By Orville Clarke, Freelance WriterA KINGSTON 10 punter with 31 points won the category two first dividend prize of $76,441.40 declared on last Saturday's Racing Pools game.
Taking his chances with $576.00, the player also gained two second and four third dividends to finish with over $83,000.
He missed 7-1 chance SONG SO SWEET in the fifth race, preferring instead to carry the even money favourite STARFROMTHEEAST as a banker. His other banker, CLASSIC ACCOUNT a 4-5 favourite in the fourth race duly obliged.
Earlier, he got a dream start when one of the six horses he carried in the first race, POLISH STAR scored a notable upset at 21-1.
It came down to two horses each in the last two races, as TOCUMEN scrambled home by a nose from the luckless SATISFIER (who he did not carry), while his two horses in the seventh, TIME AFTER TIME (8-5) and the favourite XTRA SPECIAL finished first and second respectively.
Then, ultimately, it came down to the last race where he carried the 3-1 winner SOUTHERN DANCER and 3-2 favourite COUNTER STORM who could only manage fourth. As things turned out, he received a nice Christmas bonus.
With maximum 32 points eluding everyone for the fourth consecutive week, the carryover to this week's game stands at $287,951.60. In light of this a first prize well in excess of $500,000 looks a real possibility.
A breakdown of the other prizes is as follows:
11 second dividends of $1,985.50 for 30 points.
Six third dividends of $237.40 each for 29 points.
Sales totalled $441,220.50 on 1,682 coupons -- up appreciably from $334,635.50 and 1,549 coupons the previous week.
On a day when Simpson's pair of RISING STAR (9-5) and CLASSIC ACCOUNT in the Solomon Ziadie Memorial Cup emerged the only winning favourites, it was touch and go whether maximum points would be attainable.
After the upsets of POLISH STAR and to a lesser extent SONG SO SWEET, who provided jockey Barrington Brown with a long overdue winner, a carryover was imminent.
With only two Racing Pools dates remaining before Christmas, players will be coming with great determination to corner this week's jackpot, ensuring a hefty payout for anyone with the right combinations.
The other winner in Saturday's game was INSATIABLE at 9-2 in the third, a race in which the 6-5 favourite SEXY was, once again, a most disappointing favourite.
Easily the most competitive race on the card was the first which produced a blanket finish involving four horses.
POLISH STAR, ridden by in-form Larris Allen, produced a strong run in the middle to win by a neck from 8-1 chance BUCKEISHA closing fast on the rails, as GUARDIAN ANGEL (6-1) ran on well widest of all to finish another neck away third.
Finishing fourth was 9-2 chance BIG BELLY SAM who actually took over the lead from LITTLE PALIUM early in the straight but could not stave off the first three from midway the last furlong. He was a farther neck away.
The 9-5 favourite SALSA had no luck in running, having been hindered at the start and failing to recover. And highly fancied PERSONAL NEMESIS (5-2) walked out of the starting gate to be the backmarker entering the straight. He closed late for sixth place, beaten only three lengths.
The rejection of the prosperity from Sunday racing
V. Lloyd Simpson
Contributor
IF ANTAGONISTS of the concept of Sunday racing were to be listened to seriously, the international image of the country in terms of the attraction it offers via the total entertainment package available would settle forever in a mediocre mould.
Which is why when eminent members of the fraternity of turfites lend themselves so wantonly to the inanity often voiced on the subject matter one shudders to think that they too should have bowed to the hypocrisy that is so popular in Jamaica today.
One eminent racing adherent holds that the wishes of the church goers in our midst should be respected, Sunday racing being at odds with their religious beliefs. On the other hand, he unreservedly supports the official introduction of casinos, as if casinos do not involve gambling and is not engaged in on Sundays. What a contradiction and confusion in the thinking process!
Six or seven years ago another tycoon of the horseracing sport and industry strongly supported the introduction of Sunday racing. Today he says that "there is no necessity for Sunday racing, especially that it would breach religious rubrics all over the island."
In Europe Sunday racing has brought enormous wealth and social upliftment to the British people. The irony is that like the abundance of Jamaicans who are still hiding their thinking caps under the sand like so many ostriches, the British law-makers had stoutly defended the tenets of the Sunday Observance Act which had outlawed horseracing on Sundays.
But today, enlightenment has prevailed and the British politicians are now patting themselves on the back as families go to the tracks on Sundays to regale themselves in a way that could never have been possible on week-day, with the children having to go to school and parents having to give first attention to work and domestic obligations.
One might say that Saturday alone could do as well, but there is still the obligations of the domestic function. The British, wisely enough, are therefore making a killing from this newly found resource.
What Minister of State, Fitz Jackson should therefore do, is to forget the resistance of men of the cloth and their followers to Sunday racing, is to log on to progress and put the entertainment of the people of the country first, a component of governance which induces leisure and relaxation as well as renewal of mind, spirit and the physical body after the stress of the work-a-day week.
The only obstacle in the way of Sunday racing is the inadequacy of racers in terms of the numbers required to inject the resource into the Wednesday - Saturday structure.
So over to you, Minister Jackson. Embark on the critical plan of taking steps to increase the quality and numbers of our bloodstock in order to introduce Sunday racing.
Jamaica is already in the forefront of the breeding industry so far as foreign purchases are concerned. All we need is greater assistance to the breeding industry via exemption from taxes re imported horses and a national stud farm as buyer.
