The events of Betway Summer Cup day in 2023 have intrigued and puzzled the South African racing public for over nine months now and questions have again been asked after the latest episode of the long running saga involving the Peter racing family was postponed on Friday 16 August 2024.
Two days before Christmas last year, the National Horseracing Authority confirmed in a media release that the investigation carried out by O’Sullivan Brosnan & Associates, surrounding the events that transpired at the stables of Tony Peter on Saturday 25 November 2023, had been completed.
We were informed that Messrs A P Peter (Trainer), P A Peter (Assistant Trainer) and M D Peter (Stable Employee) will be required to answer to charges at an Inquiry which was set down for Wednesday, 24 January 2024.
Trainer Tony Peter – endured a tough nine months (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
In a statement issued on Monday 19 August 2024, the Peter Family responded as follows:
We have been inundated with enquiries regarding the delay in the finalization of the enquiry regarding the events of Summer Cup Day, which until to date we have not commented on.
However, as a result of recent events, we feel that it is necessary, and without going into the merits of the case to state the following.
It is in the punters interest that we clarify the present situation.
We have been subjected to the most unfair and intense public scrutiny, including videos that have been edited and commented on by anonymous sources, who clearly lack the courage to identify themselves. This has been done in an effort to fully deal with what transpired in the hearing and we will make the entire transcripts available for anybody who wishes to read them.
We would have at all times been happy to keep the betting public and other industry stakeholders reliably informed regarding the enquiry proceedings and even from the outset requested the NHA that hearings be made public, including livestreaming. This request was denied by the NHRA.
We ask you, the reader, to consider, that if we were guilty of any offence why would we request the streaming of the hearing? It is not our doing to keep these proceedings as secretive as possible and invite the NHRA to make all the transcripts of the enquiry available to the public on their website.
This, we believe would stop the rumour mill and possibly assist all of those punters who lost money on Summer Cup Day when our horses were scratched to better understand what actually transpired. At this time the NHRA is still busy presenting its case, and we have not begun to present our case.
The latest delay at the hearing, (which is still subject to a ruling by the panel and as such, we cannot go into actual details thereof) was caused by a blatant and admitted contravention of one of the most basic and honoured rules regarding witnesses under cross-examination, which necessitated an application by us to the panel.
At all times we have attempted to resolve this matter as speedily as possible. The matter has now been postponed until 10 and 11 October 2024.
Ed – the Sporting Post requested an update from the NHRA after Friday’s latest postponement. Nothing has been received from the regulator at time of publication of this statement.
