WHAT CAN YOU BRING TO RACING? - APATHY!

Turfies is the problem - not the event. Its time to face that fact. If this event was in the north, it would be easy to market and make "cool". There is nothing cool about fearing for your life to go to something that you have little interest in anyway.

The entertainment missed the mark too as far as I can tell. Jamali and co would not get too many youngster rushing to the track. Watch the Queens Plate. Jono Snaith will probably have Gold Fish or the like playing there.

Its a great shame that this, one of SA's leading events is so dismal. The wrong course was sold!

Could it be that they kept Turffies because they couldn't sell it? Location, location, location.

Probably - I am sure they would have faced way more resistance from the purists had a Turfies sale been on the table.

You cant grow your market, if you cant market the product.

I have to be totally honest that there was no vibe, very few people, poor after races party..even the boxes were quiet..last year was 10 times better

Unfortunately the accts who run racing really need to take a good look at what they doing cause whatever they trying to achieve on-course is not working

As far as I can see, an interest in horse racing is similar to an interest in chess and takes the same kind of time investment.

That is why there are so many conspiracy theorists even here, because it attracts a type of mind that looks for patterns and works from the scantiest clues.

Attracting passing trade is not the way.

The number of empty beer bottles on the lawn after a big meeting tells you nothing about the real health of the racing 'industry'.

Agreed Jack..thats why I say on course

However if you check the amount of money outstanding on horses bought at the sales, the amount of money owing to trainers, the huge increases in vet bills to owners then maybe we could sit back at take a good long look at the state of racing today?

... and they hired a PR firm to promote the Summer Cup as the 'hottest' event.
Will these inexperienced (in terms of racing) people give a refund now that they failed their brief?

You have a point Jack but gambling, like any other vice is a numbers game. Look at tobacco. If smoking suddenly becomes the thing to do again amoungst school kids suddenly they have a life time income from multiple individuals that purchase everyday. To rephrase, if out of a school of a thousand they capture just one smoker, they have a guaranteed income before tax of +/- R30.00 a day for the rest of that persons life.

Events such as the July and Met do their bit to capture new punters, even if it is only a small percentage of the 50 000 in attendance. The July captured me in 2005 and I was not even at the course. The problem is probably the conversion rate. Herein lies the problem. Racing is just to complicated for the average Joe. No one understands racing at first glance or attempt and most throw their hands up and walk away because they dont want to waste time and energy learning the ins and outs of racing. No one enjoys smoking at first but they fight through the coughing and spluttering in the name of peer pressure and eventually convert to full blown smokers. Others just cough once and say "not for me". Yes I am an ex smoker.

Perhaps the answer is to simplify the game somehow and make it more accessible to the average Joe. Again I say create a pick 6 running out of Lotto type quick pick scenarios in every pub in SA. This will do a lot to grow racing and an interest in racing. Can you imagine how many people would attend if they had randomly selected Pick 6 tickets running into a R50 000 000 pool. Do you think there would be a few more people at the course? Absolutely!

The sport in SA is definitely losing its appeal and when you talk to owners they are becoming far more financially aware of the costs vs the stakes. Also the difficulty of getting runners into races is frustrating them.

Give it a year or two and this sport will be under pressure..the owners and punters are paying the salaries for a lot of people.

more people at july gallops than at summer cup..time to have a good hard look at the people running racing in phumland because clearly they havent got a clue in fact after yesterday it looks like they couldnt run a bath.i hear mr ferraris had a full go at ra after santas win and snubbed mr naidoo..i look forward to watching the replay unless mr nico has cut it as he normally does if somebody has a go at phum ra etc.

Pirates the problem seems to be with globalisation and an outward focus rather than looking inward and build a solid foundation to launch from. The almighty dollar/pound/aussie dollar seems to have a lot of pull and perhaps SA racing is already dead to them. This worries me. As Jimmy said "and so castles made of sand..."

It also worries me that people within racing are so detached from there surroundings. No offence Chainsaw but not knowing who Jamali and the other entertainment was means that you dont turn your radio on. Same applies to other people in P management (not knowing Watershed). Surely you find out a bit about the entertainment,inform staff, listen to the music before you say "Ok, lets run with it."

It bothers me that there is the perception in my mind of P as it seems that they have so much control over racing in SA. I would go one step further and assume that they probably control GC to a large extent by way of the various agreements in the PGE relationship. My chief concern is the sprint before you can crawl or walk situation. I would bet that there is more interaction between P and its overseas comingling partners than there is with the local market (punters). The race game in SA is built on the back of SA punters and its time to check in with them to see if all is ok before it "...falls in the sea, eventually".

Al - Punters have endless complaints but a week later things just go back to the way they were- The problem is that Phumelela does not employ people that understand punting or even have an inkling of the "addictive" personality. Believe me if they got the treatment that punters get in totes in their local supermarket they'd realise how bad it was - ask for a can of coke and you get sprite(100 sw boxed and you get 100 places on a horse) - buy all the beans on offer and they order tinned radish to replace it(the vast amount of punters play south african racing not Ngong, Sweden etc) - Get to the till during your lunch break(you only have 10 mins to buy your food) and find only one teller operating - Go to the vegetable stand and see that all the trimmed cabbage leaves are lying on the floor(used tote tickets). Try to buy a trolley load of food and find there are no trollies(lack of tote tickets to fill in) - decide to try a new brand of soap powder and find there are no instructions on the box on how to use it so you ask the manager and he say "I have no idea!!" (pick three or any new bets/ new customers that may not know how to bet) Walk into the shop on bonus day when you want to spend your money and you are told sorry we can't sell you anything because all the tills are broken(telebet going down all the time) - Enter an instore competion and win a prize and ask the manager four times before he gives it to you(try to draw money from your TAB account or ask for a cheque/ cash a large winning ticket) See the price of an item is R1 and when you get to the till it is actually R5(incorrect Tote dividends and rule changes) Buy a product with the words "see inside for instructions" and when you open the box there are none(the lack of form for international racing) - I'm sure you can see my point here - If Raymond Ackerman or Whitey Basson had to run P'n'P or Shoprite in this manner both would be standing on street corners begging for loose change - If it were not for the addictive nature of punters the totes would close down but knowing this allows the 'dealer' to dish out any crap service because they realise the punter needs his daily fix