As Durban prepares to host the Vodacom Durban July, anger is mounting over what some are calling "the worst July field ever".
|||Durban - As Durban prepares to host the city’s premier horse racing event – the Vodacom Durban July – this weekend, anger is mounting in industry circles over what some are calling “the worst July field ever”.
Leading the charge against Gold Circle, the race organiser, are prominent horse trainer Mike de Kock and businessman and former chairman of the National Racing Authority, Larry Nestadt.
Nestadt accused Graeme Hawkins, Gold Circle’s racing and marketing executive, of “degrading the reputation” of the July by selecting low-rated horses to run at this year’s event.
Gold Circle and Hawkins on Monday rejected the claims and released a summary of the selection panel’s deliberations, saying it had done so because of the “very spirited public debate”, and in the interest of transparency.
De Kock, who has had several winners in recent years, is livid that his horse, Rock Cocktail, has been omitted from the race, even though it has a higher rating than six of the runners that did make the field for the prestigious R3.5 million event.
“Every year I expect the worst from the Gold Circle panel and I’m rarely disappointed. All they have done is to confirm what everybody already knows – that they’re incompetent,” he wrote on horse racing website Sportingpost.co.za.
De Kock did not return calls from the Daily News on Wednesday.
Nestadt, a co-founder of Investec Bank and owner of several champion horses, slated Hawkins for having “single-handedly degraded the reputation of our premier horse race to its lowest level in its illustrious history”.
In an open letter to Hawkins, Nestadt said: “You override the principles of Grade 1 racing by inviting one and two time winners and horses with low merit ratings in favour of horses that have higher ratings, current form and are clearly superior in terms of the accepted merit rating system.”
He claimed that Hawkins had ignored the advice of professional handicappers, and accused him of favouritism.
“You clearly favour certain trainers and prejudice the racing public, sponsors and Gold Circle by allowing this controversy to continue. In the light of the aforementioned, I feel it incumbent upon me to challenge the Grade 1 status of the Vodacom Durban July,” Nestadt said. “As far as I am aware, this is the only Grade 1 race where the racing operator selects the field. Clearly the current demeaning of the race to carnival status cannot go unchallenged.”
Hawkins, in a letter to Nestadt on Wednesday, said the handicappers did get it wrong with certain decisions. He said however that Gold Circle reserved the right to decide the final field of the Vodacom Durban July and said he took exception to the allegation that he favoured certain trainers and prejudiced the racing public and sponsors.
“You do not substantiate this very serious allegation with any fact or with any reference as to whom it is that I am allegedly favouring. Whatever failings I may have, I would never prejudice my integrity by doing anything I did not believe was morally right.
“Those who know me intimately also know that this uncompromising personal position has in fact cost me dearly, if you wish to measure these things in a mercenary/ monetary fashion – but that’s another story for another day,” he said. Hawkins said that throughout his career he had been involved in the selection of final fields for major races.
“My only consideration has always been the merits of the horse. In my book, no owner, no matter how wealthy or powerful he/she may be inside or outside of horse racing, or how important they may think they are, has any automatic advantage over any other owner and, equally, no trainer, no matter how successful he/she may be, enjoys any automatic privilege or right of entry/acceptance based purely on the merits of their own performance or ability.
“I have always made sure, as best I can, that it is the respective merits of the horses that holds sway,” Hawkins said. “I am also mandated by the handicappers to inform you that, in this regard, they feel exactly the same way as I do.”
Some bloggers have supported Nestadt and De Kock.
“I agree this is the worst field I have ever seen in all my years of attending the July. Time for a new system to be enforced. Some of these runners are D division horses I think Gold Circle needs to do something drastic to save face after this shambles and appoint someone who is not biased in their selections,” Dean Bayley wrote on the Sporting Post website.
Another punter, Jay, wrote: “This entire fiasco is a complete embarrassment to South African horse racing. A secret agenda appears to be served with the field announced and this is reinforced by the manner (in which) the announcement and interviews were conducted.”
lee.rondganger@inl.co.za
Daily News