What is a handicap system? The handicap system is a method of rating to classify a racing thoroughbred population of a jurisdiction into the eight classes of ability the breed delivers genetically worldwide. It is designed to equalise the form/chances of all classified horses in a race by assigning appropriate weights based on past performances. The goal is to create and drive profitable competitive wagering by enhancing the unpredictability of the outcome of a race through a perception that any horse has a realistic chance of winning.

What is a claiming system? The claiming system is based on an artificial or non-genuine classification that divides a horse population into over 20 categories. Trainers have the option to enter horses with mandatory price tags or otherwise in certain races. Entry conditions for claiming and non-claiming events are determined by races won, age, sex, and earnings, as opposed to classified ability, rendering the system difficult to comprehend.

Predetermined weight carrying allotment, which cannot equalise form/chances by ability, is another of the main negative features of claiming races. Therefore, a claiming system is not effective in producing competitive wagering consistently as superior horses with weight advantages and ability compete with inferior ones in upwards of 80 per cent of all races projected.

Here are examples of the betting pattern, informed by the punters’ perception of the races. Under SVREL, from March 2017 to March 2020, in the 2,299 races, 1,095 had odds-on favourites and another 286 at only even money in the same number of races. Checked further, in 2024, the 755 races had 389 odd-on favourites and at the end of September this year, the 578 races had 259, as this ratio is unavoidable.

This hurts profitability, as these races underperformed as sales units. Therefore, the promoting companies have never been economically viable, delivering the racing product in the complicated claiming system. It stymied the growth of the customer base in Jamaica from 1993 and performed worse in the USA over roughly the same period.

The US Jockey Club, effective October 24, 2025, now operates with a classification/handicap rating system. Will there be a response from the stakeholders here with the promoting company reporting $385 million in losses accumulated by the end of 2024? Maybe not, as these seem to be happy to blame the promoters, as their resistance to changing the racing product and the idea of the sale of Caymanas.

Here are a few reasons for the failure of the claiming system. Firstly, it was established on two outrightly false premises. Firstly, the flourishing handicap system racing product of 33 years at an average of 10 per cent annual growth or 300 per cent cumulatively was being subjected to race-fixing and lacked integrity. Then secondly, the trading of race horses could be a viable economic activity, which, over time, many big spenders found to be only an expensive fantasy.

With respect to the claiming system product itself, it is complicated and therefore fails to produce timely growth in the expansive sports betting market. Further, with the horse population currently divided into 19 categories, with races projected for sprinting, middle, and longer distances, a smaller field size average is the guaranteed outcome. This results in a reduction of sales at a provable estimated 20 per cent annually, with a commensurate reduction in the size of the fields.

Gary Peart, executive chairman of Supreme Ventures Ltd (SVL), parent company of the promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing & Entertainment Ltd (SVREL), interviewed on November 7 by Dashan Hendricks, business content manager, for this publication, made interesting comments on many levels. The SVL executive’s idea of a horse population of 1,500-1,600 will require significant investment in the breeding industry and an expansion of the stable area.

Peart also spoke of establishing registered racing clubs (LLCs) with multiple owners of one horse. This has been popular in the UK for decades and, therefore, not that far-fetched, as the feedback suggests. Importantly, he has revealed that the company has “stripped out significant cost from the operation, but the company still hasn’t reached the level of profitability we want.”

In exactly two months from today, the claiming system will have completed 33 years of its degradation of the local racing industry’s viability. The ultimate ignominy was when the International Monetary Fund dictated that the US$40 million and increasing subsidy by the Government to support the failed gaming product was unacceptable.

The fact of the matter is that without a change from the counterproductive claiming system, Peart’s vision will take an inordinately long time to be realised, but the stakeholders continue to believe otherwise.