Living and Learning

As a general rule of thumb there is no clear evidence to suggest that smaller fields translate into smaller multi-leg exotic pools. In fact, on occasion, there appears solid evidence to suggest exactly the opposite!Those are the words of Gold Circle’s Chief Operating Officer Graeme Hawkins following our enquiries regarding the structuring and composition of raceday programmes. We live and die by perceptions in this game and I personally had thought that with all the focus and whinging about programming, that nobody really cared a helluva lot about the structure and design of a particular day’s schedule. It seems I was wrong. And it won’t be the first time either.

Donald Duck

As a regular Place Accumulator player, I often get highly irritated by mickey -mouse field sizes – particularly where the non-exotic races on the card boast large field sizes. This was the case at Kenilworth last Wednesday where the PA first  and  fifth legs had very small fields, yet the opening race on the card had 19 runners carded, with 3 first-timers. What planning goes into the card? Is cognisance taken of field sizes? And is the race order choice and designation merely by clerical whim? The National Racing Bureau ,under the management of Raf Sheik, is based at Greyville Racecourse  and is funded by Gold Circle and Phumelela. It is tasked with the nominations, declarations and acceptances of all races run in South Africa. Their  information website is run under www.sahorseracing.co.za  and offers inter alia: A Complete Handicapping System with integrated Nominations, Final Acceptance, Results, and Financials. Integration of all the stand-alone systems currently in use, eg. Clerk of Scales and Cheque Printing. Breeders, Jockeys, Owners and Trainers will ultimately be able to access, validate and update their respective details. This will include online Nominations, reviewing current Financials etc. The Press have their own little corner, where they can view/extract information to be disseminated to the rest of the world. The Public also have access to online Racecards, statistics regarding Horse Run-ons etc. Gold Circle Racing and Gaming Group, and Phumelela Gaming and Leisure are the co-owners of SA Horse Racing. Gold Circle is currently handling  all development issues.

Davis Responds

Phumelela Racing Executive Patrick Davis said that the race I had queried ie the Kenilworth second race on 21 November, was in fact the  fourth race on the weight sheet, and when the final field only realised 8 runners (with a 3 horse coupling), it was moved to race 2 to keep it out of the Pick 6. Davis added: “ Graeme Hawkins has alluded below to the reasoning behind having a big field for the first race where possible, which is why it was made race 2. The first race on the particular day had three first- timers and nine zero- rated horses – which is another reason to keep it where it was, away from the exotics”, he said.

Brainwave

Gold Circle’s Graeme Hawkins was quick to point out that plenty of thought and planning went into planning the order of any particular raceday  and also conceded that small fields, do generate less ‘race-by-race’  turnover. But, he suggested that even very large fields sometimes have the same effect. He said that 13 to 14 runners appear best for ‘race-by-race’ turnover. “ We have noted that  turnover on the first race is always good and we like to have a large field participating. For that very reason early juvenile races are often carded as the second race when there are nine races on the card. That is, we prefer to  avoid the first race and the first leg of the PA with these types of races. The first legs of each of the exotics attracts less general turnover and again I think that is pretty much common sense stuff as punters are more focussed on that specific exotic pool rather than wins; places; swingers etc.” I asked Graeme whether practical considerations like starting stall movement was taken into account: “We do take the movement of starting stalls etc into account and where possible we like to limit movement as this has the effect of saving on wear and tear, for both the track and the starting gate equipment itself.” He added that as a further example, the operators also tried to ensure a larger  and  hopefully more competitive  field for the last race on a Sunday to optimise  the Quartet maxi-pool.

Planning

Phumelela Racing Executive Patrick Davis echoed Hawkins’ sentiments and was adamant that plenty of planning  and thought went into the structuring of a programme: “Contrary to  the suggestion that no planning or  thought goes into race order at final declaration  stage, I can assure you that the complete opposite in fact applies. The problem we often experience though is that there are so many factors to take into account, that one cannot structure it perfectly every time. But I believe that we mostly do get it right.” Davis went on to say that the officials at the National Racing Bureau in KZN have a brief to take inter alia the following factors into account when deciding on race order :- 1.Field size 2.Number of first timers / zero rated horses (i.e. horse that have had less than 3 runs and therefore don’t have a rating yet) – these are generally kept out of the exotics for obvious reasons, but not always possible completely 3.Couplings – if you have a smallish field with significant couplings, we generally try to keep it out of the Pick 6 4.Apprentice and Work Riders races (generally run early in the card for various reasons) 5.Maiden Juvenile Plates (run early in card for a number of reasons) 6.Last race to be a big field wherever possible – maximise quartet (and other pools) 7. Where we are forced to run 30 minute intervals between certain races (where 35 minutes are required) we often try to select a race with a distance that is quickest to physically get the runners to the start to enable us to go off on time 8.Certain venues have specific requirements such as Greyville where the night racing lights only cover up to 2000m races – as such, any races over further need to be run early in the card before it gets dark Thanks to Messrs Davis and Hawkins for the input. As they say- assumption is the mother of all, err disasters. The more we know, the more we understand and the less likely we are to create myth and legend. Next week. We lift the legend on race programming – and find out why there are never enough races for fillies and stayers?