NSPCA takes aim at Durban July and cruelty in SA's horse racing industry

The Durban July held last weekend was South Africa’s most glamorous day of racing — a swirl of high fashion, Champagne flutes and big bets.

Amid the spectacle, actress and activist Nirvana Nokwe stepped on to the red carpet dressed not to dazzle, but to disturb.

Draped in an unsettling art piece paying tribute to racehorses abandoned and broken when they’re no longer profitable, Nokwe’s striking look was a wake-up call: the “sport of kings” is built on suffering.

Her bold statement launched the National Council of SPCAs’ (NSPCA’s) Rein in the Pain campaign — a challenge to the Durban July’s glossy image and a call for South Africans to confront the cruelty that lurks behind the roar of the crowd.

“This isn’t just about what happens on race day,” said Nokwe. “It’s about what we don’t see — the tongue-ties, the brutal whipping, the strained tendons, the fractured legs, the bleeding lungs. Fashion can make a statement, and this one says: It’s time to change.”

The dark truth 

According to the NSPCA, behind the turf tracks, mint juleps and TV cameras is a brutal system. Thoroughbreds — the sleek, high-speed horses synonymous with the Durban July — are bred for explosive performance. They can hit 60km/h in just a few strides, but that speed often comes at the cost of broken bones, strained ligaments and shortened lives.

Many horses begin racing before their skeletons are fully developed, leaving them prone to injuries that force early retirement, or worse.

“These magnificent animals are being silenced by a system that too often places profit above their welfare,” said Jacques Peacock, NSPCA communications manager. “Tradition can’t excuse cruelty.”

Every year, the South African racing industry registers around 2,000 new thoroughbred foals, adding to a population of about 30,000. Only a fraction of these will ever make it to the big racecourses. Many of those that do will be cast aside when they stop winning — and their new lives are often far from the manicured paddocks they once knew.

The ‘lost horses’

While some racehorses have second careers in showjumping or leisure riding, a disturbing number simply vanish. A Daily Maverick investigation into the thoroughbred world revealed that thousands slip into a welfare black hole when they no longer earn.

Some end up in slaughterhouses, their meat sold for lion parks or game reserves. Many more fall into the unregulated world of “bush racing”, where abandoned racehorses are flogged to race for small stakes or illegal bets on potholed dirt roads and tarred township streets.

In these informal races, dubbed “community racing”, the cruelty can be staggering. Saddles are often ill-fitted or non-existent, bits are replaced with wire that tears mouths, and exhausted horses collapse from injuries or overwork. When the NSPCA inspected an Eastern Cape race, they found more than 100 ex-thoroughbreds, many with injuries so severe they had to be euthanised on the spot.

“They used to be pampered, treated better than most humans,” said an NSPCA inspector. “Now they’re tossed away like old shoes at a jumble sale.”

Racing’s shaky foundations

While informal bush racing booms, formal thoroughbred racing in SA is on the decline. Since 1990, the number of horses starting races has dropped by nearly a third. In 2022, when we did the investigation, half of the country’s racecourses had shut down, and the number of breeders and stud farms had plummeted by more than 80%.

Once a lucrative spectacle, thoroughbred racing now survives largely thanks to betting houses and bookies, who rake in billions while owners struggle to cover the spiralling costs of raising and training a winning horse.

“You have to be wealthy to own racehorses, but you’re not likely to get wealthy racing them,” said an owner. “You’re lucky if a win covers a few months’ stabling costs.”

Yet the real losers aren’t the owners — they’re the horses. The NSPCA argues that the racing industry’s obsession with breeding and speed is producing more animals than it can or will care for. And once these horses leave the formal tracks, the National Horseracing Authority (NHRA) admits it has almost no power to track what happens to them next.

Bush racing pipeline

From the plush paddocks of the Durban July to the dusty roads of rural racing, a hidden pipeline funnels discarded thoroughbreds straight into a world of unchecked suffering. Some are sold or simply given away when they can’t win any more. Others are bought up by owners who lack the knowledge — or the resources — to care for such high-maintenance animals.

“The big problem is thoroughbreds,” says Stanley Adam of the Eastern Cape Horse Care Unit. “They’re like Ferraris — you can’t take a Ferrari and drive it down a gravel road and expect it to blossom.”

Traditional racing is deeply woven into rural life. For some, it’s a point of pride, a cultural celebration. But the lack of regulation can leave horses exposed to horrific injuries, doping, malnutrition and abuse. And unlike formal races, there are rarely vets on site and no accountability. However, the NSPCA’s Farm Animal Protection Unit tries to inspect every informal or community race that takes place in SA.

“We rely on donations and used to do inspections as far up as Kuruman,” said Theresa Hodgkinson of the Highveld Horse Care Unit. “But funding dried up. Now we see more thoroughbreds sold into informal racing — and many are in terrible condition.”

A roadmap for change

The NSPCA’s Rein in the Pain campaign isn’t just about raising awareness — it’s about fixing a system that, in the organisation’s view, is built to fail the animals at its heart. It has drafted clear, practical amendments to the NHRA’s rules, setting a minimum standard for change.

Key demands include:

• Banning performance-enhancing drugs and masking agents used to push injured horses through races;
• Phasing out harmful equipment like tongue ties by the end of this year;
• Completely banning whips by 2029 — with strict limits and schooling for jockeys in the interim;
• Ensuring that horses are microchipped by six months old and properly tracked from birth to retirement and beyond;
• Prohibiting racing horses under three years old to prevent premature skeletal damage; and
• Enforcing lifetime care and accountability, with criminal charges and lifetime bans for repeat offenders.

“These reforms are the bare minimum,” said Peacock. “They’re not exhaustive, but they’re a start. This is about public trust — people need to see the industry take real responsibility for the animals that make it possible.”

For the NSPCA, the real test will be whether ordinary South Africans demand this change. It’s calling on the public to sign its petition at nspca.co.za/ReinInThePain and to hold racing’s big players accountable for the animals behind the betting slips and fancy hats.

“Our goal is simple,” says Peacock. “We want the industry to stop pretending that window-dressing measures and paltry fines are enough. It’s time for meaningful change — and it starts with every one of us saying, ‘Enough is enough.’” DM