Uncertainty At Accra Turf Club

Horse racing is one area in sports which has suffered neglect from the Sports Ministry over the years especially, since the allegation some years back that Alidu Kora and his Medium Mortar Regiment gunners planned firing their big guns from that location in their bid to topple the PNDC government.

While a mound of terrazo chippings or something like that sits in the middle of the facility making all-round viewing difficult, it has been announced that a five-star hotel is going to be constructed at the site. In view of this, a new location is supposed to have been acquired to replace the present course. This project has been on paper only all these years.

For now officials of the turf club are unable to tell what the real situation is as they continue to organise important events in the racing calendar like the annual derby. What would boost the morale of race-loving fans in the city, is a clear picture from the new Minister of Sports what the policy for horse racing would be. But for the love that people have for the sport in Accra it would have long been obliterated from the catalogue of sporting events in the country.

People like Baba Dantata, who hails from a wealthy family of horse owners in the ancient city of Kano in Nigeria is one man who has contributed in no small measure in keeping horse racing alive in Accra. Last week he brought some new horses into the country to boost the sport. This is not the first time that he is doing so. A few years ago he brought in a horse from Nigeria which caused such a sensation at the racecourse that very soon its name became a household one in Accra. I am referring to the late La Queen whose death was received with such melancholy that one would have thought that a prominent personality had lost his life.

The Accra Racecourse is one place where horse breeding is being carried out with such seriousness and positive results that one cannot imagine what would have happened to the country's stock of the animal if that facility had not been in existence.

A visit to the place would reveal dozens of mares and ponies creating the impression that this is a huge breeding ground for some exotic animals on the precipice of extinction. Sometimes people come from the north to buy horses from the racecourse, a strange development considering the fact that the animal used to feature prominently in that part of the country when it served as a beast of burden and also as a ceremonial animal used by the chiefs on special occasions.

Perhaps, what the authorities at the course should do is to send a special delegation to the new sports minister on the matter of the racecourse. They should actually brief him on what transpired earlier and the uncertainty surrounding the sport. It would also do the sport some good if they insist on having the facility retained at the present site because movement to the new site it seems is not going to be feasible. When the former vice president performed a ceremony to flag the start of work on the five star hotel to replace the course, some of us doubted whether the move was a genuine one. So many months after that event there is still no sign that something is really going to happen there. As for race loving fans they still troop to the place each time there is going to be a racing event.