THE regulatory agency for betting in Jamaica, the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BG&LC), the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) and Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) continued the countdown to the well anticipated, ultra-rich Diamond Mile race day with a short press briefing held at the BG&LC head office on Hagley Park Road yesterday.

At the press briefing, Gary Peart, the BG&LC chairman, officially announced the conditions for the Diamond Mile as well as the gathering of a new sponsor, the Jamaica Observer Limited (JOL), which will be the official print partner for the event.

The conditions for the race were carried in last week Friday’s Observer.

The Lucrative 11-race programme is planned for December 5 with the main feature being the running of the inaugural Diamond Mile which will carry a whopping purse of US$115,000 (J$13.5 million). The race is slated for native-bred and imported three-year-olds and upward going over a mile or 1,600 metres.

The other 10 races for the day will feature purses of not less than $1 million, which makes the race day the richest locally and in the Caribbean.

Peart said that the Diamond Mile promotion has started well.

“The preparations leading up to the Diamond Mile are going pretty well; we have gotten our first sponsor (Jamaica Observer) on board; we are in discussion with about four or five more sponsors and we are expecting to get some more.

“So all we now have to do as an organiser committee is to continue get additional sponsors on board. The more sponsors we get on board is the more we can offer, so it is just now a countdown to the day,” Peart said.

He said that this move by his company is to return the sport of horseracing to its glory days.

“This is a joint effort between the Ministry of Finance and Planning, BG&LC, JRC, and CTL, designed to help stimulate the horseracing sector of the gaming industry, which has been suffering gravely for several years now, and desperately needs a shot in the arm for its survival,” he declared.

In giving the Observer’s commitment as print media partner, managing director for the newspaper Danville Walker, said: “We want to be there with you when you create history in Jamaica and we are going to get the word out there to the public (and) I must thank you for letting us partner with you.”