Derek Brugmann
Owner Derek Brugmann’s swipe at the lack of promotional and marketing effort of what was a high-class Kenilworth race-meeting on Sunday will hopefully have the effect of girding the lazy loins into action down Rosmead way. It is really completely unacceptable that a child cannot even purchase an ice-cream lolly on the most beautiful customer-unfriendly unutilized racecourse facility in Africa.
Representing the singularly most powerful owner and player in the South African horseracing industry and a man who wields a lot more clout in the Western Cape than the official Board minutes and records would have us believe, Brugmann would have realized that his utterances would not have been construed in his private capacity, when he made the comparison between the Sansui Summer Cup day up North versus the sleepy Sunday in the leafy Southern Suburbs of the Cape Peninsula.
Markus Jooste’s racing manager has probably got the best job in South African horseracing and the former Bookmaker certainly knows his way around racecourses and the winners enclosures. His observation and comparison of the huge chasm between the effort put into the two racemeetings will hopefully not have him being pursued for bringing the sport into disrepute, but rather a leaf taken out of what is really a tired old argument.
It appears that Phumelela really have honed their skills and energy when it comes to wining and dining sponsors and going out of their way to make the raceday experience a pleasurable and fashionable one. It is patently obvious that Gold Circle do not have the highly paid executives tasked with performing this function and whispers on the ground are that the more junior officials are blaming limited budgets and little direction from above. But why now, after ten years of the same old story?
Working as they are in a climate of turbulent uncertainty surrounding the proposed Phumelela takeover, one can almost feel sympathy for the Capetonians trying to carry on as if everything is hunky dory and performing with this dark cloud overhead. But conversely the threat of the inevitable long knives is also a helluva good reason for them to pull finger and start doing their jobs with some level of commitment and purpose. It is old news, but they simply forgot about braai day a few months back and now it is starting to look as if nobody told them that we are sailing into the eye of the Sizzling Summer Season – or the Summer Sizzling Season as their on-course presenter rebaptised the Cape’s premier brand on Sunday.
The quality of some of the horses competing on Sunday was on a par with the Turffontein meeting on Saturday, yet as Brugmann suggested, punters were first told about it on Sunday morning. Now we all know that this is only half accurate. Punters and enthusiasts find these things out for themselves, but the entire week was dominated by the Summer Cup. Is it that Phumelela obviously wield far more influence at Rivonia? Or do the Gold Circle guys just not even try? An analysis of where the problems lie may probably be classed and segmented into three aspects: management of on-course facilities, promotional and marketing drives and sponsor relations. They appear to be performing below par on all three, or are there other factors unknown to us?
Sundays are a family day, yet the children that arrived on course had absolutely nothing to keep them busy. There was a pony or two being led around, but no rides. They were being chased out of the betting enclosure and Dad couldn’t even buy them an ice cream. With a limited crowd, it surely makes sense to close the old stand and compact the audience into a smaller area? This not only improves the perception on television, but also creates a better atmosphere. What about a braai fire and a beer garden under the trees around the parade ring? What of the inevitable foreign visitors that will be looking for entertainment? These small touches actually pay for themselves, so to cry budget tears doesn’t really make sense.
Without doing any formal and in-depth research on the sponsor front, one must also ask the question as to why the Green Point Stakes, run last Sunday is now without a sponsor? George Nichas’ Ocean Basket sponsored the race for a good few years and last Sunday Bravura won it – without a hint of branding. Midmar Liquors, sponsors of the Premiers Trophy, also disappeared from the scene this year. While economics and a change of marketing focus have no doubt something to do with sponsors revisiting their marketing spend, I had a chat to a few existing and past sponsors – the bottom line is that there is just very little added value for their rand invested. A dinner table and a few sign boards are really not going to get new big names on board or maintain the interest of those already involved. It defies logic that influential businessmen that are able to build bridges with distant racing jurisdictions, seem unable to market or sell their wares locally.
The Selangor Cup arose as a result of an innovative twinning agreement entered into by Western Province Racing and the Selangor Turf Club that dates back almost fifteen years now. Selangor, contrary to what Tellytrack would have us believe, is one of the largest cities in Malaysia and has nothing much to do with Singapore. I hope that the Selangor Turf Club representatives on the podium on Sunday would not have understood the warped geographical references and global shuffling of their home city! This partnership was established on much the same basis as the friendship agreement between the Korea Racing Authority and Gold Circle. The venture has resulted in South Africans training Korean jockeys and also led to the sponsorship of the KRA Guineas run at Greyville. There was also talk of at one stage of us upgrading our bloodstock trading arrangements with them. With the pending Gold Circle provincial divorce, it will be interesting to see what develops with this association as it was very much of a Cape driven vehicle through the efforts of local Chapter Chairman Vidrik Thurling, who has extensive business interests in Korea.
One can only wonder whether things are going to get better when the Phumelela branding goes up at Kenilworth?
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JOEY ON A HIGH
Joey Ramsden
Cape trainer Joey Ramsden has hit the form of his life in November with a purple feature race patch that must have his colleagues scratching their heads in awe and wonderment. The British born Ramsden has had eleven winners in November so far that includes three consecutive Gr2 weekend winners. It all started on 13 November with Shades Of Indigo’s shock victory in the R300 000 Merchants. Then on Saturday 20 November Ramsden won the R300 000 Green Point Stakes with Bravura and followed up on Sunday by winning the R300 000 Selangor Cup with the Var colt Variety Club. That must be something of a rare distinction of domination in a competitive racing centre that includes names like Bass, Kannemeyer, Kotzen, Snaith, Govender and even Drier. Ramsden has the smart four-time winning Captain Al filly Trinity House stepping out in the Gr1 Avontuur Estate Fillies Guineas on Saturday. The Fillies Nursery winner chased Princess Victoria home in the Choice Carriers Fillies Championship and while never troubling her that day, she jumps on the Kotzens’ star’s inside this weekend. Princess Victoria looks unbeatable – but Joey will be going for that big four.
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CHEEKY JULIE!
Julie Alexander
Julie Alexander was in top form in front of the cameras at Turffontein on Saturday and is just one of those naturals who carries it all off with aplomb- no matter what she is saying. After suggesting that Link Man will enjoy the 1600m of the J&B Met, she had Darryl Maree blushing, holding on to his shirt and diving for cover after asking him if he and her were going to streak down the track in the thirteenth race. As Met and July regulars will know, the thirteenth race is the wild, mostly clotheless, closing event of the day in Cape Town and Durban – but in Johannesburg it has a far more civil connotation as the celebrity dash. I would rather have had the Julie-Darryl match race than the silly spectacle of a Pop Idol and a comedian or three sprinting 100m. Do people actually bet on this nonsense?
