ABSOLUTE BULL#$***

I am absolutely disgusted with the whoever runs racing on the highveld...a bunch of idiotic clowns...

First of all my horse Kruger Gold gets nominated various times from his last run which was on the 26th November. Then we get a couple of bad draws and suddenly we strike luck and get 3 nr.3 draws in a row...

We get in a small maiden plate turf inside track on the 9th of January and what happens - abandoned due to wet track...Here i want to point out that big feature race days get moved to other tracks or days but not a litte uninteresting race day like ours...$%^$% that, what makes those race days more important and what makes other horses more special that races gets created for them just to pick up a fat cheque and the professionals call it "prep" races for features. To hell with that, my horse is nothing special but i pay my trainers fee and for 2 months i must wait and pray i get a chance to see him run...

Furthermore my horse was nominated for Tuesday 26 January and saw he was declared just to find out later he didn't qualify. My trainer is flabergasted, im going $*%$# mad cause i have to wait another 2 - 3 weeks praying for a good draw or even qualifying. No one cares cause my trainer gets his fee, the officials get salaries but *%$# the owners - let them suffer!!!!

After Mondays inside track some outsider [australian] ceo of phumelela bragged about the fact how the tote is growing and overseas punters somedays fill our tote up to 43% bla bla bla...In the past we easily had 9 races a day but they can't split a little maiden plate. Why???? Are you enriching yourselves or do you still have to pay the lighting installed at turffies which will be a future disaster...??????

No one looks after the owners - is the RA going to do something about this injustice to our unknown little owners??????????? Catch a wake up because we are flooded by stallions and over a thousand yearlings each year but a meager amount of maiden plates and maiden races. But the big owners must also raise their voice because races are made up for them to get runners ready for big races and we small guys try to make a living with the scraps meaning the maiden races with no big guns...

I'm sick of handicappers and authorities deciding who qualifies as all maidens are maidens and i don't care for first timers getting preference over raced maidens - theres no difference - and who not as in matter of fact carding an extra race you fork out R80 000 but the pool on one single race is 10 times that!! I have a nominated runner for PE on the 29th - another maiden. Close to 80 nominations, a 67 draw but one race. This is bull cause they can card 3 maidens out of those nominations...

I hope someone can give me positive feedback on what i said or a clear answer from one of the governing bodies cause this is absolute crap...

Phumelela et al do not care about the "little man", ie. the one-horse-owners, the punters, the battling trainers etc. They only do things that produce big share pay outs, and benefit the "big boys" who run the show. Plain and simple, it's disgusting.

It's a long time since I saw a complaint about Gold Circle on this forum... or is that because only JHB people are on this site?

Sorry Rad, but racing is a game of ups and downs, and struggling to get a run a one of the 'downs'. For sure the RA needs to look after their members (I take it you are a member), but I won't hold my breath. This is one of the reasons why more and more owners are getting out - one of these days we will have races where half the field is owned by the Joostes.

Rads that race meeting on the 9th that was CANCELLED should of been postponed to the Sunday 10th imo... Can't these okes think OUT the box!!!

What I also find a disgrace is when they only run 8 race meeting, surely they should be adding a 9th race for maidens??

By the way what happens to the stakes money from that cancelled meeting?

Yeah Greg...that's a good question...what happens to the stake money? Propably used for setting up a special plate race where the 5 "big guns" can have a prep run for a feature and all five can get a cheque...

This is a serious problem and i wish MR. BRUSS also corner the parties involved in the Inside Racing studio...

rad i feel for you bud as i have been down this road before, when is gauteng going back to having 3 meetings a week on a permanent basis..the problem could be sorted out if a census is done about evry 6 mths to find out from trainers about their horses in their yards and work the programme around that..the trainers have to come to the party and im sure the backlog and unavailability of races would improve...you must remember THAT PHUM USED TO HAVE A RACECOURSE IN BLOEM WHERE THEY RACED ONCE A WEEK AND THIS ALLOWED THE TYPE OF HORSE YOU TALK ABOUT TO COMPETE and earn for earners ..but we wont go into that again

Thanx Pirates...i agree fully on your comment...i just got off phone and my horse will go to PE next week where at least i can win maiden and make back some dough for losses last 2 months and the big joke is this horse was bought at the ready to run but was never ready to run...and a year later Purchase price = R45 000; Trainer fees = R56 000; vet bill = R10 000 and yet to claim a stake cheque due to incompetent qualifying system - sounds like APARTHEID!!

hey Rad. I understand your frustrations, had same problem a short while ago - took ages for my horse to get a draw and through nomms into a race, but then meeting got postponed due to rain and then cancelled due to rain again. The point i raised on here at time was:

Why don't GC / P give horses that were carded to run but had meeting cancelled/postponed some sort of seeding/preference for future nomms?

Surely it's not rocket-science to set such a system up???

gregbucks Wrote:

---

> Rads that race meeting on the 9th that was
> CANCELLED should of been postponed to the Sunday
> 10th imo... Can't these okes think OUT the box!!!
>
> What I also find a disgrace is when they only run
> 8 race meeting, surely they should be adding a 9th
> race for maidens??
>
> By the way what happens to the stakes money from
> that cancelled meeting?
A simple solution two extra races per meeting (maidens) start early one maiden normal stakes one lower stakes for 4 years and up. every month you ad an extra day's racing(8 - 10 maiden races ) without the expense of having to pay staff etc for that extra day- The question is DOES Phumelela want to pay for the extra races? It would impact on turnover on foreign races if we had an earlier start (much cheaper to take bets on races where all you are paying for is the rights to show them not shelling out for stakes etc)

Another thing that I think would work is not to increase stakes on Feature races for two years and use the added extra stake to fund extra Maiden races. Trainers should also come to the party and start to think out of the box and nominate Maidens for low MR Handicaps to give their horses a chance. Some Maiden fields are so strong that the first 7 could easily win a weak Handicap(or place and earn some stakes) Owners must also be realistic though - if your horse is showing nothing and is really battling to earn and is a low MR already then you should try PE(not so weak anymore) or Kimberley. In some cases it might be best just to retire your horse rather than hope for a miracle to happen(6 year-old one time winner that has run so far behind in his last five starts that it looks like a criket score) It is not pleasant but better to cut your losses and find another horse than to continue with a FUND SUCKER.

Mr H a week or two back I was bitching about the kuk card at the Vaal (Lower stakes maidens)... You make alot of sense and I retract my statement regarding these race meetings .... Its a pity you are not involved in Phumelela's plannings

Greg the thing is that those race meetings may not be attractive so in theory if your first and last races(Not part of the PA or P6) were low rated you could absorb them and not have to schedule a low stakes meeting like we saw the other day. Also you then limit the risk as if it rains you don't lose a whole 'battlers' day but only two races for them and the owner with the top horse is happy because he gats a run as is the one with a weaker horse. Just start a little earlier and it's done.

Rad we all been through this mate and it continues unabated..Ive sent strong letters to Phum but have now given up..my anti-depressants have now kicked in and I just accept what I get..its very sad as they actually think they doing a good job.

This should be one of the points the RA should be fighting for us owners but I think they too have given up.