Howard Hamilton - Horse Sense RECENTLY I had the opportunity of attending the Ocala Breeders Association's 2-year-old in-training sale, which is held annually in March and April. This has always been a very popular sale for Jamaicans.
The March sale is usually a select sale and the horses tend to be more expensive. In April the farms are anxious to clear out their stock so one tends to be able to get good bargains. What was interesting about this year's sale which I attended in April was the presence of about 32 buyers from Trinidad and Barbados. There was not one Jamaican and I found this most disheartening. This is especially so when one considers that there are only 20 race days in Barbados per year and the total purse money offered is in the order of US$1.5 Million.
In Trinidad the situation is no better, they have an average of 39 race days per year and the total purse is US$2.5 Million. Here in Jamaica we have an average of 90 race days per year and the purse offered to owners is now in the order of US$6 Million. The Jamaica owner has a much greater opportunity of recovering his costs relative to his Trinidadian and Barbadian counterpart. Yet we find that their ownership base is strong and expanding while we are doddering in the quagmire of despair.
NEW OWNERS
Whatever are the plans for the "new beginning" for racing, the emphasis has got to be to attract new owners who can spend the money necessary to keep the industry alive. I am always taken to task when I refer to the "Socializing of Racing" and the disastrous effect rhat this has had on the quality of our racing product
I am now more than ever satisfied that the structure of our claiming system has been the single most significant contributor to this downturn in our Racing activity.
I stand condemned for having endorsed the claiming system when it was first introduced. Little did I know that it would have been manipulated to the extent where it is now nothing more than an opportunity for trainers and owners to succour some unsuspecting owner to "claim" a lame horse off their hands.
The early intention to modify our handicap system and use this as the opportunity to determine where your horse should run based on his ability has been totally lost. Not only has this manipulated excuse for a claiming system destroyed the fabric of our racing but it has placed tremendous disadvantage on our trainers who more often than not "lose" their horse just when the horse is getting over its ailment and is ready to pay back some of the care and time that has been spent in bringing that animal to racing readiness.
I pity the poor groom who has patiently tended and cared for his charge only to find that he is gone to some other stable just when he was about to reap some benefit for the extra care that he has taken with that particular horse. I will continue to preach that if we want to bring some level of sanity back into our racing product then the claiming system must be revamped to reflect what it is supposed to be-a handicap system-and not a method to be used for "selling" horses.
The minimum claim should never be lower than the average sale price for a yearling. In recent years this has been in the order of J$300,000. All other levels could then be adjusted accordingly. I repeat, "use the system to handicap horses not to sell horses".
Let us restore some level of confidence and assurance to trainers and grooms, making it very difficult for them to lose their charges that they have cared for so diligently.
BREEDING INDUSTRY
There has been some interesting commentary on the declining fortunes of the Breeding Industry. There have even been some suggestions that imported horses should be allowed to run against locally bred horses in our Classic races. Let me commend Vin Lumsden for this excellent article on this subject. He has put forward reasoned arguments to indicate that this happens nowhere else in the world and would be the final nail in the coffin of those who continue to spend substantial sums in importing quality blood stock to try and improve our racing product.
Our Breeding Industry has struggled against a background of no encouragement or incentives. Breeders operate in a system where an "owner" feels much more comfortable claiming a known runner for J$200 to J$300,000 than going to a farm or sale and buying a yearling for J$400 to J$500,000 when there is no guarantee that the horse may ever race. Therein lies the problem, which our claiming system has aggravated.
There are still a few Breeders who continue to invest in the hope that one day good sense will prevail. They continue to hope that one day there will be owners who can afford the joy and excitement of a possible Classic winner and they will once again return to racing. This is the dream I have for a "new beginning" in racing.
Howard L. Hamilton, CD, JP. is a former Chairman of Caymanas Track Limited and is currently President of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. He may be contacted at howham@cwjamaica.com
