A meeting at Durbanville on Sunday 12 May has been added to the racing calendar – to compensate for the cancelled Election Day meeting at the same venue.
The programme for that 8 May Wednesday meeting stood–and new entries were called for. and closed yesterday at 12h30. Declarations were made at 13h30.
This was the sequel to a few weeks of debate and reaction from various stakeholders in Cape racing in relation to the eventual action taken regarding the Election Day meeting.
Jonathan Snaith
The Western Cape Racing Association Chairman Jonathan Snaith has written to members and his communication is carried in full hereunder:
He writes:
As you may be aware, trainers were notified via a press release on Sunday, 5 May that the Durbanville race meeting scheduled for Wednesday, 8 May had been cancelled, and replaced with a race meeting to be held at Turffontein on the same day.
The reason for the decision was cited as not wanting to clash with the General Elections, which left Cape based owners and trainers mystified given that the same considerations should surely then apply in Johannesburg.
As directors of the Western Cape Chapter of the Racing Association we were compelled to investigate and attempt to influence this decision.
All participants in the Western Cape, and in particular owners, are directly and significantly affected by such an unnecessary cancellation of a race meeting. We immediately directed e-mails to the Kenilworth Racing Board and to Phumelela Management.
The good news is that Phumelela on Thursday, 9 May agreed to the new race meeting scheduled for Sunday, 12 May.
This meeting effectively replaces the cancelled meeting.
We would have ideally wanted a much faster resolution as owners, grooms, jockeys and trainers have been given very short notice.
The incident has highlighted the need for better communication between the various decision makers, in particular Kenilworth Racing and Phumelela.
We would like to thank both these entities for their willingness to engage on the matter, and for agreeing to the Sunday race meeting.
We can all agree that this situation could have been handled better and we will endeavor to continue our efforts in representing owners’ interests in the Western Cape.
We look forward to seeing you at Durbanville this Sunday to celebrate Mother’s Day.
