16/10/2016
Creating Generative Value
The last 5 races of 28th Meeting of the 2016 Horse racing Season which were annulled last Saturday, 8 October, in my opinion, should not have been annulled because firstly, I agree that two of the three races were run in the rain but there was no torrential rain, so, if two of the first three races could have been run in the rain, the last five races also could have been run under similar weather conditions. For example, during the last 10 years, many race meetings were not annulled despite worse weather conditions than last week. Also, after the 3rd Race, the penetrometer reading was 3.0 units which indicated a soft going, again, no further than this season itself, races were run in a soft going of 3.0 units or even 3.1 units. Annulling the last five races of last week also means that the horses which were carded to run the last 5 races, except the main race, The Mauritius Union Group Colonel Draper Cup, a semi-classic race on 1500 m which is known as the Draper's Mile - this race has been postponed for the following week - will not be able to run for the next 2 or 3 weeks because there is no races for all the horses every week, the conditions of races are not the same every week, the distances and the benchmarks of races of this week will most probably not be the same next week, so, trainers and racehorse owners will have to wait 2 or 3 more weeks for their horse to run but even if their horses are not running, at the end of the month, they will still need to pay the keep for their horses which is Rs 23,000 per month per horse. If the horses do not run, therefore, the horses will not win any stakes money, so, where will the owner find Rs 23,000 at the end of the month to pay the keep for his horses? He will have to pay from his own pocket. Not all horses prefer to run on normal going of 2.8 units, there are horses which prefer to run on soft going of 2.9 units and above, so as the races have been annulled last week, when will these horses run on their preferred track and win at least a race and some stake money for their owners?