Does anyone know what happened at the meeting re Turf lights?

Anyone??

Lights or the new track??

sorry Oscar also waiting in anticipation, would prefer the lights.

Yeah Dave but no one is talking..can only be bad news!..no money as usual.

Did the lights get stolen?

lol........more like a race track got stolen

This could be a long story my friend, but we did have a track with lights and it was sold, no comment!

We now have in Joburg, the big T [ Turffontien] which is our top track up North, and we hope for night racing, but need lights as it gets dark here.

Financial restrictions are the factor etc,etc, or they may make one of the tracks an all weather, at this stage awaiting some inputs, but plenty fun and games, on that subject check the gallery and in addition the home page photo will show you that we are moving the parade ring to the front of the stands, better still come and join us racing and we can fill you in.

Dream on ! Lights wont be going up at Turfontein.
It appears Phumelela not obligated to screen (night meet) to USA anymore.
Plus, their share price taken a dive (like most).
What is encumbent on the RA is to make sure they (Phumelela) dont gobble up that R40million and to make sure they put it back into racing, be it polytrack, addditional meetings, development etc.

Please could you for the interest of the uninformed give an overview of what is going on here? Could I ask who owns the track and why other organisations are involved. Its a lot simpler here, tracks are mainly privately owned and improvements are for the owners account

cuckoo, one would presume that the 40 mill that the R.A. has, is earning some decent interest at the bank in the interim !

To me it makes sence to turn the inside Turff track into a polly track seing they are upgrading the big T to such a large extent. then we can race at the big T twice a week & make up for the LOST night meetings, as well as race at the Vaal once a week. Make sence ?

Briefly, mastul, in the late 1990's when our racing was in dire straits (so they say), most of our race tracks and assets were taken over by a corporate, Phumelela.
The government gave them tax concessions and a betting license.
The Racing Association, a section 21 company was formed to look after the interests of owners, to help racing realize its full potential and to keep Phumelela focused on its core business ie horseracing.
An 'arm' of the RA, the Racing Trust was formed which holds about 38% of Phumelela shares and its task is to promote transformation, help with development of grooms, workriders, academies and help the industry diversify and be representative of our population. (Note that the Trust is run by trustees of whom Phumelela directors are among them alomg with Sascoc and Sport Council).
Sadly, Phumelela justified the selling of Bloemfontein, Germiston and most recently Newmarket race-course (without too much resistance from our so-called guardians).
As Newmarket hosted night meetings, Phumelela were supposed to use Newmarket proceeds to re-locate lights and upgrade Turfontein to cater for what was lost at Newmarket. Some trainers at Turfontein iniatally contested said as they felt that not enough research was done as to the impact of night racing on the horses stabled there.
This was by and large dropped and it was proudly announced that it was going ahead.
Things have changed since then and despite rumours and concerns, no info iseems to be forthcoming from Phumelela and the Racing Association.
As brief as possible ! Hope this helps.

Thank you Cuckoo, but no, it doesnt clarify issues as I dont understand the majority of what you are explaning. I can however see that some type of corporatisation has taken place. This is always a problem here when racecourses are bought out by people with little or no racing interests. Invariably these people then sell off the assets i.e land and buildings and move on to their next project. We have lost many courses in this manner in the last few years and more are at risk. It seems you have a similar scenario there. Expect the worst if the corporate is in it only for the cash.

Jess, again,in layman's terms - if say P are deemed to have not carried out their part of the deal - are said other 'parties' able to 'take over' from them and seek 'other' interested parties to do so?

Or is that not possible/ an option on your understanding of said 'original deal' w/Racing Trust etc?

And if there is said 'option' available - would that then mean P would be obliged to reimburse RT with any said monies received for such sales etc? The reason I ask is because I thought I read somewhere that for instance the 40m for the lights went onto P's bottomline - or did I dream that - lol!

Anyhow mate, I, like Mastul, am a bit confused and unsure of all the ins amd outs.

As for 'us' with not winning the 'USA' night racing deal and therefore less cash for the kitty, plus P's share price slide - would I be right to assume that there will be less money for 'stakes' this season or is that from a different source?

Cheers, Jim.