Waiting for government Godot – with Bling to cheer us

We could have made a bundle on the second option, with the president appearing bang on 7pm, mask in the right place, ready to deliver. Our money would have gone up in smoke if we’d gambled on the cigarette roughie. And racing restarting? Well, we’re still hanging on anxiously as the judge checks the photo finish images.

We must wait for a cabinet minister to appear sometime this week and dispense favour to an industry of 60,000 people, 40,000 horses and billion-rand turnovers.

Prospects of a racing restart are looking good. A leaked draft of the rules for Level 3 lockdown, which starts on Monday 1 June, state plainly: “All gatherings are prohibited except – professional non-contact sports matches, which may only include players, match officials, medical and television crew and two journalists…” Of course, no spectators will be allowed.

Former champion trainer Justin Snaith was in no doubt that the switch to Level 3 was a green light and took to his Facebook page to celebrate a return to competitive galloping.

Other observers are wary; they’ve been here before. Government assurances to racing have proven empty for two months now.

Themes in the famous play Waiting for Godot are apt for the situation racing is in. Written by eccentric Irish Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett, the play is about two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting in a wasteland for the promised arrival of a chap called Godot. The two chat, argue, philosophise and joke, but Godot never comes to sort them out. Two other bizarre characters do pass through – a businessman-type called Pozzo and his erudite performing slave Lucky.

It’s a mystifying piece of art, bleak, yet amusing and heart-warming at times, and was voted the most influential play of the 20^th century. It is a universe both hopeless and hopeful, funny and sad, and has been analysed and interpreted in umpteen different ways.

But the straightforward situation of the hapless men is pretty appropriate for South African racing’s plight right now. The game is in a ragged state in a desolate place, waiting for a Command Council Godot to pitch up and do something.

While we wait, like Vladimir and Estragon, we can fill time reading a cheering note from S’Manga Khumalo, a former South African champion jockey. Sitting in lockdown, the popular rider nicknamed “Bling” penned a letter to Sporting Post expressing heartfelt thanks to a long list of people in the racing industry.

Bling writes: “And my last thank you is reserved for the government when they hopefully allow us to race at Level 3, maybe come June 1. We just can’t lose any more majestic animals due to euthanasia and we simply cannot afford to lose any more jobs…

“This sport has given me a life thanks to all the stakeholders mentioned above and I cannot thank you all enough…

“The horseracing industry will recover from this disastrous setback and we’ll look back post Covid-19, realising that yes the people in our industry are different, not normal, weird to the rest of the world – but they have enormous hearts, strength and courage to weather any storm and most of all an incredible love for the thoroughbred.”

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