Ken Truter

At the NHA AGM on Wednesday 18 January, Ken Truter was welcomed as the new Chairman of the NHA. We get to know him better.

Ken’s association stretches back to the late 70’s when he first bought into a racehorse as part of the ‘Lucky 7’ syndicate as a student at UCT. The horse, Benno, was leased to them as a 4-time winner. Sadly, Benno had already given his best and never ran so much as a place for his eager new student friends, but nevertheless the group had fun. While six of the partners had their fun and got out, in Ken’s case the racing bug bit, but nearly 40 years later, he says he has no regrets.

About Ken

Ken was born and bred in the Cape Town suburb of Newlands and spent most of his professional life in the steel business, although he sold his business 5 years ago and has been semi-retired ever since.

Despite growing up in a non-horsey and non-racing family, Ken’s racing – and horse – knowledge and experience are broad. From buying and racing horses, breeding and selling, riding himself as well as being a ‘horse dad’ and driving his daughter and some of his retired racehorses to shows, it makes an interesting and welcome change from some of his predecessors.

After the somewhat disappointing Benno, Ken’s interests increased. He raced in partnership with Marsh Shirtliff early on, which included the good stayer Dramdor. “I had a lot of fun with Marsh,” he says.

Racing success

Ken has enjoyed success on the track with horses such as Glamour Boy, Dominion Ruler, Gaultier, Rhode Island, Johnny Rockets and Emerald Cove. His current hopes are Lord Balmoral, in training with Vaughan Marshall and Elusive Silva, Ovidio and Nordic Breeze trained by Snaith Racing.  Ken was also heavily involved from a breeding perspective in partnership with David Hepburn-Brown in High Season Stud, standing the likes of Casey Tibbs and Camden Park. He says he has been blessed with many good horses in his time and counts among his breeding successes producing the mighty Jay Peg, an experience he labels ‘an obvious highlight’ as well as Sweet Virginia, the small filly with the massive heart, who retired a 6 time winner, winning the Winter Series against the colts and who is now turning out to be a top class broodmare. Ken says at one time he was the biggest shareholder in Captain Al after Klawervlei and given his enthusiasm for the breeding side of things, admits that he should probably be the Chairman of the TBA, rather than the NHA.

Administrative contribution

From an administrative point of view, Ken joined the WPOTA Committee in the early days, serving alongside the Chairmanship of Froggy Hodson and Billy Steele and eventually served as Vice Chairman to Rodney Dunn. When the WPOTA felt they needed more representation on the racing boards, Ken was elected as one of the youngest stewards in 1993 “and that’s how it all started.” After serving on the board for an extended period, which included being involved in the amalgamation between Durban and the Western Cape, Ken was elected Chairman of Gold Circle Western Cape. He served for 4 years before stepping down and handing over to Ashraf Mohammed.

Ken chose to take a break from administrative duties until 2015, when he was approached to consider representing the Western Cape on the NHA board. “Serving on the NHA is probably the only thing I haven’t done in racing besides training horses,” he quips. “I thought it might be nice to get involved again. I don’t want to sit on a board unless I believe I can make a contribution, but I sold my business in 2011 and have been semi-retired, so I had time on my hands, I feel I know racing, understand the rules and know the people.”

After serving on the NHA board for two years, Ken was elected Chair at the January 2017 AGM. “Andy O’Connor will be turning 70 this year, so he decided he would retire to give the board continuity and so we took the decision to change at the beginning of the year, rather than half way through it.”

Fresh approach

“I started out in racing under the ‘old school’, but like to consider myself the ‘new generation’ and am fully behind the manner MD, Lyndon Barends is conducting and moving the NHA forward in racing. Under the management of Lyndon Barends there have been many changes within the NHA, some of which I believe are long overdue.”

Although Ken is a non-executive Chairman and confirms that most of the day to day running of the organisation is done by Lyndon Barends, he is quick to add that he has full confidence in his MD and that they are working very closely with the Board to a plan in order to improve their operational efficiency. “A lot of issues are organisational,” he says frankly. “We are very aware of our weaknesses and inconsistencies, but are working to correct these and although it’s not easy, we feel we will get there given time.”

The new Vision 2020 is part of that process, as is their performance contract with the Operators. However, he feels the credibility of the organisation is key. “As the regulator, it’s important to have independence in our role of keeping the playing fields fair.” As such, there have already been major changes at board level with the number of board members slashed to 9. “It’s a more manageable number and we can be more effective and it’s also an easier number to deal with round the table,” Ken explains.

“The industry is changing and we have to change with it, which is why I applaud Lyndon’s approach. It’s important to speak to all our stakeholders, so we are committed to being open and transparent and engaging with the racing community. There are lots of different interest groups and unfortunately we will not always be able to accommodate everyone’s wishes, but at the end of the day, we will do what we feel is best for the NHA and the Racing Industry.”

Welfare

Another aspect that Ken is passionate about is the welfare of the Thoroughbred, both during and after racing, which is a subject he intends to make a priority during his tenure as NHA Chairman. It is something he is well positioned to do. “I make no secret of the fact that I’m horrified by certain owners and trainers who are fine with horses as long as they show income potential, but at the end of their career some – not all – are not as concerned as they should be.” As such, Ken was one of the founding members of the Western Cape Equine Trust, and recently succeeded Tommy Fowler as Chairman. “I’m not sorry I accepted. It’s a lovely committee of people who are all very committed and passionate about what we do.” The Trust focuses on the re-training and re-homing of Thoroughbreds off the track. However, even good works require funding and one of Ken’s main challenges is to raise funds. While Cocktails and Racing has fallen away, there is still a race day lunch which this year raised R260k. They have also recently joined forces with Horses For Causes to hold a joint stallion service auction which was a great success. “Events like these really change our financial situation. The Committee and volunteers all work out of the goodness of their heart and for the benefit of the horses, but of course having funding makes getting the work done so much easier.” Ken also puts his money where his mouth is and looks after a number of his favourite racehorses into their dotage on a farm near Kleinmond.

In terms of steering the NHA forward, Ken says, “I am honoured by my appointment and believe I can do a good job. I have the knowledge, experience and industry backing and I am committed to helping drive the changes to get the NHA to the point where we want to be.”