Gold Circle CEO Michel Nairac
In a sensational sequel to the abandonment of last Friday evening’s Greyville night meeting, Gold Circle have suggested that premeditated collusion amongst the jockeys could have been one of the sinister forces at play.
Following the running of the first race at Greyville last Friday evening, the jockeys lodged a protest citing that the track was unsafe to continue racing.
A panel, convened in terms of the NHA rules, could find no visual evidence to support the jockeys’ concerns and overruled the protest. However, the jockeys failed to abide by the decision of the panel and refused to continue racing, causing the meeting to be abandoned.
At an extraordinary meeting of the Racing Sub-Committee on Monday morning, Gold Circle resolved to formally request the National Horseracing Authority (NHA) to conduct an enquiry into the jockeys’ refusal to ride and have agreed in the meantime not to race at Greyville pending the outcome of the enquiry.
“Whilst we have consistently conceded that the track at Greyville has not been at its best during the current development phase, we were dismayed by the jockeys’ actions on Friday night, particularly as the track had improved a great deal since the previous night meeting on 7 February, which meeting was safely concluded without a hitch,” said Gold Circle CEO Michel Nairac.
“We would not like to believe there was any form of premeditated collusion amongst the jockeys but we have received (hearsay) evidence to suggest that this might be the case. A formal enquiry will hopefully provide some answers in this regard,” he added.
Consequently, the race meetings scheduled for 14th and 28th March have been cancelled and the race meeting scheduled for Friday 21 March has been moved to Clairwood on Saturday 29 March. This meeting features the Gr 3 King’s Cup and will be used as a platform to raise much needed funds in the fight against the continued slaughter of the country’s rhino’s.
It is anticipated that the King’s Cup “Racing to Save the Rhino” race meeting could raise in excess of R150 000
