Cliff Williams, Contributor

We are approaching the end of another racing season in Jamaica in what is the sixth year of the 21st century and the country is yet to have a racing industry befitting the global era in which we exist.

Truth be told, the Sport of Kings has been one of the fastest growing worldwide and promoters elsewhere in the world have been utilising all sorts of creative ways to make their operations viable.

Race tracks in many jurisdictions have now become virtual entertainment centres and are attractively offering inducements to patrons to increase business.

This concept is certainly not new and I remember being at Belmont Park in New York during the autumn of 1981and enjoying concerts featuring Johnny Mathis and Dionne Warwick on consecutive days.

Credit, debit cards

These days it has just become more necessary for race tracks to offer variety in terms of forms of betting and facilities for the entertainment of even entire families. Nowadays there are credit and debit cards as well as telephones facilitating wagering.

Questions, therefore, have to be raised as to why the local version of the Sport of Kings has languished some five decades behind in what is considered a modern era of a half a century.

The completion of the Caymanas facility in 1959 with its electro-mechanical totalisator at that time was considered one of the best in this part of the world. This was without doubt a platform from which to build a viable and strong industry. However, the facility has not been upgraded to keep pace with the demands of the modern era through the decades.

The response from the players in the industry, especially the breeders, was enthusiastic, and in four years with the first bookmakers' permits issued in 1963 allowing the establishment of betting offices islandwide interest increased exponentially.

Wagering

The reliable broadcast of the races on the two major radio stations, Radio Jamaica and the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, ensured that the average punter could follow the races and enjoy the thrill and excitement of wagering with the provision of instant results.

Interestingly, the promoters of live racing, capitalising on the regulation stipulating that all betting offices operated by bookmakers must cease operations before post time of the first local event on the relevant days, moved quickly to establish off track betting stations.

By 1966 these stations linked by telephone, numbering in excess of 40 and offering a separate pool from the Caymanas tote was contributing in excess of 50 per cent of the company's cash flow.

With the computerisation of the tote early in the '90s and the restructuring of the racing surface, one had every right to assume that the local version of the Sport of Kings was poised for take-off.

The then Minister of Finance, Seymour Mullings, had even promised that a formula for investment by members of the public in the promoting company would have been promulgated. Nothing of the sort materialised, of course, since that minister did not hold the portfolio long enough to influence any decision one way or another.

Currently, what exists is an industry desperately in need of a modern racing facility and larger investments in the breeding industry.

This is unlikely until the Government makes a decision as to the future of the promotion of live racing.

Recently, in the briefest of interviews with Richard Azan, the principal director of Caymanas Entertainment Limited - the com-pany identified as the preferred bidder in the now three-year divestment process - he simply stated that he has no idea at the moment where the negotiation is going.

Clearly 2006, therefore, is not the year when the speculation over the future of the local racing industry will end and we will commence a new year in a climate of uncertainty.

From this column it's a wish that you will enjoy the year-end festivities. Next week I will carry out my annual exercise of reviewing the racing year.