The preparation for the December 6, 2025, fourth renewal of the US$350,000 Mouttet Mile is being given intense attention by promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing & Entertainment Ltd (SVREL). This year, the in-field tent of the first three stagings will be absent. Obviously, it did not receive the kind of review that could confirm its future viability.With this contraction, the inevitable question to be answered is whether or not the image and profile of horse racing has declined.

Undoubtedly, Mouttet Mile Day is a very special event and is being staged as such. The directors’ room has been expanded to accommodate the expected patrons, who will be required to expend $50,000 for catering service and the privilege of being in the hallowed space. Further, the famous North Lounge, traditionally deemed ‘the Glass House’ because of its expansive frontage of this material, is priced at $15,000 per seat.

In 2017, SVREL, the preferred divestment bidder of two, was the ideal entity for the promotion and marketing of the racing product. Almost immediately, the Off Track Betting points of sale, with the natural advantage of the parent company Supreme Ventures Limited’s massive gaming infrastructure, all but doubled the 63 inherited from the previous promoter, Caymanas Track Limited (CTL). This was a platform to launch the industry into a new era of viability, with telephone accounts as an added feature as well.

Seven-day-a-week wagering on races held outside of Jamaica had overtaken the local product as the lifeblood of CTL for over two decades. This, as a counterproductive claiming system product, continued to have the misplaced confidence of the stakeholders. Although it has delivered substantial losses on an annual basis, I detect a cult-like affinity to the failed model.

Truth be told, against the background of losses amounting to $247 million in 2012 and 2013, confirmed in financial statements, the Government’s direct injection of cash and eventual hiring of a finance company to advance purses was predictably frowned upon by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These IMF operatives must have examined these accounts and acted on the unqualified reports which questioned whether or not CPL was, to quote it exactly, “a going concern”.

What is extraordinary is that the Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) operatives who piloted the divestment agreement did not attempt to determine the reason for the commercial unviability of CTL. In fact, there was a presumption that this gaming product only needed the high-pressure marketing and salesmanship of SVL, and profitability would have been guaranteed with management superior to CTL.

Although the information was available, no thought was given to the fact that when a business is failing, it is actually the products, goods, or services underperforming in the market and thereforeunable to meet budgetary expectations. After eight years and eight months, many of the deliverables as per the divestment agreement, in terms of capital expenditure, inevitably and justifiably remain outstanding; however, some have been delivered, but a significant number remains.

Demanded by the stakeholders to work with an unviable racing product has had a negative impact on the image of SVREL. Given the facts in this column week after week, it is grossly unfair. What is being promulgated in some quarters, as it relates to SVREL financials, is that there is underreporting of sales turnover and unjustifiable inflation of the operating expenses.

If presented with persuadable facts substantiating these claims, I will use my platforms to expose any such. However, on the basis that SVL is a publicly listed operation, with the accounts audited to international standards by one of the most reputable firms in the world, I will continue to be 100 per cent sceptical that any of these allegations will be provable.

There was a meeting of the United Racehorse Trainers Association of Jamaica last week, and this writer inquired if the performance of the racing product was an agenda item. It was not. In my view, if this were about anything other than a change to a viable racing product, everything else is likely to be unattainable as it has been for exactly two and a half months shy of the 33-year 1993-claiming system.

My recent survey proves conclusively, that generally, the stakeholders are of the view that the economic viability of the promoting company is not the most important consideration, and the SVREL financial losses are fictional. Good luck with that posture, which, as a collective, demonstrates a basic lack of understanding of what is necessary for the rehabilitation of the racing industry.