As the takeover of Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) gets closer, managing director of the entity, Shane Dalling, announced yesterday that stakeholders can collect their purses upfront before the transfer of assets to Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL) takes place on Tuesday of next week.

Speaking at a press conference held at Caymanas Park yesterday, Dalling said that CTL is trying to pay off as much of their debts as possible to ensure that there is no confusion in the handover of operations. Dalling also informed that ISP Finance Services (ISP) will be assisting with purse payments for the period January 25 to March 4.

“Payment of purses up to January 25, which totals approximately $30.8 million, will be paid today (yesterday). As it relates to purse payments that are outstanding from January 25 to March 4, if stakeholders choose to, they can join forces with ISP and get their money upfront, and we will then reimburse ISP when the approval comes in.

“For the race day of March 1, we are trying [to get] payments ready on Monday next for stakeholders with horses finishing from second-place to sixth-place,” Dalling said.

Chief executive officer of ISP, Dennis Smith, spoke of his comapny’s involvement in the process.

“We came in racing at a time when we were needed and we have gotten tremendous support from everyone, and so we will continue to give back our support to the industry,” Smith said.

Dalling further announced that there will be no simulcast of races on March 6 and 7 so as to accommodate the SVREL change-over. However, regular simulcast resumes on March 8.

“It would be difficult to have simulcast of races on March 6 because we tend to close operations early, and also it becomes a problem for us as we will not have any staff members the following day to do the calculation of the sales for us.

“On March 7, which is the official day when SVREL will be operating the track, there will be no simulcast on that day also in order to facilitate updating of the tote system,” Dalling explained.