Cliff Williams, Contributor

The very presence of Miracle Man on this weekend's Caribbean Classic racecard in Puerto Rico is to be applauded, and the connections hailed for their efforts to test this outstanding racer against the best in the region.

This colt is one of our best local-breds of all time will run in a valuable event for four-year-old and older horses at the El Commandante racetrack.

In 1977, Harlequin was a tear-away front runner in the Classic and 1984 when Thornbird led four furlongs out until inside the last furlong, as well as Sir Howard's prominent run for fourth in 1983, chasing the all the way winner before weakening, have been encouraging performances.

Then in 1989, Lady Geeta proved to be competitive, followed by another very good performance by Poorlittlerichgirl in 1991, providing a ray of hope for our local breeders that a victory one day soon may not be too farfetched to contemplate.

However, it has certainly not turned out that way and we seem much farther away today than we were say nearly two decades ago.

Not good enough

There have been a couple of outstanding racers namely Derby winners Prince Consort (1986) and The Viceroy (1989), who obviously would have made huge impressions in the Caribbean Classic if they had taken their chances.

Sadly, since 1991 none of our Classic winners have been thought good enough to leave these shores except last year when Miracle Man made an aborted attempt to contest the event.

There can be no question the talent level in horse population was of a much higher quality in the 1960s, '70s and '80s when British bloodstock still had a very strong influence in the breeding sheds.

The virtual disappearance of European bloodlines, especially coming from the British Isles, has led to a deterioration of the talent and durability of the local equine population.

The explanation of course is that American bloodlines, because of the legal use of medication, talented horses with bleeding and lameness problems can race successfully and then be allowed onto the stud farms to breed these defects into their progenies.

The Europeans, in the face of much criticism from across the Atlantic, continues its two and half century stand against the use of raceday medication.

Investment in breeding

During the decade of the 90s the level of investment in the Jamaica breeding industry required to produce better quality bloodstock with more frequency was not sustained.

This trend has continued beyond 2000 and the annual yearling sales has been offering less lots with each succeeding year.

While things have not descended to disastrous levels as of yet there has to be great concern when one looks at the majority of races on most programmes.

It is, therefore, going to take significantly improved levels of investment in breeding to get back to the halcyon days when the island had a competitive top class made up predominantly of local bred horses.

Getting back to Miracle Man, whatever his performance no matter where he finishes in the race there will be positives to take from this effort.

The Jamaica Racing Commission has used the opportunity well in facilitating the trip and going forward the experience of the logistics of getting Jamaican trained horses to compete in the Caribbean Classic again will serve us well.