Charl Pretorius

CHARL PRETORIUS is South Africa's most accredited horseracing journalist and an award-winning writer in mainstream journalism. In a stretch of over 30 years in newspapers, magazines and electronic media he has served on most major dailies in Johannesburg. He started his career at the Afrikaans Newspaper Beeld followed by stints at Sunday Times, Business Day and The Citizen, where he was instrumental in launching the popular tabloid, Racing Express as founding editor in 2003. Pretorius also edited Computaform, contributed to SA Horseman and still writes on occasion for its successor, Parade Magazine. In between, he was then foundingb editor of South African Hustler Magazine and originated Loslyf, its Afrikaans equivalent. He played a pioneering role in the advent of SA horseracing's major websites in the mid 2000s, launching mikedekockracing.com in 2004, seantarryracing.co.za in 2006, freeracer.co.za in 2007 and racingweb.co.za in conjunction with the Moneyweb Group in 2009. later also Turf Talk in 2016. Pretorius is known for his controversial articles, some of which have landed him in hot water. He has faced two charges of "bringing horseracing into disrepute", lodged by South Africa's National Horseracing Authority (NHA), something he described in 2012 as "disgraceful, humiliating and being executed with a flagrant disregard for Freedom Of Speech". The ruinous aspects of officialdom have not stifled this racing hack's love for the sport of racing and his deep admiration for its many heroes, too many of them unsung. Pretorius holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Higher Teaching Diploma. He lives on the West Coast of South Africa.