Euronazis do turf a favour

Can a cloud have more than one silver lining?

It looks like it when we observe the nasty grey cumulonimbus that is the current ban on horse exports from South Africa.

One silver sliver is that, though the ban blocks an export channel worth many, many millions to the country, the best racehorses stay and run here.

In the past week, stars such as Durban July winner Igugu, top sprinter Val de Ra and brilliant three-year-old Princess Victoria once again had racing fans marvelling at their talent on local turf.

All three might have been whisked off to Dubai, the US or Hong Kong if it hadn't been for some bossy, elitist bureaucrats in Europe, bless 'em.

Entries for next month's J&B Met include top sorts such as The Apache and Pierre Jourdan, who would have been absent had it not been for the pointy-headed Little Hitlers in Brussels, the cherubs.

Another "bright side" of the cloud is that the ban saga has led to the South African government - and the Prez in particular - gaining a far greater appreciation of the value to the economy of the equine and racing industries.

A bit of background: South Africa has exported more than 350000 horses since the 1700s but has never exported African horse sickness.

In recent decades, bossy people abroad got twitchy about African horse sickness. So South Africa set up an export protocol that allowed shipments only in winter - when the biting midge that carries the disease is entirely dormant - and only from a closely monitored zone in Western Cape free of African horse sickness.

An outbreak of the disease last summer near the zone (not within it, mind), was enough for European officials to get all theatrical and bar South African horses.

Other jurisdictions - including the United Arab Emirates, hosts of Dubai's Racing Carnival, at which South African horses have been mighty successful - followed like sheep.

Fortuitously, JZ was going on a visit to the UAE recently. The SA Equine Trade Council seized a chance to appraise the government of how unfair and damaging the export prohibition was. It emphasised that the UAE's slavish emulation of the European Union ruling throttled foreign revenue streams and choked job creation.

The government took up the cause with the UAE, which last year imported R100-million worth of South African horseflesh. It seems this horse business was almost the only point of contention in an otherwise cheery desert jaunt for Msholozi and crew. So it's not as if the Arabs have a long "to do" list.

Getting the Euronazis to see logic and lift their ban might be impossible, what with them so busy propping up their euro dream, but the UAE might be more amenable. Then we would be deprived of our best racers again. Darn.

But dare we hope the other silver lining abides?

And that our politicians desist from wrong-headed meddling and make well-informed policy choices that help grow the horse sector (no favouritism, of course . heaven forbid).

Turffontein, tomorrow: PA - 7,12 x 9 x 1 x 5,9,14 x 3,6 x 3,4,6 x 11,12 (R72)

• This is Mike Moon's last column for the year. He will be back in the saddle, and unfazed by superstition, on Friday January 13