BYE BYE low grade Vaal Meetings !

And that's all folks. The once monthly low grade meetings at Vaal, including Maiden handicaps came to an end Yesterday. Initially, Phumelela had to "find" the extra stakes in order to take on the 12 Annual meetings which GC decided to relinquish. At that time, the stakes pot was already made up and programmed for. Thus, these meetings were born, out of sheer necessity, in order to maintain International contractual obligations and thus ensuring a constant flow from this source into the Stakes pool.

Thankfully, they are now dead and buried and we can have normal racing again, on these days. The 5 month Gauteng Winter programme kicks in as of 1st May and ends at end September. All maiden plates now offer stakes of R75k. The lowest MR races on offer during Winter are MR68 (c&g) and MR64 (f&m). The 7 month Summer Programme, from Oct 2012 until April 2013 will offer handicaps starting from MR72 (c&g) and MR68 (f&m) and upwards.

Another important decision from PGL, which has been in place for a while now, but which also forms part and parcel of the whole here, is the Race Splitting Fund, for lack of a better term. A few million has been put aside for the purpose of splitting over subscribed races. That's why, for instance, there were 9 races Yesterday instead of the 8 as programmed. This fund basically allows us an ongoing horse census, on the basic principles of supply and demand. Oversubscribed races, with enough acceptances to run 2 races will be split.

So, whilst we do find many areas worth mentioning, in terms of requiring attention and/or improvement, quite a lot has happened on the Racing side of things. Well done to Larry Wainstein, Patrick Davis and their respective teams.

Thanks LouisG for update

i laugh a lot when craig say natal is place to be when the maidens race for the embarasing stakes. no boys gauteng is the place for racing if you are owner

Something has to be done about the bias down the straight, pointless having 16 horse fields if only 6 or 7 horses have a realistic chance of winning?

louisg Wrote:

---

> And that's all folks. The once monthly low grade
> meetings at Vaal, including Maiden handicaps came
> to an end Yesterday. Initially, Phumelela had to
> "find" the extra stakes in order to take on the 12
> Annual meetings which GC decided to relinquish. At
> that time, the stakes pot was already made up and
> programmed for. Thus, these meetings were born,
> out of sheer necessity, in order to maintain
> International contractual obligations and thus
> ensuring a constant flow from this source into the
> Stakes pool.
>
> Thankfully, they are now dead and buried and we
> can have normal racing again, on these days. The 5
> month Gauteng Winter programme kicks in as of 1st
> May and ends at end September. All maiden plates
> now offer stakes of R75k. The lowest MR races on
> offer during Winter are MR68 (c&g) and MR64 (f&m).
> The 7 month Summer Programme, from Oct 2012
> until April 2013 will offer handicaps starting
> from MR72 (c&g) and MR68 (f&m) and upwards.
>
> Another important decision from PGL, which has
> been in place for a while now, but which also
> forms part and parcel of the whole here, is the
> Race Splitting Fund, for lack of a better term. A
> few million has been put aside for the purpose of
> splitting over subscribed races. That's why, for
> instance, there were 9 races Yesterday instead of
> the 8 as programmed. This fund basically allows us
> an ongoing horse census, on the basic principles
> of supply and demand. Oversubscribed races, with
> enough acceptances to run 2 races will be split.
>
> So, whilst we do find many areas worth mentioning,
> in terms of requiring attention and/or
> improvement, quite a lot has happened on the
> Racing side of things. Well done to Larry
> Wainstein, Patrick Davis and their respective
> teams.


Good news in general imo, although I feel for the owners of the 'lesser lights' - where do they go now - no Bloemfontein? So despite all the marketing spiel inviting you to buy the 'horse of your dreams' at the sales, remember that if you end up with one of these 'lesser lights' you do not have a lot of options

Also would have thought that as the tracks get harder, there would be more sand meetings planned (especially as the draw on the Vaal inside track currently makes it very hard to be competitive from an outside draw - will have to see what happens tomorrow on the outside track), but there's only 3 sand meetings scheduled in May (with a Turf night meeting on May 1 :S) - and hard luck if you own a filly or mare rated in the 80's and above looking for a sprint on the sand...... none of these available in May (although there are 2 races for MR76's - would have thought that one of these should have been for higher rated fillies?)

So in general the planning /scheduling of races still needs improvement imo

Sorry you missed my post on the subject Yesterday Greg. They are rolling the slower, heavier sections and the going will even out in Winter going, soon. So, imho the management are doing something.

Also, the bias is at its worst from just after mid Summer, when temps drop and growth slows down, until Winter, when it evens out.

Again, just my opinion, but I hope that they sort out the glitches with the Poly track and that it can become a reality for Gauteng Racing. Then they can remove the rail at Vaal, reinstate the full course, put the Poly in at Turff inner and replace the extremely labour intensive Vaal Sand with a second Turf track at Vaal. As I said, that's just my opinion...

But, a little bit of knowlege could be dangerous here. What about the rumoured new Racecourse and Training Centre to be built in the North, Kyalami area? That would change the whole picture, were it to become reality.

Thanks for that Louis, lets hope it all works out then....(tu)

Why would they want to open a new race track when they have closed down tracks in the past?

louisg Wrote:

---

> Sorry you missed my post on the subject Yesterday
> Greg. They are rolling the slower, heavier
> sections and the going will even out in Winter
> going, soon. So, imho the management are doing
> something.
>
> Also, the bias is at its worst from just after mid
> Summer, when temps drop and growth slows down,
> until Winter, when it evens out.
>
> Again, just my opinion, but I hope that they sort
> out the glitches with the Poly track and that it
> can become a reality for Gauteng Racing. Then they
> can remove the rail at Vaal, reinstate the full
> course, put the Poly in at Turff inner and replace
> the extremely labour intensive Vaal Sand with a
> second Turf track at Vaal. As I said, that's just
> my opinion...
>
> But, a little bit of knowlege could be dangerous
> here. What about the rumoured new Racecourse and
> Training Centre to be built in the North, Kyalami
> area? That would change the whole picture, were
> it to become reality.


Can you maybe expand on 'the glitches with the Polytrack' - what glitches?

Also imo, the sand track should not be done away with - it's given horses like Sayadaw and Mr Tobin and ALimony etc, etc a new lease of life - can't be 'replaced' by a Polytrack surely?

And please tell us more about the rumours of the new development - has Randjiesfontein now been scrapped as a possible alternative racing venue?

@ Frodo -
1) As I said, those were just my opinions. Nothing of the sort has been put out re Vaal Sand and it's potential closure. Just my opinion. It's the most complained about surface in living history, hence my opinion...
2) I think you answer your own question in your penultimate post - basically, how do you still cater for " lesser lights " when you correctly point out that there arent enough races to go around and especially for some highly rated types who have few racing opportunities. Which ones do you cater for - the lesser lights or the better sorts? It's always going to be difficult. I certainly dont have the answer, but the following sort of moulds my thinking on this one -
a) we need a cut off mark, somewhere.
b) we are racing for the highest stakes in the country.
c) overall, the low grade meetings in which the "lesser lights " have been running, have been heavily criticised, including from the majority on this site.

@ Greg -
The closure of tracks will always be a sore point etc. Look, I seriously miss Newmarket. Not so much Gosforth. Others, again, go the opposite and miss Gosforth more. Be that as it may and just for the sake of my line of thought, let's just ignore all of the "stories"and look at the following -
1) Gosf and Newm were costing a lot of money to maintain.
2) We DO have the highest Stakes in SA today, by far.
3) We have more meetings and races (at these higher stakes) right now, per annum than ever before in the history of Highveld Racing.
4) We have, by far, many more racing opportunities and a helluva lot more stakes than any other province or centre in SA.

As for the rumour of a new course etc - as I said, it is rumour. Here goes (unconfirmed) -
1) RA obtained a license, recently, to build a racecourse or run a racecourse in the north, not specifically at Randjes.
2) Randjes is not an ideal racecourse, many restrictions, hurdles etc.
3) A property developer with land near Kyalami is looking to build a racecourse with turf and poly, as well as training centre, where trainers can buy there own barns etc. The estate will also offer homes on an equestrian type development. This would be very modern and, yes, upmarket. This is the basic idea. Maybe it will never happen. But, I hope it does. As far as RA is concerned, they wouldnt be putting up the money, as they would have to at Randjes. Let's wait and see if something happens, or indeed, if this isnt just someone's idea of starting another rumour.

@frodo..the lesser lights should be racing in kimberly or pe..stakes in pe are relatively good if compared to kzn and the cape!
there should be no room for mr55's etc in gauteng

JustinV Wrote:

---

> @frodo..the lesser lights should be racing in
> kimberly or pe..stakes in pe are relatively good
> if compared to kzn and the cape!
> there should be no room for mr55's etc in gauteng


The Big Hole not an alternative, I'm talking about horses that more or less pay their way on turf - some of these do not act on the sand, so now they need to relocate to PE? And what about the owners who like to see their horses in the flesh - do they need to relocate to PE too? Having races for the better class of horse is of course preferable (especially from a punting point of view) , but from a purely 'racing' point of view why should it be that different watching a couple of lessor lights striving for that finish line and watching Igugu taking on Pierre Jourdan - it is still a race.

As LG says, basically the problem is not enough opportunity to race - and while we may have the 'best stakes in the country', I'm not sure the stakes are that great (just less k*k than elsewhere in the country) - all this brought about by closing / selling courses (and then having to fork out big bucks to replace what you already had (the lights) etc.

And I agree, there is no easy answer at the moment and I pity the small owners who are in it for the love of the game and the breeders who somehow need to find a market for all the 'lessor lights' - even the best marketing in the world about 'buying the horse of your dreams' can not compete with common sense and day to day reality

Just my opinion

Being an owner of many of these so called "Lesser Lights" please don't think my comments are biased. As I have to watch most of my horses on Tellytrack due to commitments in my day job I would be happy to run anywhere in the country or Zim if need be. By the way have you seen whats happening to the stakes in Zim at the moment, not such a bad proposition.

The new nominations policy in Kimberly all but ptohibits any trainer other than a Kimberly trainer to run a horse there.

If you think P.E. is a weeker centre I would disagree.

If we limit our races to "Good Horses" in the Central Provinces our fields will get smaller and smaller. I would like someone to exsamine the field sizes in relation to the class of race. Small fields do not offer a very good betting oportunity because the odds are not attractive and as we all know they are unpredictable, what I mean is they tend to cause upsets. Betting turnover will drop over time and the stakes pool will be adversly affected.

As for me I have run very low merit rated horses in plated races against some of these good sorts and have managed to pick up stakes. This anomaly has had me stumped for years. My horses get eliminated from the lowest handicap races so we run them in plate races and run just off the winners.

I will find a way to race no matter what is thrown my way. BRING IT ON !