Opinion: Racing’s silver lining has clouds attached

We hear a lot about how horse racing in South Africa is on the mend after a near-death experience in 2019/20/21. But every now and then we detect symptoms to indicate the patient might still be ailing.

The R9-million paid for a colt at last week’s Cape yearling sale seemed to be a sign of rude health.

That figure equalled the South African record for a racehorse sold at auction, set in 2019 when Mike de Kock bought a colt on the National Yearling Sale in Germiston – thereby harking back to better days before bankruptcies and Covid.

However, in the same week, we saw race meetings falling away for lack of entries and an unprecedented three blank days on the local calendar.

Officials in the major centres bemoaned sharp declines in the numbers of horses in training.

A lack of strength in competitive depth is not a good sign and points to falling interest and involvement among the country’s broad horse ownership corps. The question of prize money-to-upkeep cost ratio inevitably crops up here.

Cutting corners?

Then, on Saturday, TAB suffered a damaging “system outage” that left punters unable to place bets at a critical time.

Though operator 4Racing quickly pointed out its data centre “is run by Microsoft”, a prestigious multinational, the truth is the betting portal has tended towards the glitchy for some time. And that’s not to mention that the site is far from elegant or easy to navigate, leaving an impression in some quarters – possibly incorrect – that cost corners have been cut.

This came as Fundi Sithebe, CEO of 4Racing abruptly stepped down after serving for four years.

Sithebe did a fair job of fronting the newly minted operator that arose from the wreckage of Phumelela.

Presentable and enthusiastic about the excitement of the game, she projected a business image well removed from stereotypes of hard gambling and chicanery.

Replacing what she brought won’t be easy.

‘Money can’t buy me love’

Cape Racing has done a good job in polishing racing’s image. Its infrastructure revamp is brilliant, as is its communications effort with vibey, articulate race day presentations – albeit thanks in no small measure to poached talent from up north!

As a subsidiary of Hollywood Sportsbook, a holding company with very deep pockets, Cape Racing no longer has money worries. But, as The Beatles wailed, “Money can’t buy me love.”

Seven entries for the recent Cape Derby would have been a reminder of that, as was last week’s long pause in the programme.

Of course, none of the above is meant to suggest that the racing industry is under anything like the sort of financial strain it experienced a few years ago. It’s well documented how a handful of influential racing personalities have provided guarantees to keep the horses galloping.

Still work to be done

Yet there is no doubt racing has lost a lot of its former popular appeal in an age of online gambling, ubiquitous television, pervasive social media and a myriad other modern-day distractions. There is a sense that this erosion of interest is continuing.

So, while the resuscitation of racing is to be celebrated – and selfless, heroic people thanked – there is clearly a lot more work to be done in building strong foundations for the future.

Of course, sensible new government policies to spur economic growth would be a big help. But that’s beyond the scope of racing people and they just have to work with what they’ve got.

Some observers advocate unity in administration – presumably Cape Racing and 4Racing amalgamating – to tackle issues. Others warn that monopoly breeds complacency.

Could a common vision within a competitive arena be the way to go?