The Phumelela publications ban has metastasized to the Cape, writes Tony Mincione in the Sporting Post mailbag.
Racing is dying. Tracks close, branches close, tote turnover is shrinking… and Phumelela’s answer is to put pressure on other racing publications in the name of fair competition.
Who thinks that extinguishing the last vehicles of racing information is a good idea? It is impossible to believe this is not an instruction from the top and so it is the official strategy. You may wonder how a company which has a state mandated monopoly and a R5 billion t/over decides that it’s cool to go for small independent businesses within their monopoly footprint. You would be right to wonder.
Any SA internet site or publication that is full time horseracing is done on passion. Racing is not growing, and horse racing as we know it has no idea how to cultivate new interest from the next generation.
I cannot believe that this is what people in the Western Cape want, and I can’t believe it’s what the leadership want. Fewer options is never what a customer wants. Then why would you let your management company take another step to squeeze the life out of racing? How does killing publications save or enhance the sport?
It’s a disgrace. People, you get the government you deserve and if we carry on like this then we deserve nothing less. Racing desperately needs a change of attitude because some things just have to be done for the love of the sport, or it cannot survive. Owners and punters know that often they will lose money doing this – and yet we do it anyway.
When your response is to bash or destroy things…then you have no idea what a win-win is. And banning publications is what autocrats and despots do – in other words, thugs.
