From Sportingpost
www.sportingpost.co.za/horse-racing/sa-r...-association-threat/
In an unprecedented show of unity, South Africa’s three independent racing operators, Cape Racing, Gold Circle and 4Racing, have rejected what appears to be an ill conceived notice of an increase in stakes commissions and implied threats of industrial action made recently by the Coastal Jockeys Association.
The letter, signed by all active currently riding members of the Coastal Jockeys Association (CJA), bar Gavin Lerena, Julius Mariba and Thabiso Gumede – see a copy here with signatories removed – was clearly a bolt from the blue for the racing operators.
The letter, which will leave egg on the face of the CJA, has been described as being met with ‘shock, disappointment and disgust’ in a response published on 6 April 2023 jointly signed by Cape Racing Chairman Greg Bortz, 4Racing CEO Fundi Sithebe and Gold Circle CEO Michel Nairac.
The response from the operators, addressed to the Coastal Jockeys Association, is carried in its entirety below with the permission of the signatories.
Dear Aldo and Corne
I am writing to you on behalf of three operators of horse racing in South Africa, namely 4Racing, Gold Circle and Cape Racing (collectively, the “Operators”).
As you will notice at the end of this letter, the signatures of the leadership of the Operators are present. That said, I may be writing this letter in the first person from time to time as I have had numerous direct personal involvement with the Coastal Jockeys Association (“CJA”), including recent meetings in my office with the purported leadership of the CJA, namely yourselves. But do know that any personal opinions I may express in this letter are explicitly agreed to by all the leadership of Operators.
We are in receipt of a letter sent by a certain Sharna Pheiffer to Fazela Abhed, the Jockey Remuneration Officer at Gold Circle. Personally, I have no knowledge of a Sharna Pheiffer, but seeing the letter was sent purportedly on behalf of the CJA, and given your roles as the purported heads of the CJA, we can only assume this letter was sent on your behalf.
Similarly, we are assuming that the letter was intended for senior leadership of the Operators. Once again, we must make this assumption because the letter was bizarrely and inappropriately addressed to “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN”.
Our collective reaction to the letter, on its face, was one of shock, disappointment and, most prevalent, absolute disgust at the level of disrespect shown.
/ upgrade their plans, but the Operators would cover the cost of Classic Saver only)
– the Operators to cease covering Vitality
– no new jockeys to receive medical insurance going forward
As I said, we reached agreement on the above.
That night, I sent both of you (Aldo and Corne) a message summarizing these terms.
The next day, March 16 2023, Aldo sent me the following message (copied and pasted) saying “Morning Mr Bortz.. thank you for the message. I’ve run these numbers and we still stuck in same place. We’ve just reshuffle the deck. We going to need to do this again. Unfortunately.”
The day after, March 17 2023, Aldo sent me the following message(copied and pasted): “There’s been a lot of wanting to come to stand still but I think emotions were just running high yesterday and Corne has since asked them to just give us some time to try calculate how we can make this work”
April 20th onwards
Unless or until we receive proactive and direct communication from the CJA looking to meet in person, we will be under the assumption that none of the CJA jockeys will be riding on and from April 20th.
The Operators will be instructing the NRB today to fill the fields from April 20th onwards only with apprentices and work riders and non-CJA jockeys. We will begin making those preparations. If there are insufficient riders to race, we will cancel racing if need be. Ed – See NRB letter to trainers – click here.
And be aware, if we cannot fill fields with work riders and apprentices, and racing gets cancelled, the Operators will be in breach of our international betting and broadcast commitments. Which in turn increases the likelihood of us shutting our doors permanently.
But seeing that this is purely a passion project for the three investors, we would prefer to shut it all down rather than deal with anyone who feels they can hold a gun to our head. Be in no doubt about that.
That said, it is not too late to re-engage in dialogue and to do so in a positive appropriate manner.
Obviously, that re-engagement can only commence with the formal and unequivocal withdrawal of your unfortunate letter of 24 March (effectively received twelve days later on 5 April).
Considering the unambiguous response that you have received to your “letter of demand”, and the disastrous consequences that will arise therefrom, it is incumbent upon you to urgently engage with your members. We have serious doubts as to whether those consequences are fully understood. Furthermore, even more concerning are reports that certain of your members were not aware of what they were signing, while others claim that they were told that these demands were supported by myself!
We would also caution you that a good number of your jockeys may be at risk of seriously imperilling their sponsorships and retainers because of your demands and approach. You should reflect on that carefully.
I for one hope you can reflect on your current approach, and quickly come to your senses and request a meeting. This is solvable but needs to be handled in the right way.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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