The inability to run South African racing to schedule surely needs to be addressed, writes Dick Adcock in the Sporting Post Mailbag.
It regularly takes 2-3 minutes to load fields, with unruly horses invariably given more time than they merit, to be loaded.
Re-shoeing of horses at the start is commonplace.
One wonders where the blame lies – starters, handlers, or do we have too many incompetent conditioners incapable of schooling or supervising the shoeing of their horses?
More recently we have had no ambulance available on an International Jockeys day, jockeys without saddle cloths, and to cap it all the loading up of the first race at Turffontein on 17 December was aborted mid-way, due to a technical difficulty with the equipment in the stipes boardroom.
This is total incompetence and amateurism! Such equipment should be properly tested before the meeting starts, surely?
For racing enthusiasts and officials watching South African racing in the UK, Australia or Hong Kong we must be a laughing stock. Given however that the problems seem to escalate by the month, it seems that nobody really cares.
