Time for NHRA to wake up and regulate.

The NHRA has one main responsibility and that is to regulate horse racing in Southern Africa.
You only really appreciate the mettle and ability of someone when they are thrown into a major storm and you see how they handle the situaion.
The Markus Jooste and Mayfair Speculators saga is unprecedented.
Through its leadership of Lyndon Barends, the NHRA has shown that it is an organisation that thinks it is a private company and has no responsibility to explain its actions.
It is about three weeks since the Steinhoff affair and fallout started. The NHRA has told us that it has communicated with Mayfair Speculators and Jooste and reported that Jooste has resigned.Otherwise it has said diddly squat.
The NHRA needs to tell us more and cannot leave the industry guessing. It needs to do its job and fulfill its mandate. So does Lyndon Barends who has done nothing but sing praises to himself.
It is time for the NHRA to be transparent and to inform and advise horse racing. The silence and inaction of the NHRA is deafening.

If I buy a Mayfair Speculators horse will the NHRA transfer ownership into my name?
Why is the NHRA allowing Mayfair Speculators horses to run when it knows that the company is not paying its trainers and is not paying its nominations and acceptance fees?
Is Stefan Potgieter who the only director of Mayfair Speculators, registered with the NHRA?
Is Derek Brugman mandated to act for Mayfair Speculators and to make statements on its behalf? Has the NHRA confirmed with Stefan Pogieter that Brugman has authority to do what he is doing and saying?
What happens if a Mayfair horse is disqualified and it cannot pay the stake to the owners of the 2nd horse ?
What steps has the NHRA taken to protect potential buyers of horses owned by Mayfair Speculators and trainers who are owed training fees?


The NHRA must have made a policy decision, share it please.

Great post Jurgs.

I have said this before but it bears repeating. Barends has been placed as head of the NHA through Jooste. He will not bite the hand that has fed, and continues to feed him. For so long as an obviously compromised person heads up this regulator, expect nothing.

Not a great post at all. Are you a colour holder Jurgs, I suspect not.

Jurgs wrote: If I buy a Mayfair Speculators horse will the NHRA transfer ownership into my name?
Why is the NHRA allowing Mayfair Speculators horses to run when it knows that the company is not paying its trainers and is not paying its nominations and acceptance fees?
Is Stefan Potgieter who the only director of Mayfair Speculators, registered with the NHRA?
Is Derek Brugman mandated to act for Mayfair Speculators and to make statements on its behalf? Has the NHRA confirmed with Stefan Pogieter that Brugman has authority to do what he is doing and saying?
What happens if a Mayfair horse is disqualified and it cannot pay the stake to the owners of the 2nd horse ?
What steps has the NHRA taken to protect potential buyers of horses owned by Mayfair Speculators and trainers who are owed training fees?

If you buy a pair of takkies from Tekkie Town, can you wear them?
How do you know acceptance fees have not been paid? Perhaps if no arrangement or payment has been made they horses would be scratched?
Does any company director have to be registered at the NHRA?
Is Brugman not the nominee?
What happens if any disqualified horse doesn't pay the stake back?
What steps does the NHRA do to protect any potential buyers from unpaid training fees? Legally, what can they do?

These are loaded questions, like is Jurgs qualified to ask technical NHRA questions? Has Jurgs bought and sold horses? Who is Jurgs? Read the rules before you have a go at them. And really, people should think about signing their names when their credibility is also needed by what they have said.

Are the answers to the above questions not the same as when a horse runs in the "estate of the late..."?

Last i heard trainers were being paid and although told to sell, they have been otherwise asked to carry on. So if bills are getting paid what exactly can the NHRA do?

Mini Tycoon,

Thanks for your comment.
Although you are having a dig at me, you do not answer any of the questions asked.
If you are affiliated with any of Mayfair Speculators, NHRA, RA and any operator please give us the answers.
IMO I see nothing wrong with criticising the NHRA for not regulating and comminating with horse racing regarding this major event. Surely, you cannot dispute that we are not given enough information and have been left in the dark.
We are entitled to know.

Your question to me about my involvement is predicated on a wrong premise. I can be a colour holder without owning horses. I can own horses without being a colour holder.

Mini before I disclose myself, please disclose yourself with your full name and contact details including telephone number. Give me your work email address and not an arbitrary gmail address. Should this be confirmed, I will contact you and do the same.

Bob Brogan wrote: Last i heard trainers were being paid and although told to sell, they have been otherwise asked to carry on. So if bills are getting paid what exactly can the NHRA do?

Bob they can actually do a lot.

It seems to me that many feel that it is sufficient that Jooste meet his arrangements with regard to his racing interests. Unfortunately it is not as simple as that. Jooste will soon be asked to make good on loans that he has taken from major financial institutions. The date set for this is early February. He is not in a position to repay the loans taken so a liquidator will be appointed and his assets will be attached and sold to repay these debts. The liquidator can legally peruse all horse trading done prior to this and is legally entitled to set aside deals that are deemed not to be market related. So for an example, if the liquidator does not find the paper trail for the alleged R3.2m "paid" for Legal Eagle, that transaction can be nullified. That scenario goes for every transaction done.

What the NHA should be doing is ensuring that Mayfair horses are not transferred to new owners until clarity is received on the legal requirements

Jurgs wrote: Mini Tycoon,

Thanks for your comment.
Although you are having a dig at me, you do not answer any of the questions asked.
If you are affiliated with any of Mayfair Speculators, NHRA, RA and any operator please give us the answers.
IMO I see nothing wrong with criticising the NHRA for not regulating and comminating with horse racing regarding this major event. Surely, you cannot dispute that we are not given enough information and have been left in the dark.
We are entitled to know.

Your question to me about my involvement is predicated on a wrong premise. I can be a colour holder without owning horses. I can own horses without being a colour holder.

Mini before I disclose myself, please disclose yourself with your full name and contact details including telephone number. Give me your work email address and not an arbitrary gmail address. Should this be confirmed, I will contact you and do the same.

You demand answers from the NHA as if 1. you are entitled and 2. as if they are obliged and 3. as if they are enabled. The whole thing goes wrong if the question is wrong.

You ask is Potgieter registered. I don't know, but does he have to be? I looked in the rules, he doesn't have to be so why do you ask? The rest of your questions were the same. You can't ask a question like "Would you get upset if I called you stupid?" without the other party getting exactly what you ARE saying.

After a while your questions in that post imply NHA wrong doing. Wake up and do your job you say. Read the rules first. I asked if you were a colour holder, because then you I can assume you might have read the rules.

I don't want to know who you are, but then we are just left but what you say (even in question form). Post after post you assume powers that the NHA just don't have. They do not have powers beyond a court. They don't even have the powers of a court, and so far the courts have done nothing. After a while, the accumulation of posts is an accusation of wrong doing, and then at some point their lawyers come looking for you.

I agree with Bob, if we don't give our names we must clearly keep on the right side of liable. If we want to get contentious then we can't hide behind anonymity, when that fails it will get messy.

While we are anonymous we are not "entitled" to anything. And then only to what they are empowered to do, and most of that requires proof, not speculation.

And that is my last post anonymously.

Having read a lot on ABC and Sporting Post, I don’t believe the NHRA can regulate.
It would appear that the NHRA is funded largely by Phumelela and with the nexus between Jooste and Phumelela, it would be nigh impossible for them to act on such a big matter as this without the latter’s consent or approval. And as it would appear that Barends is nothing more than an establishment employee, they will do nothing despite his transparency pledges (before the Jooste outing took place).
Sort of reminds me of the South African political situation around Zuma and State capture, those who benefit or benefitted from the perpetrator rally around him but once the sh*t hits the fan, they will take cover and look for another benefactor. Sadly the damage done will take years to rebuild but hopefully there are enough honest people with good intentions who will step up and help with the rebuilding process.