Five candidates vie for two seats on the RA board

The Racing Association is holding a poll for two seats on its National Board that have become vacant.

Five candidates have been nominated for the two positions. They are: racehorse owners and breeders Anthony Joannides and Charles Savage, owner and racing administrator Rob Scott and trainers Dean Alexander and Mike de Kock.

Voting papers and explanations of the process have been mailed to the RA’s members and voting closes at 12 noon on Thursday 1 November.

Joannides has been involved in racing for most of his life as a breeder and owner and currently has interests in 24 horses being trained in various centres. He is in the property business, heading up sales and acquisitions for JSElisted company Reit.

Savage is CEO of JSE-listed fintech specialist Purple Group and has been involved in derivative financial markets for 17 years. He grew up in a thoroughbred horse racing and breeding environment and later got into ownership himself.

Scott also has deep roots in racing, with both his late brother and uncle having been successful trainers and his father, Tony, a steward. He has an MBA degree and worked in senior management positions for retail giant Edcon before taking up the post of CEO of Tellytrack.

Alexander was born into a racing family and for the past 36 years has has been a key part of the top training team that operates at Turffontein under his older brother Gary. Before the formation of Phumelela he was a steward at both the Vaal and Gosforth Park Turf Clubs.

De Kock is the most famous name in South African horse racing, having been involved since 1984, when he started out as an assistant trainer. He has been SA Champion Trainer eight times, saddled over 3000 winners and raced successfully in nine racing jurisdictions around the world.