No Bull. De Kock makes his point.
A major wake-up call. The 2011 Vodacom Durban July has brought a few simmering issues to the surface and in the aftermath of a public outcry and vociferous industry debate, it may yet prove decisive to the way we conduct business in the future. And maybe the tragic demise of former Vodacom Durban July winner Big City Life will prove in the medium term to have not been in vain after all.
We are really way past our expiry date waiting for somebody to start listening and talking and actually doing something, and Champion Trainer Mike De Kock’s damning post-race comments may prove a great starting point.
Let’s face it. There are few administrators in horseracing that acknowledge or even understand the essence of communication or the need to have an open door to their stakeholders and customers. July winning trainer Mike De Kock would thus probably have woken a few sleeping beauties with his comments about the ridiculous export protocols facing our good horses who wish to further their careers on the international stage. He suggested that ‘ our trading partners should be hanging their heads in shame.’ And that was in the heat and euphoria of winning the race billed as ‘Africa’s greatest horseracing event’ and a prize that can only be dreamed about by ninety-eight percent of his contemporaries. How dare he? Will he be censured by the National Horseracing Authority or brought to book by the racing operator? Unlikely. Vodacom wouldn’t even dare meddle with his free calls on his cellphone contract. Such is the power and fearlessness that comes with the credibility and proven success at the very highest level. They are wary of the mean, Mr Michael, and maybe they should be!
Sport Of Queens. L'Ormarins host one of the top three days.
A trainer could never get used to winning the Vodacom Durban July. And although De Kock has won it multiple times in the past decade, Saturday 2 July will still go down in his memoirs as one of the finest moments in a long and satisfyingly brilliant career. So we should understand and appreciate how strong the man feels about this irritating irrational concept called Export Protocols, the details of which are too boring and tiresome for this forum. It is an illogical hindrance to his customers, his business and to South African horseracing at large. Yet we live with it and spend millions of rands talking about it every year.
Then the Big City Life tragedy, something in hindsight on the scale of the Sea Cottage shooting, has reached every sphere of the media. Trainer Glen Kotzen was even interviewed live on talk radio on Tuesday morning. Magazines and Sunday newspapers are clamouring for a piece of the story and while the sadness will be felt for many years to come, we actually saw a Phumelela media release yesterday in reaction to the negative publicity. This is serious progress, as Phumelela just do not talk to their customers or the public on any ordinary day of the week. The SPCA attack on the sport appears to have hit a nerve though where we really believed no life existed. While the defence of animals is a noble one, the SPCA’s agenda has also been brought into question and their response to the July tragedy was classed as unrealistic, misleading and in some instances incorrect, by the JSE listed company who said that they spent tens of millions of rands on the ‘stars of the show.’ That’s interesting talk. Someone once said they are only interested in the balance sheets and the rands and cents.
Well Met. Glamorous shiny happy people!
The refreshing change this week, where the Gold Circle funded Racegoer, which appears in multiple Independent Newspaper titles, actually highlighted items that need to be brought into the public domain, may just mean there is hope for future transparency. Trainer Justin Snaith has slammed the interference and roughness of the race, saying that he may have to consider the welfare of his horses before participating in the future. The dangerous interference in the big race allegedly caused by jockey Gavin Lerena’s hot-headed and ill considered effort to overcome his draw on the filly Flirtation has also raised the ire of top trainers like Mike Bass who has called for a minimum two month suspension, for the guilty party. Snaith also went on to make the point that trainers of failed fancied runners in the big races are often the subject of ‘death threats’. This is startling stuff that has so inevitably been swept under the carpet as a matter of course in the past.
The J&B Met, L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and the Vodacom Durban July, frankly represent the only three Saturdays of every year that South African horseracing has to genuinely showcase its wares to the world beyond the drab totalisator shop-fronts and closed community of owners and trainers that keep it alive for the other 362 days. These crucial seventy two hours need to be milked and exploited, rather than left to tick over in the same old show of arrogant indifference that has crept into every crevice of the industry over the past two decades.
We don’t want to jump the gun, but maybe…just maybe, times are changing?
