HARNESS RACINGComplementing Thoroughbred Racing and

extending the opportunities for transformation in the horse-racing and stud-

breeding Industries

HARNESS RACING ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA

RURAL 144, 000 HORSES

ITA22 Member Countries

STC SWEDEN

PHUMELELAGOLD CIRCLE

USTASTB CANADAAHRCHRNZSCANDINAVIACHEVAL FRANCAIS

Trotco (Pty) Ltd

HRSA

KZN GOVT

Harness Racing

• Formally launched in SA in 2009• Utilises the Standardbred horse• Worldwide bigger than flat racing • Employs the gaits of trotting and pacing• Member of the ITA• Lower cost than conventional racing• Fully licensed by government• Closely aligned with rural racing• Caters to amateur and rural participation • Aids in transformation

Current Tote Monopoly (PGE) importing trotting signals and betting on trotting, with no contribution to the

development of trotting locally.

UNFAIR TRADE PRACTISE

Professionally launched 27 March 2009 Greyville Racecourse, Durban

Bigger than Thoroughbred Racing Worldwide

Universally Entrenched

Rural Horse Riding Traditional Horse Racing

An African Renaissance project

Supported by Department of Sport, Art and Culture, KZN,

and

The Harness Racing Association of South Africa

• In existence in KZN since 1901.• A traditional cultural pursuit, widely practised.• Structured and regulated by HRSA• Employs the equine gaits of trotting and pacing,

sometimes (incorrectly) referred to as “tripling.”• Aligned with the same gaits as those of the international

harness racing/trotting countries.• Utilises mostly rough bush/boerperde/ Basotho pony and

crosses.• Includes Eastern Cape, Lesotho and Mpumalanga

participation.• Annual highlight – The Dundee July – R135,000 purse

Drivers in Training Caters to Amateur Participation.

Strong alignment with rural racing through trotting and pacing gaits.

Bid submitted to ITA for World Trotting Conference and World Driving

Championships - Durban, 2015.

FORMAL SUBMISSION - GAMBLING REVIEW COMMISSION FINAL REPORT

We hereby wish to draw your attention to certain major omissions in the above report, and which omissions affect materially the analysis, conclusions and recommendations of the report, in:

1. 2.6 Betting (including Horse-racing and Betting), and2. 6.4 Bush Racing.

1).The commission failed to report that Harness Racing, an additional horse-racing code bigger than flat racing in worldwide terms, exists and was introduced into South Africa in 2005 with the express purpose of aiding in the transformation of the horseracing and stud-breeding industries. Harness racing is controlled and regulated in South Africa by The Harness Racing Association of South Africa (HRSA), a Non Profit Organisation with full membership to the International Trotting Association (ITA), and it holds a valid race-course operator license for the Dundee KZN race-track. This professional code of horse-racing, through its lower barriers to entry and inclusiveness to amateur and rural participation is strongly aligned with telebhela (trotting) a widely practised form of traditional horse- racing in rural South Africa.

2).The commission has taken a parochial and distorted view of “bush racing” and is ignorant of the widespread KZN, Mpumalanga, North-West and Eastern Cape traditional horse-racing form of telebhela. Telebhela is well structured under joint custody of HRSA and KZN Department of Sport and Recreation. It has an approximate current membership of 1400 in KZN alone, and receives constant support, equine welfare and veterinary oversight by The Coastal Horse-care Unit.

* submitted on the 5th of September, 2011.