The National Horseracing Authority has advised all its Members that the written requisition with signatures, as co-ordinated by the S A National Trainers Association (SANTA) arrived at the Head Office of the racing regulator on 10 June 2021 at 10h33.
In a brief media release published on Thursday, the NHRA advises that the organisation will now commence with the process of internal vetting of these documents.
This we are reliably informed follows the apparent reneging of a prior undertaking by the CEO of the NHRA, Vee Moodley, to accept personal delivery of the document at Hollywoodbets Scottsville racecourse on Sunday, which meeting he attended.
Mr Moodley has also apparently been insistent on receiving what he terms ‘original’ signatures, even though the NHRA Constitution makes no such reference thereto, and notwithstanding that we live in an electronic age and in “virtual” times and when Covid is rife.
The Constitution of the NHRA also definitively allows for proxies, ownership forms, authorities to act etc which once scanned are not actual “originals” either.
We have been advised that no Court of Law would condone such demands. The entire National Board of the NHRA has also been individually copied together with a covering letter, courtesy of SANTA chairman, Tony Rivalland.
We were unable to reach the NHRA for a response to the allegations.
There are also suggestions that there is an effort by the CEO and the NHRA chair, Susan Rowett, to carry the matter until the next NHRA board meeting scheduled for the end of July.
They have been afforded 30 days on a minimum of 21 days’ notice in terms of the requisition in which to call the SGM.
It is indicated in the press release that the CEO is embarking upon a forensic audit to check the signatures of the requisition against their database.
Even though only 100 signatures are required for a SGM to be called, an astounding 336 signatures, which were obtained without any real effort according to the organisers, were submitted – so this step if implemented would appear to be an exercise in futility.
Included in the list of signatories seen by the Sporting Post, of owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys, and industry leaders, and to name but a few, are such iconic horseracing powerhouses as Mary Slack, Jessica and Steven Jell, Fred Crabbia, Laurence Wernars, Sabine Plattner, Christine Laidlaw, Suzette Viljoen, Wayne Kieswetter, Bryn Ressell, Etienne Braun, Mike Fullard and James Drew, Mary Liley, and Bernard Kantor, former chair of Phumelela.
Charles Savage, the head of the MOD advisory team, Colin Gordon, the new head of 4Racing, Mark Currie, chairman of The Thoroughbred Horseracing Trust and Brad Ralph, chair of Kenilworth Racing, have all signed the requisition.
We are also reliably led to believe that this initiative has the full backing of the Gold Circle Board.
There thus appears to be massive power-based support for change and the message is accordingly abundantly loud and clear – the industry is demanding immediate change!
When pressed for comment, a spokesperson for SANTA said that: “We would welcome a forensic audit. Let the NHRA explain to the Operators why they are once again wasting industry money. They must just remember that any forensic request is inevitably coupled with allegations of impropriety and fraudulent activity, so it should flow therefrom that when they find nothing untoward that there must be consequences for those that called for such audit. I’m sure that all signatories in addition to those who are involved in this process, feel slighted and insulted by such boorish behaviour.”
A member of the SANTA board added: “If I were advising the NHRA I would be recommending that they urgently meet with the designated SANTA representatives instead of merely endeavouring to stall matters, although from our perspective we don’t see any necessity or obligation in having to meet with them at all. We have a formidable legal team advising us, limitless finances through benevolent benefactors, which the NHA does not have, and the support of the industry across all spectrums. They do themselves no favours in merely trying to fight the inevitable all in the name of a precious few desperately clinging to power.”
A trainer who declined to be named for fear of ‘victimization’, told the Sporting Post that he dare not state his name after seeing what the Racing Control Executive did to a colleague of his who dared to speak out on social media when Mrs Susan Rowett was appointed as lady chair, by merely stating that she should not lose her integrity and sweep matters under the carpet and then wished her good luck.
“But this needs to be said. The vindictiveness has reached unprecedented and unacceptable levels where there are simply no boundaries and many trainers are treated with complete contempt and disrespect. The abuse of industry funding, particularly in regard to legal and travel fees has happened on the current board and management’s watch and despite numerous requests to stop this carnage have simply given the industry the finger. The trio are akin to a cabal who believe that they run the NHRA as they deem fit. I believe that they have embarrassed and humiliated their fellow board directors. If there is ever to be mutual trust and respect again between the industry and the NHRA, then the leaders mentioned must ‘walk the plank’ now, or be forced out.”
An industry expert told the Sporting Post that the real question that flows from all of this, is for how long the other 8 national board directors will continue to ‘blindly’ support their CEO, chairperson and RCE.
