Orville Clarke, Freelance WriterTHERE WILL be no disruption of racing at Caymanas Park today as the planned strike action by racehorse grooms has been averted for the time being.
On Thursday members of the Grooms Association of Jamaica, for which Paul Pancho is president, voted unanimously to take industrial action this morning at 7:00 arising from stalled wage negotiations with the Vin Edwards-led Jamaica Racehorse Trainers for the first horse up from $1,450 and $1,488 for the second and third horses, representing a 60 per cent increase.
However, the trainers say that their ability to grant a substantial increase would depend on Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) granting a purse increase to the owners, who employ them.
Yesterday the grooms were urged to wait a while longer and Pancho has given assurances that today's meet will go ahead as planned, despite Thursday's decision to lay down arms.
"Based on what I am getting, everything is all right for now. We have taken a decision to lead out our horses tomorrow," he disclosed yesterday.
"We have got a scheduled meeting with the stakeholders on Monday and depending on the outcome, we'll take it from there," he said.
Meanwhile, CTL's director Lincoln 'Happy' Sutherland and the company's executive manager for marketing, Millicent Lynch, said they received assurances from Pancho yesterday that today's racemeet would not be affected by industrial action.
Sutherland spoke of a planned meeting between the CTL board and State Minister of Finance, Fitz Jackson, scheduled for next Thursday.
LOTTO CLASSIC
Sutherland and Lynch were present at yesterday's launch for the May 13 Lotto Classic for the Governor's Cup racemeet for which sponsors, Supreme Ventures Limited, has pumped in $1,050,000.
The sponsorship cheque was presented to Lynch by Myrtle Weir, vice-president of human resources at SVL, and the Governor's Cup handed over by SVL's chairman Paul Hoo.
