The Cape Racing renaissance machine has proven to be no one-trick summer pony, with the news on Friday that the gloomy Cape winter months have been brightened considerably with programming innovation, incentives and stakes boosts.
While there are devil’s advocates, detractors and cynics at every turn in this wonderful sport, it’s very difficult to fault the turnaround in horseracing’s fortunes in the legislative capital of our beautiful country.
And the tangible stats surely beat the semantics and marketing waffle that we have heard since Pa fell off the proverbial?
Have a look at the numbers below of five odd seasons.
Nationally, starting numbers are down 220 in December 2022 versus December 2021, with the Western Cape showing a smart upturn with 100 more runners than in the the corresponding month a year earlier.
The Cape upturn of starters continued last month with 144 more than January 2022.
In the comparable periods, the Highveld, who commence The Champions Season on Saturday, was down 95 in December 2022 versus December 2021, and down 89 in January 2023 over January 2022.
On the East Coast, KZN was down 200 in December 2022 over December 202, and showed 43 less in January 2023 over January 2022.
The Eastern Cape numbers are shown below for reference purposes.
