Dettori one extreme to another

louisg wrote: OTA, u obviously won't find happiness in SA Racing. ..the bottom line is that all must agree that it's safe to race. Any other opinion but that of the jocks is actually speculation or a wild guess. When and where have u ridden in races or at work ? Please tell me where else in the World (which u live comparing us to), they have no other option but Kikuyu grass as the surface ?
The bottom line is that it rained on top of a wet course. Why is this so difficult to digest.
I have been on many panels before (obviously so have you), and I PISS MYSELF LAUGHING at the people who stamp on the course during track inspections and in so doing, try to emulate a horse's hoof impact (2500psi) on the Turf, by using his/her foot.... but nobody WANTS to or CAN see that in the last race that was run, the horses had their heads up and were holding back/ looking after themselves. ..because it would be easier, if racing continued, to blame a jock for an unfavourable result.

Louis I spend 80% of my punting rand outside of SA racing. I far prefer investing my time and money in areas where I know that the results are more consistent. I also feel that the racing is better regulated. I have little faith in the abilities of the Jockey Club in this country. I choose to have a go where I feel I at least get a run for my money in terms of the race I am betting on is regulated correctly. Its my money, so I make no apologies for this.

Insofar as your response goes I feel that you have missed my point. It concerns the rules that are apparently in place and are not being followed. I refer to the inordinate amount of time it took to finally abandon the meeting. The meeting got abandoned because the jocks felt that there were unsafe conditions. My point is why take 2 hours when the decision of the panel carries absolutely no weight? I have no issues with the jocks not wanting to ride. I have issues with the rules not being followed. Why have rules if they are not adhered to?

I was not there OTA. All that I can think of was that they waited to see what the weather would do and if the course would drain. Too often in the past we have abandoned meetings only for the sun to come out and the course to dry up sufficiently in an hour or so. I assume that everyone was just trying very hard to keep the show on the road.

But we are maybe not taking the whole scenario into consideration....the Vaal dam was at 8% a few months ago , about 35 percent 5 weeks ago and is now 100 percent full. ( the circumference of the Vaal damaround the water line when full is about 1000km) Mozambique was flattened, we have had floods all over the place and people have suffered severe losses.
At our Training centres, we have not had tracks to work our horses on and we have been severely stretched to patch up and puddle hop to get work into our horses. The rain of the last few weeks has been abnormal, to say the least.
It been a tough time all round. This was not normal rainfall.