A writer with great insights posited et al that “a thing determined to fall will not stand,” and that is true of the local horse racing stakeholders led by the Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association (TOBA) and United Racehorse Trainers Association of Jamaica (URTAJ). For 33 years, these stakeholders have insisted that the local racing product delivered in a claiming system format is economically viable.

This is now the only gaming product in the world that exists on a platform of subsidies. The previously government-owned and operated promoting company, Caymanas Track Limited, racked up quantifiable losses of US$40 million, including a J$1.2 billion debt and tax write-off. Additionally, purses were always at an unsatisfactory third of the total expenses incurred collectively by the hapless owners.

The December 31, 2024 Financial Statement’s revelation of the $385 million shortfall in the revenue projection of promoter SVREL was rounded up to $400 million. This, in an address to the shareholders by the SVL Chief Executive Gary Peart, two months ago. I am speculating that, with the first quarter of 2025 performing below that of 2024, this could account for the increase.

From the 84 days in 1992, with 1021 races boasting declarations averaging 115 in 11.23 races per card. Over the last three years,there were 856 races in 2022, 802 in 2023 and 755 in 2024. As of August 31, there were 504 races with 27 race days remaining this season. At an unlikely 10 races per day, incidentally, there will be nine tomorrow and again this Sunday, means the 2025 season will certainly not exceed 750.

Under Claiming, which inherited 67 OTB digital points of sale with 10 betting options, as well as a 300 per cent cumulative rate of growth under the handicap system of 30 years, this legacy was sacrificed on the altar of a claiming system that has failed spectacularly in North America and elsewhere as well.

I have posited repeatedly that the claiming system was established on two false premises by anti-handicapping and tote monopoly conspiracists. Firstly, a racing product performing at an average growth rate of 10 per cent annually lacked integrity. Then secondly, the trading of racehorses is a viable economic activity. None of the operatives of TOBA and URTAJ have bothered to challenge the data and the obvious conclusions, as they continue to exist in an alternative but expensive reality.

The stakeholders are labouring under the misconception that the promoting company owns the racing product. As a matter of logic, it has to be the stakeholders. Surely, if SVL/SVREL is presented with the data-based analysis of the provable underperformance of the racing product delivered in a claiming system and makes the alternative available, it would have to be accepted.

Two positions have emerged since a $400-million shortfall in revenue was announced. There is an unsubstantiated scepticism over this, which has been expressed outright.There is that, as well as the heightened but dubious claim of an entitlement to a share of the SVREL simulcast revenue.

It is improbablethat SVL/SVREL would compromise its statusas a gaming entity by submitting inaccurate financial data to its auditors and subsequently the Government. Also, it is guaranteed that in a handicap system, the independent profitability would return to the local product, leaving SVL/SVREL in a more viable position to offer improved purses.

The fact is that a claiming system and the economic viability of the promoting company are mutually exclusive and cannot coexist. Truth be told, the claiming system is hopelessly flawed on many levels, chief among which is the overmatching of horses in most races, resulting in a huge number of odds-on favourites that discourages wagering. Then there is the important matter of the counterproductive division of the horse population into 19 categories, guaranteeing smaller fields whilst rendering several capable horses idle each race day.

In a claiming system, racing cannot be run in the interest of the majority but automatically favours an elite minority. However, in a system of classification, where form is equalised through handicapping, there is equity with a much wider distribution of prize money in a much fairer process.

The TOBA and URTAJ hierarchy were incensed by the suggestion that the Caymanas facility could be sold to SVL. Apparently, no thought has been given to the fact that, on its current trajectory under the claiming system, which the available data can confirm, unless there is significant investment in the breeding industry with the change to a viable racing product, it is possible to predict the date when Caymanas Park will no longer be needed for live horse racing.