Following up on last week’s column outlining the flawed rationale of adopting the failed US claiming model system, which changed the profile of owning racehorses from a sport/hobby to an unviable business venture to market the local racing product, it is now time to look at the most important data emanating from the uninformed and misguided 1993 decision.

It was easy for this writer, being familiar with the 1930 American fiasco of a claiming system from 1979, to predict publicly the 100 per cent certainty of its failure to be successful in Jamaica. The difference between the local racing industry and what obtains in the United States must be assessed in terms of the former being unlikely to be ever fully professional, and the latter being the exact opposite.

Here in Jamaica, only around 20 per cent of those involved on a full-time basis as trainers, riders, and grooms can live somewhat comfortably on known income from only 80-84 race days annually. Whilst in North America, it is a daily activity in various parts of the continent, with a population of 345 million. Importantly, delivering the racing product in a claiming system has now been repudiated to one of classification for handicapping purposes by the regulatory US Jockey Club.

With the three-decade denial that the most important aspect of the local racing industry is the economic viability of the promoting company, it is the appropriate time to look at the important factors that the stakeholders, promoters, and the regulator have ignored over the 33 years of the existence of the profit-immune claiming system.

The crisis peaked in 2012-13 when losses accumulated to $249 million, necessitating in the International Monetary Fund’s order to divest and stem the millions in Government subsidies. By the end of 2016, there was a CTL debt write-off of $1.2 billion to facilitate divestment, thereby leaving the owners to make up the widening deficit and fund the sustainability of the industry.

The fact of the matter is that, despite the laudable effort of promoting company SVREL, after three months shy of nine years, it is in no position to offer sustainable purse increases. What is extraordinary is that the stakeholders still fail to accept the fact that the promoting company is being forced to work with a product, owned by stakeholders, that only caters to a minority.

Truth be told, everything is done in the interest of a minority, from the races offered through the artificial classification of the horse population. This is where horses with inferior class and form concede weight to superior ones, creating odds-on favourites, rendering nearly 50 per cent of races underperforming as sales units.

With the data available, it will be quite easy for SVREL to prove that working with a product that in the first three years of operation (2017-20), the promotion of 2,229 races under the claiming system had 1,098 odd-on favourites. Further, for 2024 and 2025, the 1,509 races had 755 odds-on favourites which militates against profitability. Also of note is that in 2022 there were 855 races, and last year it was 754, and hopefully the 79 race meetings in 2025 will perform to the same level at a minimum.

Effectively, odds-on favourites discourage wagering and all such races underperform as sales units, with the punters spending less on a perception that value return on outlay is not worth the risk. Furthermore, the races are so complex that even the names and entry conditions defy logic, which hinders market growth because it defies comprehension.

Be advised that in jurisdictions where there is handicap racing, women love gaming it and comprise a significant sector of the customer base. However, this has happened in the US or Jamaica because of the complexity of the claiming system; hence, the decline continues in perpetuity by eliminating this prospect of wider interest in the sport.

With the predictable, inevitable negative consequences looming, I will, going forward, be making several proposals and recommendations, including attracting female support, to stop and reverse the downward trajectory of the racing industry, both here and in the USA. These will be the first steps ensuring a return to the mass appeal of the racing product and an escape from the stagnation of only niche market support.