Classic-winning trainer, Stanley Findlay, has said that the love of horses is no longer the main objective behind owning horses at Caymanas Park.

“The claiming system has changed all that and strike down the glory days of racing at the Park. Gone are the days when the love of the horse for its majestic strides and forthright appearance was the main focus. Today, that has disappeared. Probably not totally, but enough to drive owners away. In those days, racing was a sport and the horse was a loved and cherished animal,” Findlay told

The Complete Racing Guide.

“When someone bought a yearling it was because of love and admiration for the horse and wanting to hold on to it, even for sentimental reasons. He wanted to watch it grow and develop with the understanding that the horse would run at a level that its ability allows so that his owner could watch gallop in the race without fear of losing it.

“Some horses will take more racing exercise preparation before coming to hand. When a handicap system is in operation, owners can be patient with their horses’ development. Some horses take a little longer time to develop than others do. But because of the claiming system, racing is going down as owners who are lovers of animal do not want to be the owner of a particular horse today and a different one tomorrow,” the veteran trainer said.

Findlay said his belief is that the claiming system would have had a much greater impact on racing in Jamaica had there been, at least, two race tracks in the country. “Condition races are programmed to facilitate owners who do not specifically want to put their horses up for a claiming price,” he said.

Findlay pointed to the fact that such a race “may not be in keeping with wishes of the owner who wants his horse run in handicap races in the class that he belongs”.

“It is expensive to maintain a horse in training, therefore, a trainer should be able to condition a horse for the race he wants to enter and do well in. You do not train a claiming horse, but you have to train a yearling. That is the big difference between claiming and handicap racing. Jamaica cannot afford claiming races as there is only one track and that is ruining the industry.

“Realistically many of the trainers with claiming horses, if they were to get a yearling to train in the morning to bring him up in a proper way for racing, could prove very difficult for them. With the youngster, it is a completely different approach. With a claiming horse and a yearling, there is a big difference. You have to train yearlings. You do not train claiming horses. Claiming horses are nominated,” Findlay pointed out.

Findlay, who missed winning the Guineas Classic double by a whisker with

Nadia, who placed second in the fillies Guineas andMonday Morning who won the colts Guineas, says a revival in racing at Caymanas Park is looming by hinting that “there is a move afoot to put the track back on its racing footing under new management”.

“With such a move, my belief is that we will once again see good owners returning to the Sport of Kings,” noted Findlay.

With a change in management, Findlay says that his hope is that “the new operators will see fit to ‘bring back racing’ by replacing the Claiming System with the Handicap System”.

Findley, who hails from St Elizabeth, was around horses since his ‘eyes were at his knees’. He is a legend in his own right, being among the first group of horsemen to move to Caymanas Park from Knutsford Park Racecourse when in 1959 horseracing shifted its focus from St Andrew to St Catherine and one who still plies his trade as owner/trainer at the Park.

He was neither owner nor trainer when he entered the profession some 60 years ago, but Findlay has worked his way into prominence from the ground up and managed to saddle some of the finest racing talents to grace the track of Caymanas Park through the years. His finest moment, however, came when he saddled the great

Monday Morning to victory in the colts 2,000 Guineas. As a two-year-old in 1986,Monday Morning, a bay colt byPol Na Chree out ofJedal, had already shown potent signs of becoming a champion racer after getting up in time to peg backTidal Wave to win the Victor Sutherland Memorial Cup, going 1,200 metres. The following year he obliged in the 2,000 Guineas. Other fine racing material Findlay had the distinction of conditioning includedOutstanding (a racing mare who failed at stud),American Gal who won the Dr Ralston Feanny Memorial Trophy,Power Surge winner of the Drumbeat Trophy, along withPrincess Cracker, She’s Aggressive and Magic Dancer.