Turf Talk Newsletter – 10 November, 2023

Mrs Geriatrix can bring more joy to the Magical Lady Syndicate (Picture: Candiese Lenferna)

Turf Talk

Sean Tarry runs his two champion fillies, 2022/2023 Equus Horse Of The Year Princess Calla and 2022/2023 Equus Champion Two-year-old filly Mrs Geriatrix, at Hollywoodbets Durbanville tomorrow.

He said about the unbeaten Clifton Stud-bred Vercingetorix filly Mrs Geriatrix, who is drawn five out of ten in the Gr 2 Western Cape Fillies Championship over 1400m, “I think the course is tailor made for her, but it doesn’t give me the opportunity to race her at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth (ahead of the WSB Cape Fillies Guineas) so that is a negative. Although there isn’t one horse I’m worried about, there are a lot of horses who are on the up and have form. So I think it is one of her toughest tasks. I think every three-year-old race is going to get tougher, because there are going to be more horses joining the mix, i.e. the horses that have taken a bit of time. It also just depends on how the race works out tomorrow. But I am happy with her. She’s at least had a run under the belt and she would have come on a bit from that. She’s not at her peak, but this run should hopefully get her there.”

Mrs Geriatrix won all five of her starts as a two-year-old including the Gr 2 SA Fillies Nursery over 1160m, the Gr 1 Allan Robertson Championship over 1200m and the Gr 2 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper over 1400m. She won the latter two events with consummate ease. In her reappearance in the BSA Sales Cup over 1400m she had to dig down to fend off White Pearl, winning by a head. However, to put it into better perspective she was 5,60 lengths clear of the third horse Betula and she was 7,60 length clear of Francine, whom she meets again tomorrow. Furthermore, as Tarry says, she will have come on from the run. She has also had a grass gallop at Hollywoodbets Durbanville. However, she does have to give the rest of the field 2kg. Double Grand Slam, also by Vercingetorix, looks very promising and a low draw will suit her handy to front-running style. Winter Cloud looks progressive and will relish the step up to 1400m being a full-sister to Winter Cloud, a twice winner of the Gr 1 Majorca Stakes over 1600m. Winter Cloud is 2kg better off with Mrs Geriatrix for a 2,30 length beating in the Allan Robertson, but Mrs Geriatrix did win that race easing up.

Princess Calla has also had a grass gallop at Durbanville.

She runs in the Turf Talk Syndicate Cape A Stakes over 1250m.
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Off her 127 merit rating and with a gender allowance she is officially 4,5kg better off at the weights with the 124-rated former Equus Champion Sprinter Rio Querari, who is drawn one inside of her in barrier position seven.

She is 9kg better off with the joint third best weighted runners Wecangoallnight, Silver Operator and King Regent.

She does have a tricky draw of eight out of ten, but her magnificent turn of foot will allow Richard Fourie to make a plan.

Tarry said about the six-year-old Maine Chance Farms-bred Flower Alley mare, “It’s a prep run, she’s done enough work, she’s a bit overweight, so she should need the run, but I am still hopeful her class will get her through to win.”

Fourie will also be aboard Mrs Geriatrix.

Original Turf Talks Editor’s Entertaining Style Of Writing Can Be Looked Forward To Weekly On Tab4Racing

4Racing

4Racing is pleased to welcome racing scribe, Charl Pretorius, to our editorial team.

Charl will be launching a brand-new weekly column, ‘Off The Record’, starting this Saturday, 11 November 2023.

Charl says, “It is a column to entertain with regional racing stories that haven’t been told or haven’t made it into print. Racing lends itself to such funny stories, sometimes bizarre and unbelievable stories that really lend colour and context to our sport. I will be drawing on my experiences of 35 years in the game to take people behind the scenes of South African horses and horsemen and share some of the untold funny, interesting and entertaining stories from across our racing landscape.”

The column will be posted weekly on www.tab4racing.com under Off The Record.

Picture: Western Winter’s daughter Cold As Ice in action in her SA racing days (Picture: Sporting Post)

Turf Talk

The Ridgemont Stud-bred Frankel filly Flindrikin, owned by the Kieswetter family’s Ireland-based stud Barnane Stud, made her debut on Monday on the Kempton All Weather track over a mile and finished unplaced beaten 7,75 lengths.

However, the winner was a Godolphin homebred Frankel filly out of a Group 1-winning Dubawi mare who was coming off a debut win over seven furlongs at Newmarket, whose maiden races are always contested by well regarded sorts.

Flindrikin is out of the South African-bred Western Winter mare Cold As Ice, who was the winner in 2014 of the equivalent of tomorrow’s Cape Town feature, the Gr 2 Western Cape Fillies Championship over 1400m, when trained by Joey Ramsden. She went on to win the Gr 2 Sceptre Stakes over 1200m before being beaten a short-head by Inara in the Gr 1 Majorca Stakes. Cold As Ice then departed for the U.K., where her only win was over seven furlongs on the All Weather at Chelmsford trained by William Haggas and ridden by her regular pilot in SA Bernard Fayd’Herbe.

Flindrikin, who is also trained by Haggas, is now entered in a one mile all weather event at Newcastle to be run next Wednesday, 15 November.

Considering she was green on debut and made some late headway she could go close.

She will be attempting to emulate her full sister Icykel, who won her second career start.

Icykel, trained by Johnny Murtagh in Ireland, has been kept to stakes races since that win and has managed a Listed fourth place finish over one mile and six furlongs.

Cold As Ice’s colt by Epsom Derby winner Australia was sold for 50,000 Gns at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Betting Shops Are The Usual Outlet For A Punt In The U.K. (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)  

In the U.K. Punters Will Soon Have To Prove They Can Afford To Punt And The Racing Industry Estimates If This Becomes Law It Will Cost The Industry £250 million over the next five years

Britain’s horseracing industry launched a petition today (Thursday 2nd November) urging the UK Government to halt planned legislation which would subject bettors who lose as little as £1.37 a day to “intrusive” affordability checks.

Proposals for two tiers of checks were set out in April of this year when the Government published its Gambling White Paper. The first tier would be for those who lose as little as £125 in 30 days or £500 in a year to be subject to “frictionless” background checks using “publicly available data”. The second would result in more detailed scrutiny for bettors with net losses of £1,000 within 24 hours or £2,000 in 90 days. These checks would involve credit reference agencies in the first instance, with bookmakers also required to ask customers for personal documentation such as bank statements and proof of earnings.

STOP THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BETTING AFFORDABILITY CHECKS
We want the Government to abandon the planned implementation of affordability checks for some people who want to place a bet. We believe such checks – which could include assessing whether people are ‘at risk of harm’ based on their postcode or job title – are inappropriate and discriminatory.

Sign the petition
British racing continues to welcome the publication of the Gambling White Paper as an important step to ensure that gambling regulation is fit for the digital age, addressing the true causes of problem gambling and as a catalyst for a review of the Horserace Betting Levy. However, plans to introduce blanket affordability checks have been met with significant and widespread opposition.

And while the proposals have not yet been formally introduced, more than one in four bettors say they have already been subjected to affordability checks by bookmakers in anticipation of them being implemented, with some operators requesting financial documentation, including payslips and P60 forms.

Racing industry experts warn that enforcing the strict measures in the blanket way they are currently proposed would have a “catastrophic” impact on the industry, with more than half of the 14,000 racing bettors who completed a ‘Right to Bet’ survey saying they would be prepared to walk away from the sport completely or reduce their involvement rather than provide personal financial information.

Independent estimates value the potential lost revenue to the industry at around £250 million over the next five years and substantial online betting revenue has already been lost since the checks were first introduced.

The horseracing industry launched its petition following a consultation on ‘Financial risk checks for bettors’ which was conducted by the Gambling Commission and concluded on October 18th 2023.

Posted at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/649894 the petition is listed as “Stop the implementation of betting affordability/financial risk checks”.

Although it is registered in the name of Nevin Truesdale, Chief Executive of The Jockey Club, the petition is launched on behalf of Britain’s horseracing industry, which supports more than 85,000 jobs and contributes £4.1 billion to the UK economy each year.

Its online citation reads: “We want the Government to abandon the planned implementation of affordability checks for some people who want to place a bet. Such checks – including assessing whether people are ‘at risk of harm’ based on their postcode or job title – are inappropriate and discriminatory.

“The proposed checks could see bettors having to prove they can afford their hobby if they sustain losses as low as £1.37 per day. We accept the need to help those with problem gambling but more intrusive checks triggered at a higher threshold risks bettors moving to the black market where there are no consumer protections or safer gambling tools. There will also be a negative impact on British horseracing’s finances due to a reduction in betting turnover and resulting fall in Levy yield.”

The Jockey Club operates 15 of the UK’s racecourses and is the largest commercial organisation and employer in the sport. Nevin Truesdale, Chief Executive, said: “The horseracing industry is hugely supportive of changes which directly address problem gambling, especially in the digital age we are in and we welcome the reform of the gambling laws which will result from the White Paper, once it passes through the Parliamentary legislative process.

“However, the proposed and ongoing affordability checks are a significant infringement on personal freedom and have the potential to impact unfairly on two groups of people – the millions who gamble responsibly every year and the tens of thousands whose livelihoods depend directly and indirectly on horseracing.

“It is deeply disturbing that racing fans may have to prove they can afford to lose what amounts to less than £10 a week having a flutter on the sport they love, in particular when you consider the extremely low percentage of problem gambling in relation to horseracing. Nowhere else in society do we see this level of intrusiveness from the Government when it comes to people’s legitimate hobbies.

“We know that the likely result will either be people leaving the sport, some as owners as well as bettors, or much worse, switching to the unregulated black market. Both of these outcomes will have catastrophic consequences, not only for racing’s financial ecosystem but for thousands of livelihoods which depend upon it and therefore for communities and families up and down the country.

“Whether you are a breeder, trainer, farrier, vet, jockey, or you work in a racing yard, at a racecourse in any capacity or in one of the countless other roles which help this sport contribute £4.1 billion to the UK economy each year, these affordability checks have the potential to threaten your livelihood.

“Racecourses and our industry as a whole play a crucial role in the communities they serve and operate in and it is no exaggeration to draw the conclusion that, ultimately, the very many local businesses which also thrive as a part of these racing communities will be put at significant risk too.”

Truesdale added that a major concern regarding the Government’s plans is that the checks themselves will not actually succeed in addressing the biggest issue they have been designed to tackle.

He explained: “If you introduce these blanket checks as they have been proposed, all it will actually do is create issues and friction for people, most of whom bet perfectly responsibly.

“It won’t actually address the challenges faced by problem gamblers, given that it is a habit-forming activity. Those betting safely will give up or turn to the black market, creating further problems in an unregulated environment, while those who don’t have the means to fund their gambling will simply find another way to bet.

“We would like to see a much more targeted system of checks, which specifically respond to other markers of harm rather than just a blanket affordability check that will do nothing to address the underlying issue.”

In order to secure a response from the Government the petition must receive 10,000 signatures and if 100,000 people sign then it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

Turf Talk

Lammtarra did not have any build up races to the treble. The only other start of his career was in a Listed race in the August of his two-year-old season, which he also won.