Gold Circle to probe power failure at Durban July
Horseracing and
betting company Gold Circle says they've launched an investigation into the
power outage that led to the premature end of the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
In a statement, Gold Circle says the unanticipated implementation of power outage was made contrary to arrangements with the City Of Durban.
It led to jockeys refusing to ride, citing unsafe conditions and ended with the abandonment of the final three races.
The company says it was out of its control and apologised to some 45 000 people who attended the horse racing event at Greyville Racecourse on Saturday.
Events and Marketing Executive at Gold Circle Steve Marshall says they got an exemption from the City of Durban for load shedding.
"On our grid, we were supposed to loadshed from 6 to 8 pm. In our planning process, that was on our radar, and we cleared it with them, and they gave us an exemption, but what happened at 6pm was our power dropped then came back up, but because our flood lights are halogen, they take up to 20 minutes to cool down before we can turn them back on again.
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“About 15 minutes after they came back on, the power dropped again. So the first time is kind of explainable. The second one we need to get a comment from the city to find out what happened there."
Marshall says the chain of events put doubt into the jockey's minds.
"They are riding aboard animals that are travelling 60 odd kilometres an hour, but if the lights went out halfway through a race, they felt it would be very dangerous to be riding and that ultimately led them to refuse to ride the last three races. We had sponsors of those three races who are very disappointed and will have to do damage control there."
