Setting a few things straight

Together Dorrie and I made the decision to close our training doors however there are a lot of other reasons that made that decision easier…

Horses and Racing have been our passion our whole lives and to start actually training was a dream but the last few years it seems that Racing is it's own worst enemy.

The NHA management are only interested in themselves and how high they can climb. Please understand I'm not having a go at Andrew Fortune here but why hasn't his inquiry from 2021 July been heard yet? Vee Moodley says that whenever Andrew is ready then they will hold it??

Other inquiries are held within days of the indiscretion. I was fined R30k for saying s&# in a room of 20 people, Mr Kalil was fined R10k for drunken behaviour at Greyville, Mr Bornman was fined R5k for swearing at Turffontein
Where is the equality.

They even victimise their own staff who are too petrified to say anything in case they lose their jobs. Three of the best qualified ladies in Stud Book "forced" into resigning. Ask any breeder or person trying to register
a name for a horse what a nightmare it is.

My own appeal was held in a totally irregular fashion as the same person was on both my inquiry and appeal
boards. When my attorney brought this up it was brushed away. Their victimisation of Larry Wainstein was eventually chucked out on review. Vee Moodley apologised for swearing so his inquiry never happened. Lots more of this…We were told 3 years ago that the NHA had R4million for restructuring of the industry? Where did this go?

4Racing and 4Racing TV are run by men with their own agenda. The coverage of racing on a daily basis is continually getting worse not better. When an avid punter, breeder and owner sends a very well worded email to Steven Watson with suggestions on how to improve the TV for the punter, not only does it take days for a reply but the reply asks him to give his contact details (all supplied on the mail) so they can follow up on his box ???

This person who spent 16 hours a day watching racing has now also "raised the white flag'

I sent an email to Charles Savage re a certain person currently employed by 4Racing as a tipster who was warned off for owing hundreds of thousands to industry service providers. I am yet to have the courtesy of a reply??

Who advised 4Racing to sell Betting World? The only asset that, if run properly , could have helped the turnover climb and then stakes would follow. It's like trying to run a laundry service efficiently without washing machines.

Then they add a 5 month winter stakes program with 30% drop in stakes for the majority of horses. Higher MR races and Pinnacle are down only 15%? It costs the same to feed a MR70 as it does a MR100 horse. Grooms must still be paid, feed and bedding goes up!! We all knew there would be the usual winter drop but these amounts are just going to close many more doors.

We don't get a drop in rental? Do all the 4Racing and NHA management take a 30% drop in wages?

With their exorbitant salaries this would add a lot into the stakes pot.

The rest of the players, trainers, owners, grooms and jockeys have to try and adjust to 30% less of an income.
After all of this I'd still like nothing better than to see racing thrive under Colin Gordon and Patrick Davis, 2 gents with passion for racing the right way.

Sorry guys. This is indeed sad news to lose good racing folks.

Very sad for racing to lose another smaller player. Not good for the game. Things needed to change 15 years ago but now it’s really desperate. All the best team Sham.

Sad to say that good racing people like Mark and Dorie will leave the industry in future as nobody listens to the key roleplayers.

All we will be left with will be the big owners like (Hollywood, Viljoen and Drakenstein) and big Trainers like (Snaith, Peter, de Kock)

Sammy Silver wrote:

Sad to say that good racing people like Mark and Dorie will leave the industry in future as nobody listens to the key roleplayers.

All we will be left with will be the big owners like (Hollywood, Viljoen and Drakenstein) and big Trainers like (Snaith, Peter, de Kock)

I predict both Snaiths and MDK end up in Oz

Of course not good to see any racing folk give up the ghost - but just an aside, some people have an opinion that Patrick Davis is not that popular (to say the least) - so who as common racing folk, do we believe ?

Really sad news. One of my favorite stables.

Your concerns as a trainer is absolutely concerning and taking nothing away from this, we as punters are in a sort of similar mess.

We too will leave this game soon.

Sad news, but a wise decision. Racing is dying in front of their eyes but they don’t give a damn. We were told Dom Zaki understood what the punters want. Can Mr Zaki kindly share the results of his customer survey. Can he please tell us what is it that WE want. If they cared they could use data from this site to gauge customer perceptions. You get free customer feedback on this site daily. It’s elementary my dear Watson.

I also watched the documentary from Andrew Bon on Facebook and a sad trend for racing.

Reading the details from Mark about the fine discrepancy between himself and the Greyville incident were absolutely shocking.

Enjoy your retirement and the grandkids 🙏

......always admired this team.....and Im glad that I am at arms length of this industry as if I had dived in I too would have been a casualty..... as there is a lot in this game that is not right nor fair.....I could write novels on the shenaganns even before Jooste ultimately besmurched it....I see nothing but sadness that racing has become and will continue to struggle long after I am no more...

The industry has admittedly passed the point of saving itself - their inability to engage the Sham’s and many others on the ground to understand the real challenges has and continues to be the downfall of the past and current leadership. A solution is urgently needed at this level - without the unnecessary spend on a DJ and a Racing 240 TV production - which can be put to better use on the ground.

The Sham family’s efforts and selfless contributions and donations during Covid pandemic to those in need in our industry speaks volumes. How many of our leaders in this industry dipped into their pockets like the Sham’s?

The drop in stakes in winter on the highveld is a BS strategy and to claim that they want to encourage horses to travel is pathetic given the limitation of field sizes in other provinces.