess it may also have a bearing to try elsewhere)

As a matter of perspective, looking at the race number of the last races run this season:

JH 1318 (33.5)
KZ 947 (24.1)
WC 760 (19.3)
PE 567 (14.4)
KM 334 (8.5)

The WC at best reached 1000, so effectively the reduction is 25%, or equivalent to 3 months no racing. But to be fair thats the state of the game all over.

Relative to everything except maybe electricity the real costs have gone up disproportionately to all income so the sport is shifting back to the super rich from where it came. For interest I read that the opposite has happened in casinos where they get most of their income from millions of small players and "breaking the bank" last happened in Monte Carlo in the 50's.

How do we find out what % of tote turnover racing in Cape Town contributes to total South Africa??

Homer....guess so but the reality is that its not a dream....as i said watch this space....and in the summer of 2013 we will pull out this post and have a good laugh about it....