Bungling Durban municipality blacks out July meeting

The Durban City Council plunged the Hollywoodbets Durban July race meeting at Greyville into darkness soon after dusk on Saturday – forcing the final three races on the programme to be abandoned.

Nine races had been run and the last three were due to be staged under floodlights. Turnover on three races on a major race day runs into many millions.

Key municipal officials “did not get the memo” that the July would be exempted from load shedding, said Gold Circle boss Graeme Hawkins on DStv.

Jockeys’ protest

Power was eventually restored to Durban’s Berea area after 45 minutes – following a series of frantic phone calls.

But, by then, the jockeys had protested that they had no guarantees the floodlights would stay on and they were concerned for their safety. Also, a number of riders were scheduled to fly out of Durban on evening flights.

Hawkins revealed that the municipality had given racing operator Gold Circle written assurance that load shedding would be suspended for the duration of one of Durban’s iconic annual events, which is a major money-spinner for the city and the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Promptly at 6pm, all went black.

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Horses for Race 10 had paraded before the capacity 48,000 crowd and were nearing the starting gates at the 1600m start when the calamity struck. The runners returned to their stables in gloom.

Hawkins said there were major concerns about security with such a large gathering of people in a blackout.

Ironically, a number of races on July day were “sponsored” by city and provincial entities. Many political leaders were guests at the colourful occasion, dressed to the nines, and were interviewed at length about the importance of the event and its positive economic impact on the region.

It was the 127th edition of the July, which has been staged uninterrupted since 1897. The big race was won by a four-year-old gelding called Winchester Mansion, who just pipped favourite See It Again.