World first! Twenty-20 racing at Greyville

“One always has to expect the unexpected, especially in horseracing,” says Graeme Hawkins, Gold Circle’s Racing and Marketing Executive. “But here’s hoping for an action-packed two and a half hours of racing this Friday!”



In a world first, Twenty-20 racing comes to Greyville racecourse this Friday evening. A quick-fire succession of eight races will be run at 20-minute intervals – and, like its cricketing equivalent, the action will be fast and furious.



Normally, racemeetings allow 35 minutes between each race. This gives jockeys time to weigh in after a race, and then don new silks for their next ride. Meanwhile, trainers and their assistants are busy saddling up and walking their horses into the parade ring. Jockeys then weigh out, mount up, and canter down to the start of the next race.



This Friday, the 20-minute interval between races requires a brand new plan.



To ensure a fast turnaround and no delays between races, there will be two ‘teams’ of jockeys: while team ‘A’ is out racing, team ‘B’ will be mounting up.

Pro’s and Apprentices



Of additional public interest is that one team will be made of professional jockeys, while the other will all be apprentices. There will be four races for each team, racing alternately to complete Friday’s eight-race programme. But, while the riders will have it easy, trainers and their assistants will need to scurry if they have runners to saddle in consecutive races. The action in the paddock and saddling enclosures should make for entertaining viewing!

“Trainers will be under pressure to ensure the meeting goes off as planned,” says Hawkins. “But with their full support, we’re looking forward to a racemeeting designed to keep everyone – including the fans! – on their toes.”



Experimental format



Cricket has success-fully embraced new formats of the game and, taking a leaf out of cricket’s book – as an experiment – this Friday’s ‘quick-fire’ meeting was

planned.



The KZN cricket union has also bought into the Twenty-20 racing idea, and members of the Sunfoil Dolphins team will be on hand this Friday night at Greyville to sign autographs in the Kidzone during a mini-cricket coaching session.



Jay Naidoo of the KZN cricket union comments: “When T20 cricket was first introduced, many followers of the game were skeptical. Now it’s an established format. It’s interesting that the first 20-20 provincial cricket competition took place in Durban – and now the first Twenty-20 racemeeting is also happening here.”



Autograph-signing by Sunfoil Dolphins players



A highlight for young cricket fans at Greyville Racecourse this Friday will be their moment to meet Sunfoil Dolphins players Cameron Delport and Divan van Wyk. This will all be part of a KFC mini-cricket activation, taking place on the lawns alongside the Kidzone. Activities will include professional coaching, an autograph-signing session from 18h00 - 19h00, and the chance for kids to sign up as members of the Dolphins cricket club.





Eyes on the clock! Looking forward to Friday’s first-ever ‘quick-fire’ racemeeting are South African Jockey Academy apprentices (L to R) Luyolo Mxothwa, Tristan Godden, Nicholas Patel, Divan Neethling, and Akshay Balloo.

Its sure removes the boredom factor of waiting for the next race to run. What happens if there is an objection in a race. Do they continue with the 20 minute interval or do they have to wait until the objection is sorted out? Its a meeting where you can score a quick profit or a quick loss. Looks like fun and I hope that it works. The grooms, trainers, starting stalls, loaders, TV presenters and bookies are going to have to up their game to keep up with proceedings.

I am looking forward to it. They are hoping that there are no objections. A small factor that does help is that in the event of an objection, the riders are not riding in the next race.

There was a meeting in January in Australia with 20 minute intervals

www.racing.com/form/2015-01-09/cranbourne#/racelist

I wonder why it wasnt pursued?

I support it -

Cant remember a race starting on time for quite a while, carded off 15:10 and they will jump at 15:15 or so. Will be interesting to see how they are going to get that right.

Bunks wrote: Cant remember a race starting on time for quite a while, carded off 15:10 and they will jump at 15:15 or so. Will be interesting to see how they are going to get that right.

I actually think all regions of South African racing are shit hot in making up time, when there has been problems

Media Release: Twenty-20 Racemeeting Tonight


Journalist: David Thiselton – Gold Circle Publishing

17 APRIL 2015



Greyville tonight will be the venue and date for South Africa’s first ever Twenty-20 racemeeting, so called because there will be a gap of only twenty minutes between each of the eight races.



The innovative idea was the brainchild of Gold Circle’s Racing and Marketing Executive Graeme Hawkins and has generally been well received by officials, riders, trainers, owners and punters.



However, there were one or two concerns from certain quarters, while others felt a slight change to the format would be of benefit.



The racemeeting will start at 17h55.



In order to accommodate the short space of time between events the odd numbered races will only have professional jockeys riding in them and the even numbered races will only have apprentices jockeys riding.

KZN’s chief Stipendiary Steward Sean Parker welcomed the idea and said, “It is innovative, which is good for racing, and I hope it turns out to be an exciting an enjoyable meeting.” Parker was confident that unexpected events, such as objections, could be handled in the time allowed as the jockeys involved would not have to be riding in the next race, which is usually often the case.



Paddy Wynne, a top jockey is his day who won the Durban July aboard Jamaican Rumba in 1982 and is now a riding master at the South African Jockeys Academy, said, “It is a good idea when you think what 20/20 did for cricket. It is something different and will keep the apprentices on their toes and give them more opportunities.”



Apprentice Tristan Godden will be riding in the meeting and said, “It is something different and us apprentices will obviously enjoy it as we can get more chances, which we need. It will be hectic at first but I think everybody will get used to the timings.”



One of KZN’s leading jockeys Athandiwe Mgudlwa said, “It will be a challenge as there will be quite a rush between races. It will be good for the apprentices who need experience and who can get more than one ride a meeting, but I have to say that for us jockeys it will be a loss, so we hope there are not too many of these meetings.”



Legendary jockey and now Summerveld trainer Michael Roberts was in favour of the meeting and said, “I hope it is a success. It is something new and racing needs something new. Unfortunately most of the trainers will be away at the Sales.”



Cape-based trainer Dean Kannemeyer, who now has a satellite yard at Summerveld, was also positive and said, “I am looking forward to it. I have a few runners and will be there as I am only leaving for the Sales on Saturday morning. It is something new and exciting. It will be nice to not have to sit around waiting for half-an-hour. Saddle Up and let’s go. The time often drags out at normal meetings. I think the punters would have studied their form, so canter down and let’s go. 35 minutes is too long although it is obviously necessary for the big racemeetings where there are long queues.”



Trainer Mark Dixon admitted that the meeting didn’t appeal to him and said, “I am a traditionalist, I love test cricket. But I think normal meetings should have 30 minute gaps, 35 minutes is too long.”



Trainer Karen Anthony said, “There are always positives to new ideas but also aspects that don’t suit. We had to wait a long time for our horse Big King to get a good draw and when he finally landed one he ended up in one of the apprentice races in the Twenty/20 meeting. He needs a strong, experienced rider and we had to scratch him again. So, I think if they mixed the apprentices with the jockeys for every race it would be better and that should still give the apprentices a lot of chances.”



Trainer Robbie Hill said, “I think it’s a good idea, although I don’t know if it will give the punters a chance to bet in time. I think the races should also be open to all riders with the condition that they can only ride every second race. The current format does give the apprentices more chances but the bottom jockeys won’t get the chances they could have had and also I had to scratch a few of my horses because I couldn’t afford to take a chance by running them from wide draws with apprentices aboard.”



Phil Georgiou, owner of the top class Harry’s Son and an enthusiastic punter, spoke on behalf of owners and the betting fraternity. His biggest concern was the length of time it is taking these days for a result to be declared all clear to pay. He said, “Punters who are collecting will be still standing in the queue waiting for the all clear and won’t have time to go down to the parade ring and then structure their bets. I know it could be said that you can collect later, but it doesn’t work like that, punters like to see what they have in hand before betting again. So hopefully the all clears will be a lot quicker. I think it will also be important for the presenters to be better prepared and be vigilant in their analysis and tipping. They will have to shorten it and not waffle on for ten minutes about every horse.”



Georgiou also felt that the information on first-time runners should be made available before the first race of the meeting and that it should be readily available, possibly via means of a screen scroll, throughout the meeting. He added that this should be the case for all meetings, because it is only in the Pick 6 where the first-timer rule applies. From an owner’s perspective Georgiou agreed with Hill that each race should be open to all riders, with the provision that no rider can take part in successive races.

And the good news is that the Greyville area doesn't fall under any zone where the Forces of Darkness might strike for their now customary two hour slot

This concept was mentioned about 2 years back on ABC, at least we know they read the forum Bob...

Given the realities of power outages, stall malfunctions, bolting horses, wardrobe (equipment) malfunctions, re-shoeing at the start, objections et al., this could get quite hairy!