Racing Is Not Only For The Rich

A champion filly that cost just R30 000 at sale and now on the verge of SA Triple Tiara glory. And a lifetime punter turned first-time owner whose only horse has won five of his eight starts and earned over R800 000 in a matter of months.

Horseracing enjoyed another free ticket on Saturday to get real for the ordinary South African.

Let’s face it, the problem with racing’s 21^st century approach of amateur window-dressing and perceived politically correct showboating to a market that doesn’t seem to really get instantly mesmerised and captivated by the beat of the golden hooves on the big days, is that the larney outfits, great music and free food ‘n booze wears off.

There is always a better party somewhere else next week.

And we are actually no closer as the sun sets to winning friends in the spirit of a genuine buy-in for the admiration of the thoroughbred. We are probably just doing a great job of alienating the loyal regulars – again.

But there are exceptions. Resident in Eersterus, Pretoria East, Ofentse Messiah Nkale won’t be known to many people in racing, beyond the Paul Peter Racing Team.

Messiah, as he is generally known, wasn’t addressed by his name when invited forward as the ‘well-spoken young man’ to round off the post-race interview at Turffontein on Saturday after MK’S Pride, his Dad’s super-smart Summerhill-bred son of Willow Magic, had become the first 3yo this century to win the historic Hawaii Stakes.

The thunder rumbled in the steel grey skies above Turffontein as the eloquent Messiah suggested that the great joy of winning was that ‘every time feels like the first time’.

“It’s probably not a well-known fact that my Dad, a deeply religious man, had been punting for some forty years, until he decided one day that he wanted to own a horse. And while he never had a lifechanging win as a punter, he stuck to the game he loved and luckily for him, he got the golden horse as an owner!”

Talking to the Sporting Post on Sunday, the 27 year old University of Johannesburg student, who shared the happy winner’s podium with Dad Koos and Kaiser Chiefs Marketing Director Jessica Motaung, who was smartly attired in the gold and black of the Amakhosi, told of his early recollections of racing in the family.

“When I was young, it wasn’t a great experience, to be quite honest. My Dad always seemed to be engrossed in the Computaform or watching racing on television. It was so tiring – he was so passionate!”

He says that it was really only when he got a bit older, respecting that this was the great game – together with soccer, of course – that made the old man tick, that he started being able to relate to the idea of the competitive spirit of the sport.

“The tactics. The chase for a champion. The excitement. The disappointment. That’s when I started appreciating it and decided, hey I’m a fish I may as well swim with the rest of the fish!”

The Clapham High School matriculant says that the early exposure pricked his interest. He is not a gambler today, but he studies form and enjoys the challenge of the brain game – picking a winner, to challenge his own skills.

Messiah says that  he believes that, while it may sound like a cliché, horseracing needs to reach the vast untapped market that never had an interest in catching a Pick 6 or leading in a winner, fuelled by a parent, through a structured educational approach.

Following proudly in career teacher Dad’s footsteps, and in his final year of an education degree, Messiah is likely to become an educator next year.

Watch this Clocking The Gallop interview from November 2020:

But the man who was born in Mokopane – the old Potgietersrus – has other varied interests and is concerned by the considerably reduced attraction to himself, as a relatively gregarious communicator, of the understandable shift to online education.

“I have always enjoyed tutoring and teaching and have relished imparting knowledge to fellow students at the University of Johannesburg. I believe that education first needs a sweetener or incentive – we have to get folk interested in the ‘why should I’, before they have the motivation to want to actually open a text-book, or like you would suggest a Sporting Post racecard maybe, and learn more.”

That’s where he acknowledges that racing has something of a mountain to climb.

“We switch on the television and it’s music, movies or major sports. While I know that Saturday’s features were beamed on Supersport, horseracing as a sport is seldom, if ever, in the mainstream. So what could be a cheap sweetener is not really ever deposited into the subconscious of the masses. They grew up on soccer, or the movies, or whatever they did, and racing just doesn’t reach the social bucket list.”

Messiah, who enjoys writing poetry and staying fit, says that he has observed how the stunning success of MK’S Pride has created curiosity and interest in his circle of friends.

“Good happy true stories about ordinary people are clearly so much easier to sell than pipedreams or advertising slogans. The prospective entertainment has to be exciting and aspirational, I suppose. And I have seen the interest – through a million questions – some of which I haven’t been able to answer – and a quiet admiration. I have tried to introduce some friends to racing over time and, while the lockdown has been a negative, I must admit it’s not difficult when your Dad’s horse is a champion!”

Watch Jessica chatting about her first racehorse