Diversification into alternative sport betting streams is nothing new and probably the obvious survival route as Phumelela reported a lower first six months profit on Friday. In a positive light this remedial action acts as a further crutch for horseracing but at the very same instance it ironically liberally waters down our local product. Owners and sport of kings purists must surely be wondering what is being done to create real incentives for people to go out and buy racehorses and to reignite the passion and interest amongst our horse- punting public. And the Grand National is not the answer either.
Money is the root of all evil. Anybody who believes that has never run out of food, petrol and electricity a week before payday. And as a commodity, it sure as hell makes this horrible world go round and drives the wheels of commercial endeavour. In spite of all the usual New South African gush about the community, upliftment and empowerment, Phumelela Gaming and Leisure, like any self-respecting listed entity, are driven first and foremost by the bottom line. Horses, racecourses and people may well have been there a century before the company was conceptualised but there is no overriding sentimentality and loyalty to this sport, its’ champions and heroes or traditions. That is just pure economics and let’s face it if you or I were in Riaan Du Plessis’ chair we would be taking the same line.
I was glancing through the Phumelela results article in the Independent Newspapers Business Report coincidentally shortly after a privileged reading of one of the very first e-copies of Charl Pretorius’ soon-to-be bestseller, Legends Of The Turf, and was struck by the two vastly different worlds that these represent. On the one hand Charl’s fascinating book is all about the great and good in horseracing. The heroes that we admired and revered and the stories that hooked us as youngsters and had us going racing and just reading a racecard at every opportunity. Legends is available from Charl via e-copy at R100 a shot and the hard copy is being printed in the USA and will hit our shelves in two weeks. It’s a great book to escape into when Tellytrack gets too much. His dedication is a touching and sentimental summary that succinctly sums up what most of us want.
To quote the Legends Of The Turf dedication: To the outstanding individuals who have served South African horseracing and to the equine stars who have graced our race tracks; to legends in the making and to those who will follow: May your contribution to the greatest of all sports be acknowledged, duly recognized and remembered forever.
On the flipside of that is the stark commercial reality facing the custodians of the game today. The harnessing of alternative revenue streams to supplement income and keep shareholders smiling and, of obvious secondary importance, maintaining the stakes pot at a level where folk will still want to go out and buy horses, is high on the agenda. Phumelela aren’t doing a bad job marketing the sport to punters and racegoers it seems. One gets the feeling that there is always something being done to add a slant. Ladies night at Turffontein on Tuesday was something that would have happened at Is American in Port Elizabeth or Stealers in Rondebosch thirty years back – never on a racecourse. Even Dennis East’s little Champions Day jingle that is played incessantly by Tellytrack is really a helluva nice touch. But is the utilization and creation of this commercial sense of belonging and association really going to bring back the halcyon days? I doubt it .
The owners and punters need to be incentivized and treated royally too and made to feel important and needed – just like they really are. Stakes need to get with it – very soon. And the redesign of the Jackpot was a master-stroke and more product innovation is required on that front. The current boquet is a little tired, frankly. We need to boost service levels and to poach casino management and people who want to work in a service industry. The diversification into sports betting has also brought a whole new market into the totes looking for a punt on soccer. This has peed off the traditional horseracing punter in certain instances and little or nothing has been done to get the soccer punters, a captive market, to dribble their way through a Pick 6. If they are going to be hogging our queues then they need to be boosting our horseracing pools. It makes financial sense and where on earth else will new punters be recruited?
Horseracing also needs to look at its image. It may not be our problem locally but let’s start a campaign to have the Grand National banned forthwith. I mooted this a few years ago in these pages and a leading KZN trainer said I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. That is true most of the time and he is entitled to his opinion but how can we justify a spectacle that has been likened to bullfighting? Only 19 of the 40 runners completed the race on a sweltering Saturday afternoon. Twenty-five percent of the field fell. Two horses died in the process, bringing to 20 the total fatalities in this race since 2000. The winner Ballabriggs was too tired to be led into the winner’s enclosure after running the second fastest National in history. I know guys die of heart attacks in the Comrades and Two Oceans marathons but they run the races by choice and aren’t expected to leap over obstacles twice their size. We love our racing but we love our horses more. Why don’t we just start punting on pitbulls and cock fighting too?
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New Beginnings for Winterbach Stud
With all the doom and gloom and talk of recession, one man who appears to be bucking the trend is 53 year old Equus Award-winning breeder Hendrik Winterbach who is opening his doors while others are closing theirs. He has recently started trading as Winterbach Stud.
Hendrik tells me that he has taken over the property in Klapmuts formally occupied by Tony and Joanna Mincione’s Millenium Stud. While digressing slightly. I hear that the Mincione family have relocated to the tranquil surrounds of Knysna and are ‘no longer involved in horseracing.’ That is very sad news and maybe a story for another but also probably not that unusual in these trying and testing times.
Hendrik Winterbach was Stud Manager at Varsfontein for almost twenty years and is probably most well-known for breeding the two brilliant full sisters by Caesour, Perfect Promise and Irridescence, who both won multiple Group races and did South Africa racing so proud overseas. He also worked in recent years for Jean Van Heerden at Riverworld Stud, before deciding to go it alone.
He will be offering foaling, boarding, spelling and pre-sales prep at his new establishment and says that he is looking forward to the new challenge, with the assistance of his 23 year old son, Hendrik junior, as his right-hand man. Hendrik may be contacted via email at [email protected].
We wish the Winterbachs the very best of luck.
