Today’s bumper J&B Met meeting will be a routine, albeit busy, day at the office for the sport’s policemen, the National Horseracing Authority Stipendiary Stewards.
“In terms of procedure and routine, it is no different to an ordinary midweek day at Durbanville,’ said the Cape team’s most experienced official, Tarquin Norval, who first did duty at the 1980 Met won by Peter Kannemeyer-trained Sunshine Man.
When asked whether the fact that the Vodacom Durban July had produced a sensational objection would be causing sleepless nights, Norval said ‘definitely not.’
“Racing is competitive and we are dealing with flesh and blood. An objection can arise in any race. We have a highly experienced team and we will deal with whatever comes our way,” he said confidently.
While the world is partying up a storm on course, the Stipes will be monitoring races and ensuring compliance with procedures from jockey weighing accuracy, equine specimen collections and all the way through to identifying that the correct horses are lining up.
The regular Cape team will be bolstered by visiting KZN Chairman of Stipes, Shaun Parker.
In addition to the ‘guest’ Stipe, on duty at Kenilworth tomorrow are Chairman Ernie Rodrigues, Deputy Chairman Nic Shearer, Tarquin Norval, Steve Naude and Cecil Van As.
The starting team of Fred Bosman and Amos Blayi will ensure that horses are loaded timeously for races.
Norval confirmed that the team of handlers at the start had been bolstered to ensure that, where possible, the horses were despatched on time.
