A sobering plea without agenda, and based solely on his passion for and commitment to horseracing in the Cape, has been made by former National Horseracing Authority Chairman Ken Truter.
Mr Truter has been an owner and breeder since 1979 and in 2000 was named the Western Cape Owner of the year.
Ken Truter – deeply concerned (photo: supplied)
Besides enjoying ownership in a number of top horses over many years, his highlight, as a breeder, was as a shareholder of the High Season Stud that bred the international champion Jay Peg.
He is a man steeped in horseracing and has held various positions of office in the industry.
While he had intended to retire after the Asian Racing Conference hosted in Cape Town in 2020, he has indicated that he will step down from the NHA board at the 140th AGM on 12 January.
On a social media post last week, Mr Truter said that he was sad that the first racemeeting of the year at Kenilworth had to be cancelled, due to a lack of entries.
“I am concerned for racing in the Cape as I believe we have also been reduced to 60 meetings this year. I believe that the directors of racing here should be proactive and call an urgent meeting of owners and trainers – all stakeholders – to discuss the issues and challenges going forward,” he states.
He also posed the question as to why the final fields for the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Festival, which commences on Friday 7 January, were not finalised last week.
Declarations are due by 11h00 on Monday.
“The L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate weekend is a major social and racing event and the fields should have been finalised, published and promoted by now.”
He called on Cape Racing, citing his ‘pet complaint’ of barrier draws, to implement the system that the other centres do. He says that clearly draws on acceptance have been a ‘big fail previously and continues to be’.
Mr Truter confirmed to the Sporting Post on Sunday that his call for urgent discussion was made purely out of a love of the game and a deep concern that there appeared to be little being done to address the very real challenges facing racing in the region.
“I realise that there are complex issues at play and very real problems, but we need to put our heads together and do something proactively in order to arrest the slide.”
