IT'S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW IN THIS GAME THAT COUNTS, BUT WHO

Last night saw the opening of the revamped Betting World bookmaker and tote facility at Bedford Center in Bedfordview and the experience blew my mind, but not the way it should have, there was plenty of eye candy hired for the boys and I couldn't help but think of Robyn Louws recent Sporting Post article, soon I wished I had brought my jacket because of the temperature drop and felt sorry for the girls wearing the short skirts.

However even with the pretty girls present there was a poor turnout and the bizarre events that followed served to highlight for me how things have changed in racing, better for some and not so good for racing.

My group of five that headed to the tote to see Nico Kritsiotis and the newly built VIP lounge consisted of Patrick Kalil a well known high roller and racehorse Owner, Jaque Hugo a racehorse owner and avid punter, Frank Aglotti qualified Farrier and one time assistant trainer to his father who trained the unlucky runner up in the Durban July Anytime Baby, Buckly Pretorius an ex boxer who fought the great sporting legend Brian Mitchell twice as an amateur and is now a sport betting fanatic and then myself who founded the South African Racegoers Association in the eighties then became South Africa's biggest horse player in the nineties and as well as the innovator and founder of Formgrids.com, so collectively we are the type of players racing needs, hardened gamblers, we and others like us are exactly who the VIP lounge managers and racing administrators in general should be targeting and trying to keep in racing.  
When we arrived at the tote there was a small handful of invited guests sitting around in the general area waiting for the VIP lounge to open officially, seated amongst them was the RA's Larry Wainstein, and champion punter Mike Rafel.

I lead my group into the VIP lounge to have a quick look, it was nicely done out, Nico was the proud host and looked happy wearing a Betting World shirt, he greeted us warmly and kindly allowed us two minutes to look around before letting us know that the VIP lounge has entry restrictions and is only for Betting world account holders or players with a turnover of 60k per month, as I am not a Betting World account holder and had no way of showing my monthly turnover we promptly retreated and sat in the general area at a already half filled table where a few seats appeared open, we were soon chased away by a very upset tote frequenter who pointed out his half finished packet of peanuts left on the table which he said was his marker, we then tried our luck in the smoking section but had to leave as it was too much smoke for us non smokers, lucky for us the VIP area opened and the groups vacated tables in the unrestricted area so we quickly sat down and remained there for the duration of the night, this is the longest time I have spent in a tote in the last 20 years, normally 15 minutes is what I do at a time.

Not once did the racing ambassadors present think it might be a good marketing move for racing to invite us inside the VIP lounge to help fill the space, yes I know it does not make a difference one way or the other to them but it does to racing.

The problem with salaried men has always been complacency and unfortunately the main focus falls on the jobs perks rather than the games objectives.

At one stage during the night Buckly asked the security guard to go inside the VIP lounge and call Larry Wainstein because he wanted to ask Larry for a betting voucher, shortly thereafter Larry's brother Ricky arrived at our table and said "Sorry boys i cant help you guys, its not what you know in this game that counts but who you know" and he disappeared back into the VIP area quicker than he appeared.

Buckly commented at various times about us moving inside the VIP lounge based on the fact that there were plenty of VIP badges laying unclaimed at the reception area and that someone clearly had made a miscalculation as to how many people would attend, however the rest of us were not prepared to Gate crash.

Buckly was soon proved correct when at about race six Nico wandered out of the VIP area to our table and asked if we would like something to eat as there was plenty food left. Soon lots of hot food was brought out to the unrestricted area and it was very well appreciated by the general tote population, Patrick and Frank had counted one very hungry tote visitor having eight helpings.

Well done boys long may the gravy train continue, but don't you think since you live off the game that you should still keep racing's needs somewhere in the back of your minds. you missed out on the perfect opportunity to fulfil one of racing's main objectives and by you not having the common courtesy to invite us into "YOUR" VIP lounge you also missed a great chance to get some good racing press coverage on Formgrids.com which by the way has a database of five thousand ardent racing fans, you must have forgotten that Formgrids accompanied Racing South Africa to the world racing conference in Hong Kong earlier this year and shared the stand with Racing SA representing our countries racing, also you must have forgotten that we have over a thousand race players on Formgrids every day from all over the world, egg on your face not ours, we do our bit and more for the game, but your oversight and delight has not done the positions you hold in the game proud, you are right there is no one we can complain to except perhaps our five thousand strong database.

Robyn Louws recent Sporting Post article

Interesting Sportingpost Article by Leon Smuts from Scoreline Wagering Enterprises (Pty) Ltd.

Are Operators Missing The Point?

sportingpost.co.za