A fatal multiple car crash in slow motion. That’s how a leading KZN trainer described the desperate suspended state of horseracing around the country, as he pleaded for government to reconsider the massive social, economic and animal welfare fall-out of the decision not to allow racing to proceed behind closed doors at level 4 in the COVID-19 lockdown process.
With no fixed time-frame for us to move from the current level 4 of the government’s lockdown strategy to level 3 as this would depend on the level of infections and the readiness of the health sector, the situation is extremely fluid.
Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel said earlier this week that it’s not a case that the economy needs to be in level 4 for a four-week period or a six-week period.
“If we see that we get all of the results showing that we can move rapidly to level 3 on a risk-based approach, then we can do so. If we can avoid a sharp increase in the level of infection with the return to work of a large number of workers and if we can expand testing and health-care facilities in this period, the economy could shift to level 3 as soon as possible,” the minister told Business Day.
South African horseracing was informed by the National Horseracing Authority on Tuesday that racing was on hold for the foreseeable future.
“It’s like we are operating a mine. We have the staff. We are open for business. But we cannot take out the gold,” said the trainer, who added that there were clearly major implications and serious repercussions on a ‘scale we have not witnessed in any of our lifetimes’ for racing and breeding.
“We are not a business that can just close our doors and sit at home. We have horses to care for, to feed. They are animals. One cannot switch them on and off like a light. The terrible uncertainty is a training poser right now. I have some of them on light rations as I have eased off work as they cannot be kept on the boil permanently.”
He said that many staff had been cut back and placed on short time.
“My staff send money to families. I have been astonished to see how many people one man feeds in some cases. We are talking destitution and hunger on a scale that is frightening.”
Efforts were being made to cut costs but he pointed out that bedding costs, for example, had doubled, as some factories were closed.
“A lot of owners and trainers had opted to move their horses to spelling farms, where costs were less. But there again, when we get the go ahead to race, those horses will need time to be readied to race. It’s also an economic reality of the past few years that trainers often own too many horses in their own yards. Some of them are their own major owner. That bubble has already burst.”
The levels of euthenasia had, from other reports, increased dramatically.
“I wouldn’t know any statistics. But that is a stark reality and we need to face up to it. It can only increase.”
As to the failure of the original application and the news that Phumelela had apparently applied for betting shops to be opened, he said it was a ‘disgrace if true’.
“I have no idea what is fact and what isn’t. We have not covered ourselves in glory over the past decades. So this kind of suggestion hardly surprises me. All I know is that we have to stop this egotistical grandstanding for personal agendas and greed. We love the horse. We love the sport. Racing still comes first in KwaZulu-Natal and we don’t need the masses to be punished for the sins of a few,” he added sombrely.
He said he hoped and prayed that the political considerations and personal preferences would be dropped in favour of a genuine holistic consideration by the authorities of the damage that was being done.
“We do not want to race out of greed. We do not want to race just to have fun. We need to race to start the engines of our micro economy so that we can keep our owners in the game, our staff employed and our horses alive. The current status quo is at risk of literally destroying an entire industry. And, while gambling is a vitally important cog, this food chain goes all the way back to the breeders and the stud farms. No racing simply means no need for racehorses. That in turn means no need for farms, who employ all levels of personnel. Go look at the current unemployment figures nationally. They are frightening,” he said in closing.
