Industry ‘bigmen’ treat horse racing like rocket science

A seismic shift in North American racing, an impending circumvention of its traditional Triple Crown Series of races, replaced by the six-race Thoroughbred Championship Series, which includes the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes but, politically, excludes Maryland’s Preakness Stakes, is an example of how powerful interest groups can influence an entire industry.

Locally, horse racing ranks alongside tourism as having a far-reaching effect on the economy, providing year-round employment and being a dependable contributor to government coffers. However, unlike the hospitality sector, horse racing has one of the most powerful but underutilised lobbies of any local industry.

It was not per chance that horse racing was the first sport or mass gathering to restart at the back end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite envy echoed by other sporting disciplines, none could have guaranteed millions of dollars to a government scraping for funds during the pandemic era.

Protocols were put in place, and horse-racing fans at Caymanas Park washed and sanitised hands without even a security guard having to insist on compliance. Everybody understood the consequence: no compliance, no horse racing.

If everyday punters understood the importance of unified and responsible behaviour to enjoy horse racing, it is befuddling that promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited, the professional groups - jockeys, grooms, trainers — as well as breeders, commercial and independent, along with, most of all, owners, have been unable to use their collective strength to show Government exactly how its coffers would swell should even a half of the $750 million being directed annually to the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission and Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) be returned to the industry.

Senior ministers with horse-racing interests either sat or still sit on the government benches in Parliament, including Karl Samuda, breeder of two-time Horse of the Year, Atomica, a Jamaica Derby winner owned by the late Don Wehby, former GraceKennedy Group CEO and government senator.

Daryl Vaz, minister of energy, information, transport and telecommunications, whose portfolio responsibilities include ‘Change and Investment’, part-owned Action Ann with Howard Hamilton, former president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica, winner of the 2021 Hotline Stakes, named for Vaz’ wife, former member of parliament, Annmarie Vaz.

Another notable government-aligned horseman of repute is senior statesman, Derrick Smith, who sits on the board of the JRC as a commissioner.

Attorney-at-law Walter Scott, a director at MayBerry Investments Limited, who once chaired the BGLC, is a former director and chairman of McKayla Financial Services, a micro-financing subsidiary of Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL), the parent company of racing promoter Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited.

Put these men in one room, along with the industry’s main voice, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica, led by businessman, breeder, and owner Andrew Azar, joined by the respective St Catherine members of parliament whose constituencies are, in their own separate ways, impacted by Caymanas Park – Andrew Wheatley, Alfred Dawes, Alando Terrelonge, and Fitz Jackson – should Jamaica seriously believe that horse racing would not benefit from a united approach to many of the burning issues stimying its growth?

Racehorse owners are not reapers. The owner who wins the Mouttet Mile or Jamaica Derby has either spent or starts spending that cheque before it reaches hand, trying to find the next champion horse, whether imported or locally bred.

Every horse in training earns for the Government the minute it is entered in a race and betting opens. Each horse provides direct and indirect employment not just to Portmore or St Catherine but from Negril to Morant Point.

Caymanas Park has the potential to be the jewel of not just the Caribbean but the Americas. It only needs big men to sit at the table, put together an all-encompassing plan for an industry that affects families, spanning agriculture, sport, entertainment, betting and, eventually, tourism.

Nothing should be left behind. Despite its moves to popularise horse racing, North America has been closing racetracks. A heart-rending story out of Chicago involves shuttered Hawthorne Park, where marshals have been ordered to evict families of 300 backstretch workers, including children of school age.

SVREL’s proposal to build out Caymanas Park cannot be met with silence or resistance. Grooms have families for whom quarters should be established on the 196-acre plant for them to be close to the horses.

The Stronach Group might be up in arms, kicking and screaming that Gulfstream Park’s casino licence is unfairly tied to compulsory operation of the Halandale Beach racetrack, making it uncompetitive with the tribal-owned casinos.

However, the state insists: no racing, no casino. Horse racing is far too important to the Florida economy to go the way of Hawthorne, Golden Gate Fields, Arlington and Hollywood Park, among too many to count.

Similarly, a combine can be placed on SVL/SVREL. No racing, no business licence to operate, whatever is outlined in its proposal for outright purchase and a US$100 million development plan.

It’s not rocket science.