The breeders often refer to "cheapies" or "not real money" as R150 - R200 000
This can be seen as true when you crack a good one and maybe are lucky enough to sell it locally or to Mauritius, Hong Kong or Dubai, but let me assure you, it is more likely that lightning strikes you.
Besides, all of the marketing only refers to the success stories and not the thousands of yearlings bought that could never return 20% of the outlay. A suggestion is that every horse sold on auction should have their racing progress updated on the sales sites. Buyers know the odds but at least people will be able to track the sales with the best records.
Gazza wrote: the lower prices are just a ' realigning' of the Industry after the thieves ruined it with stolen money,And there were a few of them if we remember Van Vuuren, Jooste, Moodley etc must be a few others?
.......yet it was this buying with monopoly money that drove out the middle market killing off the smaller owners and now breeders and ultimately the smaller trainers......racing is not as fun devoid of the dreamers boutique breeders and the real passionate few that enhanced the game......it is sickening that it is now a struggle for pure commercialism......not to mention the industry fractures left in the wake of Jooste's appointed firmly lodged at the coalface further discouraging broader growth and bringing in new interest....the industry has been severely nobbled and will take a very long time to recover.....
Racing got carried away with greed during the Jooste/van Vuuren era where stolen money was blowing up a totally false market and driving out the smaller and middle man. Tote pools are down and fields can barely hold up at the moment. The smaller man has upped and left as racing forgot about them during the glory days or should we say days of theft!
I ran a medium yard with 50-70 horses build purely by small owners but could not compete against the above and decided to call it a day. Gone were the days you could by a Legally Blonde for R30k or a Strategic News for AUS$40k. Now it’s all big money and racing is struggling however there is still a huge base of small to medium guys bruised and scarred on the sidelines but willing to come back BUT and a huge BUT, racing and it’s administration are doing NOTHING to get them back. I talk to a lot of them often and also talk to a lot of guys never been involved before who are so interested as they know it’s my long past however there isn’t a accessible way of getting them into the game...
I’ll give you another funny example. I came into the game by being exposed to it from a young age. My first memory was being left in the car park at Scottsville by my parents while they went racing (kids weren’t allowed in, in those days). My brother and I watched racing, heard the horses come past at the 400m mark, the jockeys interacted with us when they walked past to the start etc WE WERE ADDICTED! That memory is still fondly locked away in my mind heart and soul.....HOWEVER.....and here is racing today.... this past Sunday I took my son to run around a bit at the 300m in the car park across from Greyville, Golf Course side infield as we had just come off the beach and I wanted to show him the horses and let him play on the grass a bit. Needless to say, security first said he can’t ride his bike there which was at least 50m away from the track and then the next guard came and said, you can’t actually sit here. You need to leave or go in. Well well, another possible future racing person gone.
It’s the current attitude from racing admin that needs change. Forget parties and rock stars... bring in the purests and they in turn will bring more people! Some of the purest racing people I know don’t have the millions of other peoples pensions to spend but stay in the game and bring people in purely from their passion.
Racing, sales companies, etc need to go back to the smaller guys and say let’s work a plan forward.. as I say, I’ve got a good few people wanting to get in and know more but there is just nothing for them to even begin to start the process.
