No room for CT in KZN?

OK, Craig - let your aggrieved Owners just send their horses to Gauteng where the stakes are much higher and where there is more Racing...... We will end up going around in circles - as Pirates said, who cares who is better etc. We end up like the old Klipdrift fuelled argument, "my Ford is better than your Chev "

There is ONLY one point here, as made very clearly by Jack Dash - PROTECT and CATER for mediocrity and that is what you will become ! The CENTRE OF MEDIOCRITY !

This best horse must run, anywhere in SA. The half stakes, once monthly meetings at Vaal are GONE as of 1st May. THANK HEAVENS ! But, where did these meetings come from? From GC, who gave up 12 meetings and PGL had to step in and fund them due to International commitments, the proceeds of which contribute substantially to the stakes pots.

Likewise, the protectorate named Kimberely must surely change, in terms of their "guaranteed runners" . And so too PE's protectionism. Racing and races must be open to the best horses which are qualified to enter on equal terms, irrespective of their region.

Or Racing must make excuses for mediocrity, bring in rules to protect it, thus bullshitting the very Owners whose " interests " are used as the excuse. And then we must ask the question of the concerned KZN Trainers, "when protecting mediocrity, whose interests are you really serving - yours or the Owner's?

OPEN the game - let the best horses run!

Louisg you are entitled to your opinion just as everyone else is whether it is right or wrong. Why are some people getting so upset. Me thinks they are wanting to race here.If you dont want to race in GC country you would not be worried.The half stakes or protecting PE or Kimberly does not worry me in the slightest.I just wont go there.Interesting. All my owners are very happy with it and so are other trainers owners so why should we change it and annoy the owners who support Natal racing and that is what I care about. Not someone who does not have a horse here and supports outside trainers and then must get into an ordinary race before GC supportig owners. That would be like asking the groundsman to prepare a dry dusty wicket when the Indians come to play a test in Dbn.

craig i read your postings and think you a very positive guy. i must ask why do people want to race in natal, is it the money, is it the administraters, is it what? then you read pirates and you ask does he race in the same place? who is telling the truth

I think I am a LITTLE more positive than Pirates. You would not think he is sort of related to a Natal trainer would you? By the looks of the postings I think people do want to race here as the outsiders are worried about our local condition. If they did not want to come here they wouldnt care.As I said before if we suddenly built another 200 boxes and asked for trainers to come here I am pretty sure it would not take long for the boxes to be filled by people who want to follow in Mike, Charles, Jeff,Karen/Greg and Colin's footsteps. That is besides the 8 or so sattalite yards. I dont know of any trainers going in the other directions. Do you?

positive or a realist or see the picture from the health of the industry countrywide...im not related to any trainer lets get that right first of all...imagine if chain stores like nandos with head office in gauteng or steers etc with their head offices wherever were told the siniliar story above...lg and i dont agree very often but his posting is 100 percent on the mark...im a realist the gc natal board and their attitude is no good for the industry as a whole...its akin to having a quota system as they do in sport

Pirates, related was just a way of putting it without giving away your private life.

Leave the relationships, focus on facts. I seldom raid KZN. Address the facts and the long term effects of mediocrity on an Industry which is under pressure.

By your own admission, GOOD HORSES are welcome. But not the rest, not when they are better than those which you seek to protect.

Maybe that's why GC gave up 12 meetings and continue to battle to make ends meet. Just maybe the decline in local turnover could be turned around in part, with BETTER QUALITY RACING all round. Maybe all punters arent mugs ?

Louis I protect my owners. The ones that pay me every month and not an outside trainer and I wil not change that. If I can get an advantage for the Natal supporting owners I will take it and not give it a second thought. My owners come 1st. I see no one has given me a name of a trainer that has moved away from Natal lately after I mentioned several who had moved here. I stand corrected but in watching turnovers I am pretty sure that the Natal stand alone meetings create more turnover than Jhb and especially CT stand alone meetings of the same calibre and day of the week.

This debate is ironical for me.Some weeks ago we debated that there were now too many horses racing for too few races and too little stakes,and the suggestion that we should cut back from the bottom up was met with comments like"poor horses are the lifeblood of racing"
This situation wouldn't be an issue at all with a sensible "survival of the fittest" model!
I wonder whether anybody has stats on how many of those "protected" horses are running off their highest ever MR........protecting horses on their way out,and that have had their best days, is madness.
I realise this will be controversial ,but as a starter,no horse should ever be permitted to run off a rating below the rating it achieved when winning its maiden............if a horse has the ability of a one time winner then so be it!

The inevitable revenge and retaliation from other centres,in response to this initiative, will be just around the corner.

RF there is something to like about what you write. People have had a go at me when I have suggested that say 2x winner cannot drop below a certain mr and it goes up with the number of wins. I find it hard when I see a 5x winner with an mr of 63 and R250000 in stakes getting weight from a 1x winner mr 72 and say R50000 in stakes after 2unplaced runs 2 3rds and 1 win. They say I dont understand the mr system but I do. Just find it hard to accept but that is our system and we must live with it or try and use it to our advantage. It kills the 2yr olds if you lucky enough to have a forward one that wins early.

Craig Eudey Wrote:

---

> Louis I protect my owners. The ones that pay me
> every month and not an outside trainer and I wil
> not change that. If I can get an advantage for the
> Natal supporting owners I will take it and not
> give it a second thought. My owners come 1st. I
> see no one has given me a name of a trainer that
> has moved away from Natal lately after I mentioned
> several who had moved here. I stand corrected but
> in watching turnovers I am pretty sure that the
> Natal stand alone meetings create more turnover
> than Jhb and especially CT stand alone meetings of
> the same calibre and day of the week.

I have a theory about kzn betting turnover

The indian community in dbn is bonkers over horse racing and would prefer kzn racing to any other centre
The most successful tote outlets in the country are in dbn because of the indian communities love of gambling,be it horses where all us men go or sun coast or sibiya where indian aunties are shipped in by the busloads

I am not interested in owning a new horse,battling to get it's 2nd win ,and being prevented from doing so by a 7x winner, on its way out but running off a MR of 60,in spite of already having earned R800,000.
I may as well buy an old horse......I know it knows how to win ...........I just have to wait for the handicappers to donate a couple.