DAY five of this year’s Arim a Race Club (ARC) season was cancelled Saturday (March 6) at Santa Rosa Park in Arima.

At noon, only two jockeys had signed in to the clerk of the scale. Those riders were Romario Hernandez and Nela Mohammed.

On Friday, the Jockeys’ Association wrote to the president of ARC, Robert Bernard, informing him of their frustration with the non-payment of commission to jockeys, trainers and grooms.

This was based on a meeting that was held on December 19, 2020. At that meeting, Bernard announced that the ARC would not be able to stage any more race days after Boxing Day because they did not have any more money.

At that point, trainer Harold Chadee stated that with the ARC already in talks with the Government, the stakeholders should try to save the New Year’s Day card. Chadee then asked for pledges and he pledged TT$10,000, John O’Brien pledged TT$10,000 and Bernard pledged TT$5,000 to start the ball rolling. There were several more pledges which insured a successful New Year’s Day programme.

The jockeys stated that when racing was about to be shut down after Boxing Day last year the ARC and stakeholders came up with the necessary finances to host the New Year’s Day card and pay place money immediately after every race, with the agreement that the first prize or win money will be paid when dope free came back.

With day one cleared the payment of approximately TT$5,500 was expected from the ARC but to date none was forthcoming, despite the Betting Levy Board (BLB) returning the taxes from betting to the club which was supposed to pay that bill.

Guardian Media Sports has been reliably informed that for the past four days the stakeholders have ensured that racing has remained uninterrupted. On day one the ARC bagged TT$587,900. On day two, the ARC bagged another TT$709,900. On the third, the ARC bagged TT$506,500 in betting both locally and internationally (simulcast), while on the fourth day of the season the ARC collected TT$521,200 in betting.

Clearly, the betting amassed from local and simulcast shows some TT$2.3 million coming into the system. The ARC made 30 per cent of that total and as such, met the quota that was requested in terms of stakes and commission for the first four days of the season. That take of TT$690,000 from the stakeholders-assisted days of racing reflceted success as the average stakes per day were TT$100,000. Half was covered by pledges, and taxes from the BLB ensured that the cost was met.

When contacted on Friday, president of the Jockey’s Association Sheldon Rodrigo said, “This is the last straw. When I spoke to the ARC President Mr Robert Bernard [he] requested that I speak to the jockeys. My response was that I have done that for two years. They are fed up of the empty promises. They wish the ARC would fulfil their promises. If we continue in this boat we will be going in the same direction once again.”

Yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, Guardian Media spoke to Rodrigo after the race day was cancelled.

He said, “I spoke to the president of the ARC this morning [Saturday] and he said that we should have hope. I told Mr Bernard the jockeys have been hoping since 2019. I told him we [have been] abiding and worked through many tough scenarios. The ARC dropped the stakes level and we abided by that, but the guys are fed up of the empty promises,” Rodrigo said.

On Friday the jockeys served notice that they would not ride, and Saturday they stood by their decision. The majority of jockeys decided not to ride on day five of the ARC racing season.

Efforts to contact ARC President Robert Bernard went unanswered.

EDITOR’S NOTE – The following article was first published on Sunday, March 7 in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian