Supreme Ventures Racing & Entertainment Limited (SVREL) turned a profit from the loss-making Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) as it looks to expand the earning potential of the horse racing track locally and internationally.

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) acquired the operations of CTL in March 2017 under a renewable 30-year lease when the Government was looking to direct its attentions elsewhere and the facility needed significant investment. Since then, SVREL, as operators of the space, has invested over $3.6 billion, which is nearly five times the $500 million that was to be invested over a five-year period.

Following the $85.9-million net loss in 2021 due to several COVID-19 restrictions, SVREL generated a $162.5-million net profit as the company also surpassed $10 billion in ticket sales for the first time. SVREL is chaired by Solomon Sharpe and was led, up to January 3, by General Manager Lorna Gooden.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know if you realise, this is probably going to be considered one of the greatest corporate turnarounds of a company in the history of Jamaica. Profit and Caymanas Park have never been put in the same sentence before,” SVL Executive Chairman Gary Peart stated at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday.

However, due to foreign exchange losses of $70 million, SVREL had a loss before tax of $40 million. The net profit after tax was as a result of a tax credit.

Despite there being a loss before tax, it is a significant improvement to the $6.34 billion in revenues and $200.96-million loss for the first 11 months of 2019.

With the installation of a 3,000 solar panel energy system, which should generate 1.6MW of electricity, SVREL is expected to cut its $120-million energy bill by up to 95 per cent. The solar system is already connected to the main building, with the stables to be connected at a later date. It would also help control the costs of its newly installed tote board, which is expected to be a revenue generator but requires a lot of energy.

The savings from the reduced utility costs are expected to be directed to the installation of lights at Caymanas Park, which is expected to be a game changer for the potential of the horse racing industry in Jamaica.

“The chairman of SVREL, Solomon Sharpe, mentioned that he’d love to host the Mouttet Mile under lights. What a lot of people don’t realise is that when we install lights at Caymanas, it opens up space for significantly more things, not just with horse racing. Lights is something that would be a huge game changer not just for horse racing, but for other value-added things like entertainment,” Peart added at the SVL briefing held earlier in May.

Apart from increasing the number of races that could be held at Caymanas each day, it would also allow for a new demographic of punters to be attracted to horse racing, plus broaden its earning opportunity from streaming its signal to a growing number of international markets. Peart also mentioned the potential for other events as well, such as night markets, which would be facilitated by a future joint venture production company between SVL and Main Event Entertainment Group.

The company signed a five-year exclusive arrangement in December 2020 with BetMakers Technology Group Limited to export content internationally. Another deal was signed in December 2022 with TVG FanDuel, which Peart described as the largest horse racing platform in North America. As a result, the Caymanas signal is now exported to more than 130 partners in North America with about 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the potential in the market extracted to date.

“Just in exporting the signal, it creates an opportunity for our punters to continue to be engaged. Like with any other business, it puts us in a position to be in the ecosystem. These racetracks across the world are now hearing about Caymanas and they hear from different areas. If you’re exporting your signal to certain people, their conferences across the world and people speak to people, and they’re hearing about this up-and-coming racetrack that all of a sudden is making big waves,” Peart added on the opportunity in exporting the signal.

Sharpe and Peart’s recent trip to Hong Kong, China, has also opened up greater opportunities to grow Jamaica as a horse racing destination and introduce new products to the local market such as the quinella bet, which is set to be brought on stream in the coming months.

When asked about the potential impact of the Government’s plan to reduce general consumption tax on horses, Peart responded, “There’s different views on that. The fact is that SVREL already had that. In terms of what we plan to do, it wouldn’t have a significant impact on that because we could have already imported horses in that way.”

However, he added that SVREL would be seeking to purchase 10 horses this month to encourage other owners in the ecosystem to buy horses and give them an opportunity to sell horses to other owners who couldn’t be in the sale.

They are also seeking to create a leasing opportunity to attract new punters into horse racing with a fraction of the capital. Peart gave an example that a horse can cost $7 million to purchase and $100,000 per month for care. Under the leasing model, five friends could instead spend $20,000 each on the horse each month without spending the large sum of capital.

“What we’re trying to do is to get back to the heyday of racing, which is early 80s, where you have owners that went across the age spectrum, from 80 all the way down to 20. This is a nice way in which you can bring people in and it benefits you and us because we have a purse split. We negotiate a purse split where every time the horse earns money, we the promoter would get a percentage which we’ll use to offset the capital costs and your share pays keep and care cost and a profit,” Peart added.

While Peart didn’t expound any further on some plans that Caymanas has going forward, he did mention that several local companies are looking to brand jockeys as the Caymanas signal goes more into the North American market. Also, he mentioned that with the cost of land in Ocala, Florida, going up even more, Jamaica could be a place to breed and raise horses. These opportunities are set to multiply further as the SVL executives are invited to Melbourne, Australia, and Hong Kong to build the local industry.

“We believe the racetrack is moving in the right direction and more importantly, shareholders, Caymanas is no longer a drag on the group. Interestingly, Caymanas can be a profit driver for the group and I think this is an opportunity for SVREL as promoters and their stakeholders to drive and extract the potential out of Caymanas. This, I think, is one of, if not the greatest achievement for 2022,” Peart closed.