Many of you will remember the fiery former Eastern Province flanker Tobie Oosthuizen.
I was in the team room of the then South Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga) rugby side which Tobie captained after his time in Port Elizabeth.
Tobie was busy given his motivational talk before the start of an important match when he grabbed the emblem on his jersey and shouted: “Today it is all about this varkoor.”
When listening to South Africa’s champion horseracing trainer Mike de Kock in a television interview recently, I thought about that talk of Tobie reminding his team-mates what it is really about.
When De Kock explained that people in the sport and business of horseracing must remember that “it is all about the horse”, I felt nearly as pumped up as that day next to Tobie.
Unfortunately there are people in horseracing that don’t put the horse first and don’t care what happens to a horse after his racing days are over.
In the Eastern Cape you will struggle to find such a person and you can just look at the race day at Fairview two weeks ago for proof of that.
The PE racing people rolled up their sleeves to support the race day of the East Cape Horse Care unit.
This unit does wonderful work with the equines (from donkeys to mules, crossbreeds and thoroughbreds) that give us so much joy, but sometimes end up in very strange places.
If you want to support the Horse Care Unit, contact them on 041 366 1594.
Also read Henk’s Hint or go to Tips.
