In paying his tribute to the late Silbert “Gatey” Scott, official starter at Caymanas Park, Michael Simms described his colleague gateman as a highly dedicated person that was blessed with great horsemanship skills. Scott passed away a week ago.

Scott officially joined the then promoter (Caymanas Track Limited) in May 1993 as a Grade 2 starting gate attendant and was then promoted to Grade 1 level soon after.

He continued with Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL) as a Grade 1 starting gate attendant. However, prior to his official start in 1993, Scott worked for a short period of time as an attendant under the Racing Promotions Limited in the 1980s.

Speaking at a flag-lowering ceremony on Saturday, June 18, 2022 hosted by SVREL in honour of Scott, Simms said that the long-standing gate attendant is going to be missed by many.

“We lost a brother in Silbert Scott. We lost a friend, a leader, a great team member, and a man that taught me a whole lot when I just came to the gates to work. He was one of the men that was instrumental in helping me to understand this whole game, and to lose someone like Gatey is really a great loss to the sport,” Simms told The Supreme Racing Guide.

He continued in his tribute: “Even last Saturday [June, 11, 2022] when he worked, he was jovial and everything, and after the races we stood around for about half an hour discussing the whole race programme and just looking at ways that we could make things a little bit better.

“To get the news of his passing was just heart-wrenching. He was one of the top handlers we had. He was one of our team members who when we had new handlers coming in he gladly assisted in training them in handling racehorses.”