City racecourse to be closed next month
FLAMINGO Park Racecourse and the adjacent training centre in Kimberley will be closed at the end of July.
Phumelela Gaming said in a statement on Thursday that it had intended to continue racing at Flamingo Park until at least the end of this year after Gold Circle and other sponsors offered to contribute towards the costs of staging race meetings there in 2020.
“Covid-19 lockdown regulations, however, have thwarted staging racing at Flamingo Park since March and it is uncertain when racing will be able to resume there. In addition, the massive financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on horse racing has resulted in Gold Circle announcing that it will not be able to offer financial assistance beyond 2020,” Danie Toerien, spokesperson for Phumelela Gaming, said.
“Consequently, Phumelela has decided to close the venue next month and several resident trainers are planning to relocate to other racing centres.
“Flamingo Park was a valuable venue in terms of giving opportunities to horses not able to compete at other centres and races to enable such horses to remain competitive will now be added to the racing programmes at the four remaining racing centres,” Toerien added.
The company originally announced in September last year that the Flamingo Park track would stage its last meeting on Monday, December 9.
The decision, based on commercial factors, followed a financial analysis conducted on Kimberley Racing in isolation from the other racecourses, which indicated that the local course was losing ground. It was believed that the local centre was running at a loss of around R24 million a year.
The announcement was met with shock by local trainers and their staff, as well as the more than 100 employees at Flamingo Park, at the time. “It’s a massive blow to those who work and have horses here,” local trainer Cliff Miller said, “especially for the 100-odd people who live here with their families.
“The other concern is what is going to happen to the horses here. There must be around 300 horses stabled here. Some will find other places to go but there are a lot that will probably end up having to be euthanised.”
Following an agreement reached in principle with Gold Circle, that also involved Mary Slack and Hollywoodbets, it was hoped that horse racing at Flamingo Park would continue until at least the end of 2020.
Slack is the daughter of Harry Oppenheimer and sister to Nicky Oppenheimer.
Her daughter, Jessica, lives predominantly at the horse stud farm Mauritzfontein, outside Kimberley.
Miller said yesterday that some of the trainers would be relocated to Ashburton in Pietermaritzburg.
“It’s a very sad day,” he said. “This was the only sand track in South Africa, but what can one do? We were originally hoping to continue with racing here until at least the end of the year but that’s changed now because of this virus.”