Thank You, NHA........but

This afternoon I was required to collect an impressive looking padded envelope from my local post office.

It turned out to be from the NHA.

In it was a laminated certificate and a letter from the NHA thanking me for 'being a colour holder for 25 consecutive years'.

Very sweet of them.......but for one t-i-n-y problem. I haven't been a colour holder for 25 consecutive years!

I actually handed in my colours around about 2011 and re-applied (at a fairly hefty fee) in about 2015.

One wonders what the rest of their records look like..........

Classic

Waste of trip to the post office lol.

It's funny, but also a clear indicator that something is very, very wrong.

Anybody who holds their colours for 25 years should surely be worthy of something a little better than a laminated piece of paper? Now I get that budgets are a factor and all of that but can they not recognise a long standing owner and reward them with the honour of a race named after them on a day as a token of appreciation and thanks? Make a song and dance.

I collected the same thing for a colour holder who has been in the game 40 years. Was told to come and collect the envelope. Not framed, not a handover with a photo op, not even a thank you for the loyalty to the game.

This person is also a life member of the RA, has yet to be invited for a lunch in the Elevation Room.

Aspirational. :whistle:

mickeyblue wrote: It's funny, but also a clear indicator that something is very, very wrong.

Anybody who holds their colours for 25 years should surely be worthy of something a little better than a laminated piece of paper? Now I get that budgets are a factor and all of that but can they not recognise a long standing owner and reward them with the honour of a race named after them on a day as a token of appreciation and thanks? Make a song and dance.

I collected the same thing for a colour holder who has been in the game 40 years. Was told to come and collect the envelope. Not framed, not a handover with a photo op, not even a thank you for the loyalty to the game.

This person is also a life member of the RA, has yet to be invited for a lunch in the Elevation Room.

Aspirational. :whistle:

an industry package deal perhaps - TBA and CTS offer some type of discount on a horse bought by one of these members at one of their sales - Travel package to big races at at discount for a year(out of province only) - Special Badges issued to represent their contribution - An invite to the Betting World boutique shops with a 1000 betting voucher - A bottle of wine with a label depicting the achievement etc

I haven't been a member of the RA, but I have been a member of many other acronyms mentioned here.

I never "felt" that I was a member of anything because it was always like I was paying a fee to get access rather than joining co-enthusiasts. I got colours after the "interrogation" era. The (then) Jockey Club must have realized that many people weren't going to own horses if there was a compulsory proctologist examination by a gang you would share a dining room with later.

And for the record, to perpetuate that gang law that you should run off to the NHRA for everything that might go wrong with your civil contracts is just bullshit. That died with the old-boy-network and colonialism. It's apparent that unless you are licenced, you cannot ring-fence racing disputes. Like for everything else, you going to need a lawyer and probably an advocate. No one is going to accept a ruling of a little tribunal run by people you have no idea about, or you just suspect they have no idea what "disrepute" means. Every time someone says the NHRA "should" do this or that, I think just pack away the Dick Francis novel already and see before you the world Zuma made. Smell the coffee at least!

And that includes the ridiculous stop Mayfair horses from running thread. If those guys are right now, then 6 months ago they would have been running to Jooste's lot to get them to stop someone else from running! Everyone should think about who they want to dish these super powers out to, because you live under that rule thereafter. Think about the inclusion of moral judgement in these super powers too, not just above-the-law powers they propose. Insane!

Anyway, the point: If you are a member of the NHRA, it would be excellent if you said "we should" rather than "they should". It's a democratic organisation now. The members vote their cronies in, and they (see?) have total control. All the rules etc have a process for their upkeep and management. Once they broadened the membership so that anyone could, it seems that no one does.

Finally, whatever it was, it's a regulatory body primarily. It's like court in a Midwest American town. You vote for the judge and the sheriff, and they kind of dispense as folks appreciate, else they don't last.

If you not a member, then like me you're probably just a punter. Punters are shrewdish so we know nobody gives a shit about us till we die off in the next 2 cycles and racing really does fade into an old, foggy, post colonial dream.

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve” -George Bernard Shaw