NO CAPE TOWN RACING THIS WEEKEND...

Justanotherpunter Wrote:

---

> I wonder if the trainers would make more noise if
> they weren't being paid 6k+ to stable a horse that
> was just standing in it's box.
>
> Can you imagine if they only earned if the horse
> did;it would be a whole new ball game.

''PAY AS YOU GO''.....

i really love my racing and sitting with the racecards and drawing my own selections from the information that i have at hand, but to be extremely honest here, i am VERY close to leaving the horse racing totally. I will have a lot more time on my hands and probably a lot more money as well.

I have stopped playing so much in the week and i am only playing either on a Saturday or a Sunday. I have already hammered in a nail behind my room door to hang up my punting boots!

The whole racing situation is a fiasco at the moment with things happening behind the scenes that punter joe, like me, knows nothing about, but just eats what is dished out at us!

I know adiction is the problem for the majority (and i most probably fall into this category a little as well), but surely a day will come when the turnovers will get noticably smaller.........

Peekay, i understand you 100% ...

PeeKay - I think a lot of us have gone through the same process but very few have spoken out - they just simply left and found something else to occupy themselves with.

Although we all occasionally make reference to the 'addiction' aspect of racing/punting I am not always sure that it is really a true addiction. I may be playing with words but I often feel that 'habit' is a better description. So don't be too hard on yourself........

If it's any help to you the path to 'recovery' took the following course for me :

1.) I fell in love with UK racing when it was first introduced ( having raced locally since the 1970s ).

2.) Then I started using Betfair.

3.) I started to enjoy the occasional sports bet.

4.) I owned horses.

All of the above would have described my participation at its height. So what went wrong ? In no particular order but as part of a combined set of circumstances :

1.) I started to become painfully aware that horse ownership was simply a thinly disguised way of low cost funding of the industry's assets and employees with little or no propspect of a return for the sponsor. Allied to declining spectator support, general public disinterest and a 'take it or leave it' attitude from operators this quickly disenchants all but those who the sport describes as 'sick for racing'. As I was by then questioning the logic of pitchforking hundreds of thousands of rands down the drain it was easy to stop buying and owning horses.

2.) Allied to the above I started to question my blind loyalty to a sport whose ethics, morals and humanitarian values were often questionable.

3.) I started enjoying sports betting more and more as - despite the occasional upset - form was easier to study and analyse and FAR LESS was deliberately and intentionally hidden from the punter.

4.) Once Betfair started getting popular South Africa did the usual 'apartheid styled' thing - they banned it. So much for free enterprise, freedom of choice and competition. We just love monopolies and particularly inefficient ones.

5.) Lastly - when they squeezed a lot of the UK racing off the screens I decided to pack it in altogether. If they were not even prepared to let me see my punts then what was the point?

The surprise to me was how little I missed it! As may be your experience should you elect to turn it up. I would be so bold as to suggest that everything from your family life to your bank balance would benefit enormously as a result.

But there's no need to exit it altogether. Set yourself some small rewards - Budget to have a go on a couple of meetings or major events each year. Then have a full go on them and walk away with the profit or loss until the next event six months or so later. In doing so you will have broken the 'bad habit' and probably increased your enjoyment by turning it from an habitual activity to an occasionally pleasurable one.

Good luck, mate!

Good and valid post Garrick.. . . . . . . I am also nearing my threshold and will be turning my attention towards Sports Betting and more directly to Tennis and Golf.

Peekay you and Garrick have made some really excellent points and i hope some people in the right places take note of what you have pointed out esp Garricks point FREE ENTERPRISE - still cannot believe no Cape racing tomorrow - surely this should be cause for serious serious concern all round - im surprised Jooset and the boys havnt acted - cause some cake must be raping the system i bet

It all comes down to turnover surely? Give a few regions back their autonomy and see if they can survive like in the old days where each province raced independent of others.Having the mountain not a great advantage here, mine dump yields more maybe.

Saftote a blessing for these regions.Pity the jockeys having to put up with the drought.K.Teetan carded to ride 3 mounts in his home country on Sat only.

Very good post Garrick.

Such a pity the powers that be (that I know for a fact read this site) don't give a rats about your very valid points.

Turnover and nothing else is the name of the game.

It will come home to roost eventually,but in the meantime we'll just keep pretending everything is hunkydory.

Given jobs without the experience, knowledge or necessary skills. Arrogant. Short sighted. A complete failing in being able to see outside the box. A huge desire to feel that they have the power. Lacking in basic common sense. Greed. An abject refusal to accept they could be wrong. The inability to present or communicate clearly a well thought-out argument, not that one of those might exist. Only when these human deficiencies are overcome will real advancement be made. Don't ask me who I'm talking about... I'll let you decide for yourselves.

82 race meetings annually.....same as last year.....the way the program me has been laid out isn't ideal and has been addressed for the new season....

hotline you the big shot down there in cape town. i ask a genuine question, who agrees to this madness of program and sign it off? who is responsible for wc program? i think this guy must go right now. the cape is sa top region for lots of things but please how can port elizabeth have the better turn over? i think and this is no being funny, to many people who look after them self and not racing is involved there.

When did Eastern cape ever have a better tote turn over..Flash??