Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday -image for illustration on Sunday (Pic – Candiese Liebenberg)
Shallow fields at recent KZN racemeetings, including just 64 runners with 6 scratchings slimming down today’s eight-race card at Hollywoodbets Greyville, are of some concern to racing authorities.
While this is off season racing, Gold Circle Racing Executive Raf Sheik told the Sporting Post that it was puzzling that trainers were nominating at similar levels to past years, but when it came to declarations the picture was a different one.
“Our horse population is currently around the 1200 mark. But we have 800 boxes standing empty and it is naturally the individual trainer’s and owners’ prerogative to travel to the Cape,” added Sheik, who pointed out that KZN was scheduled to host 120 racemeetings this term as opposed to the 108 of last season. This was in terms of their Tabcorp commitments.
A glance at the Cape Racing visitor’s book shows five KZN trainers travelling down to the Mother City with 62 horses.
This should not really impact on field sizes at around just 5% of the population on the East Coast, but includes local big players like Peter Muscutt, Gareth van Zyl, Gavin van Zyl, Dennis Drier and Yogas Govender. Other unconfirmed bookings at this stage include Duncan Howells and Wendy Whitehead.
