Barrier trials will soon be a reality in KZN racing and all minor races in KZN will have stakes increases from November 1 this year.
The barrier trials will be welcomed by punters and will also provide an exciting platform from which racing enthusiasts can become racehorse owners.
The stakes increases will provide an incentive for potential owners.
Paul Lafferty
At the KZN Trainers AGM held on Tuesday there was unanimous agreement by the trainers to go ahead with the barrier trials initiative.
For all unraced horses or horses returning from long layoffs barrier trial will be compulsory. Such horses will otherwise not be allowed to line up in a race in KZN.
The barrier trials will be staged about half-an-hour before the first race or after the last race on the Polytrack at Greyville.
The weights the horses carry will be dictated by weight for age parameters and the distance of the trials will be 1000m. The horses will jump from the starting stalls. The stipendiary stewards will be in control of the trials and the horses must be extended but whips will not be necessary.
There will be full coverage of each trial and an official video will be made available.
Paul Lafferty, the Chairman of the KZN Trainers Association, was excited by this “breakthrough for transparency”, which himself and Gold Circle’s Marketing Executive Graeme Hawkins had been advocating for some time.
Lafferty believes barrier trials will have a major impact on “consumer confidence”, or in other words the confidence of owners and punters to invest in the sport.
He spoke of the dwindling confidence of people to venture into ownership and believed this was related to transparency.
The barrier trials would now offer potential owners the chance to view a horse for themselves, either live or on video.
This will be of benefit for trainers who still have shares available in a horse.
What is particularly exciting for potential owners in this regard is that the trials will be carried out under race day conditions.
This could open a whole new perspective to the sport as there are many enthusiasts who have an eye for a horse’s racing style, but this skill has hitherto been of little benefit to them.
Lafferty also spoke of the additional benefits the trials would have for both trainers and current owners of horses, “It will provide an opportunity to show the horse the course and teach them to float (transport) and introduce them to the race pens.”
Lafferty pointed out trainers were often not a hundred percent sure of how good an unraced horse was, or how ready it was, until they had seen them running in a race.
He also spoke of the need from both an owner and punter perspective to eliminate the practice of “insider trading.”
The other important factor is that as the trials will be conducted on race day they will be of no extra cost to the industry.
“We are in discussion with the NHA to implement Barrier Trials at Greyville and are hopeful to start this initiative in December”, said Raf Sheik, Gold Circle’s Racing Executive. “Once finalised the operational details and conditions will be published.”
By David Thiselton
