EFFECTIVE April 1, 2024 an amendment to the 1977 Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) Racing Rules gave the operation stewards the power, at their discretion, to order the promoting company, Supreme Ventures Racing & Entertainment Limited (SVREL), to adhere to the post times advertised or face the prospect of forced abandonment if any delay exceeds five minutes.

This was invoked on two occasions, resulting in a refund of wagers on races one and six.

With respect to the opening event, the failure of the promoting company’s operatives to comply gave the stewards the option of ordering the abandonment.

However, the circumstances of the sixth event were different. A horse bolted and was returned to the saddling ring for a veterinary examination, hence the reason for the delay. Obviously, an investigation will have to be undertaken to determine exactly what transpired.

The response to the abandonment of the sixth by a few owners, trainers and others, to vent their frustration, although understandable, was inappropriate. To bang on the doors of the stewards’ and JRC’s rooms, demanding an explanation, was a further manifestation of a perpetual mistrust of the promoting company by the trainers as well as the JRC, in its capacity as referee.

Given the fact that the necessary race day anti-bleeding medication (Lasix) loses efficacy beyond the prescribed four-and-half-hour window, this matter of stricter adherence to post times should have been resolved by cooperation between SVREL and the trainers. There should have been no need for the JRC intervention by the amendment to the Racing Rules.

Truth be told, what was revealed at the recent JRC seminar is that the parties need to revise their respective absolute positions. It is an attitude and a stance of each doing the other a favour by involvement in the racing industry. As things stand, the main sticking point is the $3.0-billion claim by Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association (TOBA) to support the horse population while only $800 million is available for purse money. In my data-based view, the increasingly weakening flawed racing product cannot generate profits to close this gap to any significant degree, if at all.

Race two was another example of the flaws and weaknesses of the racing product with undefeated, US-bred, three-year-old Funcaandun (1-9) — trained by Jason DaCosta for the first of three successes, ridden by Shamaree Muir, and racing for the fourth occasion — beating the nearest of three older rivals by 16½ lengths over 1600 metres.

The Overnight Allowance event included qualifier six-year-old mare Big Argument who won her fourth race from 41 previous starts and will have to run in a claiming race to have a realistic chance of winning again. The idiocy of dividing the horse population into over 20 categories, requiring the offering races over three different distances, has undermined the development of the racing industry over the last 32 years.

It is high time the surviving architects of the claiming system eat their large chunks of crow and confess to the error. The pretense and excuses claiming it is working cannot continue indefinitely.

As this writer has posited over the period, it is not claiming tags that render the racing product unviable. In fact, it is the non-genuine classification of the horse population which ensures inferior horses concede weight to superior horses, resulting in at least 20 per cent less sales in as many as four races per nine- or ten-race programme. Under a system of classification — maligned and erroneously designated a handicap system — the number of races grew 300 per cent in the previous 32 years to 115 runners and between 11 and 12 races daily.

Tigray Express (9-1), saddled by owner Anthony Dixon and guided by two-kilo claimer Shane Richardson, won the 1200-metre third.

Trained by Donovan Phillips and partnered by Paul Francis,
Princess Sylvia (6-5) scored in race four run at 1400 metres, whilst in the 1300-metre race five
Benson (7-5) — declared by Fitznahum Williams — was over 15 lengths superior to give leading reinsman Tevin Foster his first of two wins.

Featured on the 10-race programme was another renewal of the 1820-metre Legal Light Trophy. Progressive four-year-old colt Rhythm Buzz (4-5) won by over nine lengths, with champion Reyan Lewis sitting still inside the last 200 metres.

In race eight over 1100 metres Robert Halledeen rode debutant three-year-old colt

California Crown (1-9) for DaCosta’s second.

Race nine, run at 1820 metres, was won by Anthony Nunes’ King Piye (3-1), ridden by Raddesh Roman who moved his season to 32 winning mounts. The title-chasing reinsman still lost ground to leader Tevin Foster who closed double success to improve to 45 season wins aboard 3-5 bet Fred The Great (USA), to confirm the DaCosta stable three-timer.

The Training Feat Award is presented Anthony Dixon for Tigray Express’s third victory in its last five starts. The gameness in the narrow margin of victory in a competitive race was the Best Winning Gallop. Shane Richardson’s front-running effort gets him the Jockeyship Award for his confidence in executing the exacting task.