Stakeholders at Caymanas Park Racing Complex have threatened to withhold their nomination of horses for Saturday’s racemeet until the vexed issue of a purse cut is addressed.

Nomination day for Saturday’s meet is tomorrow.

The decision was taken at a brief and to the point press conference at the Trainers Room at Caymanas Park yesterday, where a very large turnout of trainers, owners, jockeys, grooms and farriers attended to support the decision.

Caymanas Track Limited had advised stakeholders that effective May 1, 2013, all breeders’ purses would be discontinued except for two and three-year-old races, and all other purses would be reduced by 4.8 per cent, in order to keep the cash-strapped entity viable.

According to United Racehorse Trainers’ Association vice-president Bernard Vincent, both the United Racehorse Trainers’ Association of Jamaica Limited and the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers’ Association jointly wrote to the chairman of Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) Joseph Matalon, and Minister of Finance Dr Peter Phillips concerning the matter. However, it is reported that up to this point no response was received.

“Be that as it may,” Bernard said, “all channels are left opened for dialogue where we can show government ways and means how the necessary funds can be raised without a purse cut. We think it is not necessary to penny-pinch money from an already overburdened stakeholders group”.

Discussions arose concerning how an overburdened flat economy could employ such high-profile managers. The large restive gathering also called for the immediate resignation of the CTL chairman.

There was also a call from both trainers’ organisations for a forensic audit at CTL, stretching back to the last 12 years, the period when the company noticeably began to head downhill. “It is a public company and the public has a right to know the financial state of the company,” Vincent stated.