Merry-go-round
According to the Oxford English dictionary, an icon is “A person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration”
(…..and for those of you struggling with veneration, it means something that is revered or regarded with great respect).
Of course, in today’s disposable society with its rush rush rush merry-go-round of life, everything is cheapened, packaged and dumbed down into bite sized, easily digestible, disposable pieces for our ever voracious public to consume on the run. There are very few people, places and events left that can be regarded as truly iconic, and there to be enjoyed and appreciated in full.
Take our racing for instance. We now have racing pretty much 7 days a week (weather permitting!). It’s hard to pick out the real stars and the real racing from all that mish-mash, so our big days and our Gr1’s are treats, even if only for the fact that someone has done the donkey work of sorting out the wheat from the chaff and presented us with just the very best.
Freedom!
I suppose I’m also writing this with a bit of a background of Freedom Day and all the reminders of how far we’ve come in the last 20 years and the progress that’s been made in terms of our country and our democracy.
We might moan and groan, but racing has seen huge progress too. In fact, this very weekend there was evidence of it when no less than 2 South African produced horses and 3 South African produced jockeys strutted their stuff on the world stage in the Gr1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth Cup meeting in Hong Kong. And they excelled.
Of our jockeys, Dougie Whyte won the Gr2 Hong Kong Sprint, Anthony Delpech made the most of his visit to clock up a win and Karis Teetan rode a double on the day’s card.
Our horses had a slightly less easy time of it (understandable really after all they’ve had to go through simply to show up at the venue), but Vercingetorix still ran a very creditable 3rd.
Landmark! 1997 QEII Cup Winners
What made it all the most poignant and important of course is that Sha Tin and the QEII in particular are landmarks in South African racing history. On 13 April 1997, the team of Jean and Laurie Jaffee, Alec Laird, Dougie Whyte and a big chestnut colt called London News galloped into the history books, when they came out and won, smashing the course record in the process. But it was more than just a horse race that they’d won. It represented a victory over AHS, our export ban and signalled a new dawn for South Africa on the international racing stage.
The event was so huge at the time that we literally moved heaven and earth to accommodate it. It was billed as “racing’s most thrilling moment in four decades”, the SABC and IGN (as Tellytrack was known then) made sure that it was flighted, courtesy of a subsidy by ARCSA’s National Marketing Forum and the HRA’s Marketing Services division. Turffontein actually switched its Saturday fixture which, like this weekend, featured the SA Derby and the SA Nursery, running these races on Sunday morning to mark the occasion. And wasn’t it all worth it? London News not only won, he shattered the course record, despite his impost of 59.5kg. When that big colt crossed the line, it wasn’t just the horse that arrived, as subsequent history has borne witness, we all did.
SA has made its mark
For one, it was the Dougie Whyte’s entrée into Hong Kong and we’ve all seen how well that’s turned out. And since London News’ record breaking win, there have been several big South African names associated with this race. Dougie Whyte won it again the following year aboard Oriental Express for trainer Ivan Allan. Current SA Champion sire Silvano won it in 2001 (although that was a long time before he had his passport stamped at Cape Town international), Anthony Delpech won it aboard Vengeance of Rain in 2005, Mike de Kock, Weichong Marwing and Irridescence lifted the Cup in 2006, Mike was back with Kevin Shea and Archipenko in 2008, Weichong Marwing steered Viva Pataca to victory for John Moore in 2010, Tony Millard and Dougie Whyte won it with Ambitious Dragon in 2011, and of course there have been quite a few others who’ve taken part whose names haven’t made it onto the honour scroll. This year, our biggest champion on the world stage, Mike de Kock, fielded no less than 2 SA-bred horses in the race. Also on the card was Tony Millard, and three of the better riders we have produced in recent history (Dougie Whyte, Anthony Delpech and Karis Teetan).
Tellytrack
Anyone else feeling a little lost?
Ok, so we’ve had all the flag waving and the anthem-singing – where exactly is this going?
Well, not very far as it happens. Only as far as your TV. Or not, as it turns out. Because Tellytrack decided not to make the feed for the race available to home viewers. It seems that it was a rather closely guarded secret as the Sporting Post had to go to some lengths to confirm that the race would not be shown on the ‘home’ channel. Of course anyone who was sufficiently interested could still go and watch it at their nearest Betting World tote. At 10:30am. On a Sunday morning.
I must admit to finding it somewhat baffling that on the very day (and in fact a mere half hour before) we were kicking off our annual National Yearling Sale, the very birthplace of racing dreams and our biggest shop window to both the local and outside world, that we could not find 3 minutes to show the running of the race that in so many ways had given us our biggest leg up onto the international stage.
Back in the bad old days of Swedish cart-racing and Ngong (we can almost be nostalgic now, can’t we?), when punters and home viewers bellyached about the ridiculousness of it all, we were reprimanded like naughty schoolchildren that the international feed was important for our bottom line and thus it should be suffered for the greater good.
Huh. And now suddenly nothing. Well, a bit here and a bit there, but it’s all rather hit and miss. In the run up to the Dubai World Cup, again, it took a certain amount of effort to ascertain whether the South Africans sitting at home would be able to see and cheer on our heroes. Mr John Stuart assured people that “in special circumstances, such as the Dubai World Cup, where the rights-holders have granted permission, iconic international races may be shown as an integral part of both the international and South African racing services.”
What does iconic mean?
Well, I’d love someone to explain to me what the ‘international and South African racing services’ are.
So far we’ve had an ENTIRE day of the Dubai World Cup (what luxury and my huge thanks), although irritatingly it was only confirmed rather last minute and not exactly announced with huge fanfare.
Then we got one day of Cheltenham and the odd sighting of a foreign course here and there.
So when the Grand National rolled round, I practically took it for granted that it would be shown. There is after all, surely nothing more iconic on the international racing calendar than Aintree’s annual cavalry charge? Apparently I was wrong. I understand that I’m only a customer, but still, how difficult can it be to share this sort of information? I tried Multichoice (haha) and first had to suffer several hours of hold music, then when I did get to speak to a human being in the call centre, I first had to convince the staff that Tellytrack did in fact exist and then, I had to slowly and patiently explain to the long suffering person on the other end of the line exactly what a horse race was, and more specifically what the Grand National was. He’d never heard of it and asked me repeatedly whether I thought it might fall under athletics. I said no. He then kindly offered to email Tellytrack and ask. Which he did. I know this because he managed to get my email address correct in the CC box and so I got a copy. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the email address he used for Tellytrack. At which point, the gin bottle was looking mighty tempting.
Miss SA at Turffontein
However, I soldiered on and fought more hold music, more inept switchboard staff and more telephone tennis, before finally getting my own email through to Tellytrack and having it confirmed in writing that the National would not be flighted on the home feed.
OK, so perhaps not everyone is a fan of ‘the sticks’. So on to this past weekend. Bizarrely, having apparently gone to some lengths to promote the race day, the #whoislouis campaign reached such dizzy heights that even Miss SA found her way to Turffontein, but on Saturday of all days, we did get some international racing on the home Tellytrack feed. Mauritius. Brilliant. Between our Champions Day feed, which boasted no less than NINE graded races, we ended up cutting around things so that we could watch a 3-horse pile-up at Champ de Mars.
And yet, the very next day, we could not find two minutes to screen the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth Cup. At the risk of being repetitive, at HK$ 14 million, the prize money was not to be sneezed at. The race has provenance and South Africa has a long and successful association with it. Moreover, we had 2 home-bred runners with real live chances. And yet, no dice. Despite a 4 April press release saying that the Hong Kong Jockey Club had given the green light for their racing to be screened in South Africa again.
Where to from here?
This coming weekend we have all of the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks at Louisville on Saturday.
We also have the QIPCO Guineas Festival at Newmarket featuring both the 1000 Guineas and the 2000 Guineas. The QIPCO 2000 Guineas, first held in 1809, is deemed one of the most important races in the world. The 1000 Guineas is not lagging too far behind either as it turns 200 years old this year. That’s right, this mile-long race for exceptional three-year-old fillies was first run in 1814. Both races are contested over the Rowley Mile, which is arguably the most historic piece of racing real estate on the planet. I wont even run through a list of horses who have won as it would, quite frankly, be insulting. And the Kentucky Derby is famously billed as “the most exciting two minutes in sports”. Surely we would get to see these? Well, according to official written confirmation received directly from Tellytrack, the answer is no. No to two of the most prestigious races on the British racing calendar and no to the most exciting two minutes in sport.
Ok, so I’ve either misunderstood the term ‘iconic’ or I’ve missed something else.
It is clear that Tellytrack has paid for the rights to these events as they are televised in their totes. It seems that for some reason Tellytrack just chooses not to broadcast them to home viewers. Which again is odd, given the mission statement on the Phumelela website that they exist “to create exciting opportunities that enable informed betting on live events”. It’s hard to feel informed about (and presumably be expected to bet on) something we can’t actually see.
I guess we’re back to that ‘greater good’ thing again. But I thought the racing public were greater (at least in number) than our operators. So one is left wondering exactly whose good we’re catering for? These days it’s becoming hard to tell and frankly, even harder to care.
