Current jockey travel lockdown restrictions may well be reviewed after President Cyril Rampahosa’s next family meeting, expected to be held on Sunday.
Following Mr Ramaphosa’s announcement of the step up to level 4 protocols on 27 June, the National Horseracing Authority announced that jockeys would be required to be domiciled in the Racing District of their choice after Sunday, 4 July 2021.
NHA CEO Vee Moodley – ‘let’s fight the right battles’
Once a rider rode in a race in any particular district on or after this date, he would not be permitted to ride in another region until further notice. This ruling included work riding as well.
Criticism has been levelled against NHA CEO Vee Moodley for acting in a ‘dictatorial’ manner, with some even suggesting that his actions in singling out a sector of the industry, while everybody else was permitted business travel – including business people, owners trainers, grooms and officials – was illegal.
An international owner phoned the Sporting Post to query the situation and also suggested that the NHA CEO’s actions were possibly unlawful
In an interview with the Sporting Post, CEO Vee Moodley rejected any suggestion that jockeys were being ‘targetted’.
“Why would we target jockeys? What would we have to gain from that? The simple fact of the matter is that jockeys are a relatively small group, but are key and essential players – they are at the core of the continuation of racing. If there had to be a positive and the need arose to lock down a weighing room in two provinces for example, that could stop racing for an indefinite period. Think about it for a moment.”
Moodley added that the issue should be put in context.
“We currently have 120 jockeys. 9 are travelling on average. That is 93% that are not travelling. We are protecting the industry, including the vast majority that are not travelling, and instituting a small controllable that could undermine the day-to-day stability of the game if it flared up.”
Jockeys are self-employed and thus travel on a permit issued by government to the NHA.
We put it to Mr Moodley that 18 grooms were travelling to Port Elizabeth today.
“Yes, it’s business as usual to a point and the fact that we are racing is the important aspect. We have 3500 grooms in the industry. A need to quarantine a group of that size, while very unfortunate, is not likely to bring daily racemeetings to a standstill.”
He says that the Vodacom Durban July racemeeting was not impacted upon and the one week restriction had no big race knock-on as there was no feature racing effected.
The Gold Cup day entries are due on Monday 12 July.
“We all rely on differing degrees to racing continuing. There are thousands of families that lean on the sport for their daily bread. We as the governing body look holistically at the protocols implemented, and at how we can act sensibly and responsibly, while making every effort to minimising the negative impact.”
Mr Moodley reminded us of the 2020 scenario where the movement of horses and people was restricted.
“There was a point where the industry was willing to sacrifice so much just to get racing on track again. Where we, as the body vested with regulation, can implement controls in the best interests of the sport and always act responsibly, we will. The third wave appears to be much worse than anything we experienced last year. We really need to start focussing on fighting the right battles.”
