GOLD CIRCLE SEEKS NHA ENQUIRY

Following the running of the first race at Greyville last Friday evening, the jockeys lodged a protest citing that the track was unsafe to continue racing.



A panel, convened in terms of the NHA rules, could find no visual evidence to support the jockeys' concerns and overruled the protest. However, the jockeys failed to abide by the decision of the panel and refused to continue racing, causing the meeting to be abandoned.



At an extraordinary meeting of the Racing Sub-Committee on Monday morning, Gold Circle resolved to formally request the National Horseracing Authority (NHA) to conduct an enquiry into the jockeys' refusal to ride and have agreed in the meantime not to race at Greyville pending the outcome of the enquiry.



"Whilst we have consistently conceded that the track at Greyville has not been at its best during the current development phase, we were dismayed by the jockeys' actions on Friday night, particularly as the track had improved a great deal since the previous night meeting on 7 February, which meeting was safely concluded without a hitch," said Gold Circle CEO Michel Nairac.



"We would not like to believe there was any form of premeditated collusion amongst the jockeys but we have received (hearsay) evidence to suggest that this might be the case. A formal enquiry will hopefully provide some answers in this regard," he added.



Consequently, the race meetings scheduled for 14th and 28th March have been cancelled and the race meeting scheduled for Friday 21 March has been moved to Clairwood on Saturday 29 March. This meeting features the Gr 3 King's Cup and will be used as a platform to raise much needed funds in the fight against the continued slaughter of the country's rhino's. It is anticipated that the King's Cup "Racing to Save the Rhino" race meeting could raise in excess of R150 000.

Titch said that Muzi and Bling knew nowt about the protest on the thread the other night

why would they cancel the meets on the 14 an 28 March IF as the ceo stated the track was raceable...:S
doesnt make sense to me.

"Whilst we have consistently conceded that the track at Greyville has not been at its best during the current development phase, we were dismayed by the jockeys' actions on Friday night, particularly as the track had improved a great deal since the previous night meeting on 7 February, which meeting was safely concluded without a hitch," said Gold Circle CEO Michel Nairac

This was inevitable as we said on Friday............the NHA have to either concede the Jocks were right or take severe action........the Impasse they refer to cannot be the final result .
Will be interesting ,cos if they concede to the jocks ,it means that is the second time in a relatively short time that Gold Circle have produced a track unfit for racing(remember the recent Cwd debacle...........also in perfect weather)

NHA therefore has to act against somebody....................yeah right!!!

why would the meeting scheduled for friday the 7th of march be moved to clairwood already 2 weeks ago?cant greyville handle 2 meetings a week apart?very starange that clairwood will have 3 meetings in 6 days the 2nd of march the 5th of march and the 7th of march.... finally after cock up after cock up from this current board during their reign will anybody get bulleted ?

hibernia Wrote:

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> Titch said that Muzi and Bling knew nowt about the
> protest on the thread the other night

What did you expect him to say ?

Obvious attempt of deflecting the blame away from themselves..Soodum just to clarify my thinking are you insinuating that I was party to this so called hijacking of the race meeting ??

Titch Wrote:

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> Obvious attempt of deflecting the blame away from
> themselves..Soodum just to clarify my thinking are
> you insinuating that I was party to this so called
> hijacking of the race meeting ??

Just to clarify your thinking and before you threaten me with violence
again no I dnt think you a party to hijacking a race meeting , now chill,
Im tired of geriatic gangsters who live in the past

I wasn't there and don't know the facts. But, I have NEVER, in 50 plus years in racing in SA seen a worse group of jocks in terms of commitment to the Industry. I would , maybe SHAME some of them, if the truth be told.

Having said that, I do agree with Pirates overall sentiments. The one thing, though, is that GC are busy building and rain has put them out. It is a tough time for all. But, no pain, no gain....

Brave statement louisg , ,considering pirates thinks the gc board are
incompetent and the gc board will be your master soon when /if you get
boxes

Could they not have galloped a horse before the meeting earlier in the day to ascertain race or not to race...

Venodh Wrote:

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> Could they not have galloped a horse before the
> meeting earlier in the day to ascertain race or
> not to race...

They did , and hawkins walked the course