Solomon Sharpe has big dreams for horse racing that reach far beyond the purse-rich Mouttet Mile.

Sharpe, executive chairman of Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), operators of Caymanas Park, envisions the event evolving into a full weekend of world-class racing that will increase tourist traffic to Jamaica, firmly place the island’s racing industry on the global map, and chart a dynamic and prosperous future for the sport here.

He sees the Mouttet Mile, scheduled for Saturday, December 6, as a pinnacle event that will spawn the expansion he desires.

“Jamaica has been a playground for years for the rich and famous. So we want to now attract and set a foundation for our product that is not just a massive entertainment product, not just a massive tourism destination product, not just something that supports the horse racing industry, but we have to bring some outside cross-fertilisation to get back those rich and famous.

“Because when that happens, you’re going to broaden the base, the ownership base, and you’re going to put the sport in a much stronger position financially,” Sharpe told the Jamaica Observer.

The prestigious Grade One event for three-year-olds and upward run over one mile (1,600m) has seen its purse grow from US$125,000 ($18.75 million) in its first year, to US$300,000 in this its fourth year, maintaining its reputation as the richest horse race in Jamaica’s history and the largest purse in the English-speaking Caribbean.

American-bred chestnut Excessive Force won the first staging of the Mouttet Mile in 2023. The following year, six-year-old American-bred bay Rough Entry took the event, while last year American-bred bay colt.

Funcaandun out-battled favourite Legacy Isle by a long neck to win the race that has seen significant growth in its prestige due to local sponsorship and a partnership with New York Racing Association (NYRA) that facilitates live broadcast on FOX Sports.

Getting the attention of NYRA was a big deal as the 60-year-old organisation is regarded as the cornerstone of America’s thoroughbred racing industry and a significant economic driver for New York State.

It operates three top-tier racetracks — Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course — and stages some of the US’s most prestigious races, including the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the world-renowned Triple Crown series.

Racing industry experts say the Belmont Stakes generates approximately US$50 million for the host region. The race itself is the centrepiece of a multi-day event officially known as the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.

That multi-day format is what Sharpe has set his sights on and pointed to the Melbourne Cup Weekend in Australia — a week-long series of four major race days — as another example.

“The Melbourne Cup and the Melbourne Cup Weekend actually gross more for Melbourne than the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix or the Australian Open tennis,” Sharpe said.

He also proposes to make the Mouttet Mile bigger than the US$3-million Pegasus World Cup Invitational which has now been officially added to the Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ Challenge Series.

That development, racing experts say, has solidified the Pegasus’s place among the world’s most prestigious races.

The 2025 Pegasus World Cup is reported to have attracted US$41.7 million in wagers on the 13-race programme. More than US$7 million was wagered on the 2025 Pegasus World Cup alone representing a five per cent increase in handle over 2024.

“When you look at the Pegasus, in January all the big horses and all the big trainers assemble round about South Florida [which], even on its chilliest day of 60 degrees, is much better weather than anywhere else. So people gravitate towards comfort of weather and towards where the best of the best is.

“When you go to the Pegasus weekend you see celebrities, you see horsemen, and the energy through and through is just very strong. Even with those big crowds, you know, some of those bigger crowds in terms of numbers don’t bring the level of energy that the Jamaican crowds bring,” Sharpe said while explaining that it was that energy from Jamaican racing fans which helped influence NYRA’s decision to embrace the Mouttet Mile.

“They feed off of the energy of these Jamaican fans. They said it’s one of the critical, most important things. When they come to Jamaica and the horses are parading and going into the gate, they said it’s amazing how the fans get excited. It’s not just, ‘and down the stretch they come’, we are excited about the race from end to end,” Sharpe shared.

“When we took this product to NYRA they recognised that we have a uniqueness about us in Jamaica. So we might not have the best horses, we might not have the best trainers, we might not have the best jockeys in the world, but we have absolutely, with no fear of a doubt, the best fan base in the world,” he boasted.

Sharpe acknowledged, though, that getting the Mouttet Mile to the same heights as the Pegasus, the Belmont Stakes, and other events of their ilk, requires a growth strategy.

“What we’re doing now is building out… when we have a card, it’s not just zeroed in on the 16 horses at the Mouttet Mile. When you look at other races further afield, the Breeders’ Cup started with the Classic, but it has gone to two days of racing where you now have million-dollar purses for the juveniles and the lesser horses, so to speak, that are not in the Classic. It’s in a similar vein that we’re pushing at Caymanas Park and getting towards,” he told the Observer.

“Every big event in the world — whether it’s American football, baseball — needs that pinnacle event that gradually builds up to being bigger and bigger and bigger.

“Remember now, we started very aggressively, but we are only in the fourth year. So there are pundits, internally and otherwise, who would love to see a million-dollar US purse, but we have to gradually get there,” Sharpe argued.

“When you travel to whether the Melbourne Cup or the Kentucky Derby, the Breeders’ Cup, and you look on the local economy, how they benefit from this and how everybody in that local economy gets buzzing — the hotel rooms are full, the restaurants are full, the horsemen get a bigger opportunity to earn a bigger purse because of that one special international event,” he pointed out.

Funcaandun (#8-Robert Halledeen) gets up in the nick of time to beat Legacy Isle (Emisael Jaramillo) in the Mouttet Mile on Saturday, December 7, 2024.

Excessive Force (Bebeto Harvey), winner of the first Mouttet Mile, is flanked by (from left) assistant trainer Roy Jones; all-time winning jockey Winston “Fanna” Griffiths; groom Devon Biggs; and trainer Philip Feanny in the winners’ enclosure on Saturday, December 3, 2022.

Jockey Julien Leparoux acknowledges the crowd after his win aboard Rough Entry in the second Mouttet Mile on Saturday, December 2, 2023.