A sign of things to come ?

For some reason, I see there is no meeting carded for the weekend in Gauteng; as far as I can remember, this has NEVER happened - apart from when the AHS thing was doing the rounds many moons ago :huh:

4Racing did mention in their 2022 fixtures and stakes statement that double-headers are to be avoided so maybe this is a sign of things to come...WCape has 2 grade 2's on this Saturday's card so that is likely given sole benefit of pools...

Don't think 4 Racing had any say in this as they don't officially take over until the 1 December

It might purely be to save the standside track and prepare for next week's WSB Summer Cup

If it is the case that Saturday's will be stand alone i can't see owners standing for not racing on a Saturday? Unless Highveld and Cape Racing are going to use Sunday's more often?

Not sure (and I don't really care) who is responsible - and if they wanted to 'protect' the Cape meeting on Saturday (though Gauteng has always raced on July Day - so feeble argument imo), they should have arranged a meeting in Gauteng on Sunday - and they have raced in the week on the Inside track (and the Vaal is available) - so only reason I can come up with is either incompetence or an effort to save the stakes for next week's meeting.

I have read the 'lets be realistic' statement issued by Patrick Davis - imo canning meetings not the way to go - rather have 2 meetings a week with 10 races on a day - everyone is already there anyway - than 3 meetings of 8 races - and this garbage of not having enough runners to fill the card - still the same age-old-story - if they consult the trainers to give opportunity to race the majority of the horse population, the 'small fields' issue will disappear

Let's all hope the new lot can at least improve things - although I'm not holding my breath :dry:

Hartseer storie.

when you start restricting owners in Gauteng from seeing their horses run on Weekends you are helping them make the decision to move away from ownership - As a punter I don't care as I spend weekends doing other things anyway soI bet and catch up later - Owners are a scarce breed though and they are on the endangered list

I thought the reason for no weekends Turfies racing was purely to generate maximum traffic to the sales?

Who knows - would be the first time to my knowledge that a race-meeting does not go ahead because of the Sales

.....what one must rush out to buy product that will be limited to less races and not much better stakes......yes stop the races and while this sale is no bigger than any others in this year......

Exotic Pools at past Saturdays standalone Kenilworth meeting nothing to shout home about, disappointing actually. I expected more.