Racing royalty donates billions – but might not save the game

Ironically, when President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled the new fund on Monday he also announced the great lockdown – apparently delivering a body blow to racing from which it will struggle to recover.

Racing is hardly an essential service, so the closed-door meetings that have kept the game ticking over for a couple of weeks look likely to cease as the country hunkers down.

The grapevine has it that racing officials will seek government permission to stage some meetings, but prospects are hopeful at best – even if Ruperts and Oppenheimers make personal appeals.

Gaynor Rupert, proprietor of Drakenstein Stud in the Franschhoek Valley, is ranked among the top 50 thoroughbred breeders in the world and was crowned South Africa’s champion racehorse owner in 2019. Her top horses have included 2018 Sun Met winner Oh Susanna and, more recently, another star filly, Clouds Unfold.

Rupert’s hugely glamorous patronage of the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate racing festival – sponsored by the family wine estate – has been a highpoint for racing in recent times.

The Oppenheimer involvement in racing goes back four generations and takes in six Durban July winners among thousands of honours. The family obsession centres on the stud farms Wilgerbosdrift, in the West Coast district of Picketberg, and Mauritzfontein, outside Kimberley.

The leading lights these days are Mary Slack, daughter of the late Harry and Bridget Oppenheimer, and her daughter, Jessica Jell. The latter bred and races charismatic three-year-old filly Summer Pudding, who looked a shoo-in to claim a rare Triple Tiara by winning the SA Oaks at Turffontein in early April. That looks doubtful now.

Many folk living in poverty will resent wealthy people indulging in the frippery of race horses – and political opportunists will leap on the bandwagon of that sentiment.

However, it should be borne in mind that this expenditure does contribute significantly to GDP and provides a great many jobs. If one takes the scores of other stud farms and horse ownership across the country into account, it is an industry that hosts hundreds of thousands of jobs and pumps billions of rands into the economy.

This, of course, will form part of the – probably futile – appeal for racing to keep going.

Measures such as no crowds and the banning of jockeys from travelling between provinces have already been taken as the sport tries to stay afloat. It’s no secret that racing is financially stressed, with one operator, Phumelela, trading under caution on the JSE.

Sporting Post website puts it thus: “While horseracing is unique, in that the sport involves bloodstock that have to be cared for, fed and exercised daily, the argument may well be that the continuation of a minimal quota of daily racing provides a vital lifeblood to ensure the wellbeing of the animals around which the sport revolves.”

A severely reduced industry – or even a total collapse – would not be good for the national economy. Or for the national mood. For all its image as a sport of kings that sees money squandered, racing retains popularity with the masses. It has undoubted entertainment value and offers realisable dreams of fortune.

The ancient Romans talked of bread and circuses to keep their masses happy. Dare we hope for just a whiff of that in a time of national angst?

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