Popular owner and breeder Howard Hamilton, who was re-elected as president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) on Friday last, is of the strong view that the new promoters of horse racing in Jamaica, Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) must deal with the question of purses in order to make the sport more attractive to owners and to bring new players into the system.

“I keep on saying that $180,000 claimers can’t run racing based on the current purse structure.

“This (horse racing) is called the “Sport of Kings”, but it is not only the Sport of Kings, it is the King of Sports. It is a fantastic industry and needs to be properly exploited in terms of the potential it has,” Hamilton opined.

Commenting further on the issue of purse money, the TOBA president said: “The whole question about the purse structure needs to be fixed, it needs to be seriously adjusted in order to attract more owners in the business and we, as stakeholder, need to speak with SVL about what improvements we can make to improve the facilities and to see that there is a new population of racing people coming into the industry.”

With the long-awaited divestment of sole promoting company in racing, Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) to take place in early 2017, Hamilton said that his association is ready and willing to work with the preferred bidder, SVL, so as to improve the racing industry.

“Certainly, when it comes to the whole question of the promotion of racing and the new promoters, we have to have dialogue with them to see how best we can improve the racing stock. The whole question about the classification system needs to be looked at so we can put on more competitive races,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton, who has been the president of TOBA for over the last 20 years, was re-elected unchallenged for the top position, while Peter J Asher was re-elected as vice-president at the association’s 29th annual general meeting held at the Ham Stables Limited, Old Port Henderson Road, St Catherine.

The directors remaining were Richard Azan, Derrick Brandt and Dr Paul Wright, while Dr Graham Brown (president of the Jamaica Racehorse Owners’ Association) was elected as a new director of TOBA.