Jimmie Says … Horsemen’s ire pointed in the wrong direction

Having established that more than $500 million of racing revenue, money generated from betting on live racing at Caymanas Park and races beamed from overseas, was pumped into government coffers for 2022-2023 as fixed percentages of every dollar wagered, it is rather mind-boggling that the various groups clamouring for a purse increase from promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), seemingly, have no interest in what is a perennial drawdown from their equity.

In case this missed some horsemen, for 2022-23, the Jamaica Racing Commission ($191 million), CHASE Fund ($16.4 million), and the BGLC ($57 million) collected millions from the racing industry, plus unclaimed winnings of $105 million.

Even if one wants to separate $174 million in taxes, which went to the Consolidated Fund, what is being done with the US$330,000 that SVREL pays annually to Caymanas Track Limited for lease of the racing plant, which, the same groups will declare from atop the rafters as being in a deplorable state?

Is it that these groups are ignorant to the fact that a half-billion dollars, more than $500 million, is taken off the top, from the betting dollar, before the crumb is disbursed by way of the 2022 deed guaranteeing 49 per cent of gross gaming revenue from local-racing sales to purses and 51 per cent to the promoting company to be property manager for a 196-acre plant while maintaining its arm of promoting racing, from which it is expected to turn a profit for parent-company Supreme Ventures Limited’s shareholders?

It can’t be that the leadership of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA), all esteemed businessmen, are ignorant to this fact, nor could the new president of the United Racehorse Trainers Association of Jamaica (URTAJ), Captain Marlon Brown.

Why continue to ignore the undisputed fact that racing survives worldwide only through state-legislated subsidies from, in the case of North America, casinos, and taxes on bookmaking in the United Kingdom.

In France, a levy from the billions of euros wagered annually on horse racing is channelled directly back into the sport to subsidise the racing calendar, maintain track facilities, and fund prize money.

These subsidies were not legislated for the benefit of any racing promoter but instead to keep millions employed as well as maintain the various industries, states, and whole townships dependent on horse racing. 

A 2023 Equine Economic Impact Survey by the American Horse Council showed that the horse industry contributed an estimated US$177 billion to the United States economy in 2023.

The Belmont Stakes, run at Saratoga for the third and last time last Saturday, returns to New York-owned Belmont Park next year after a US$455 million state loan, which prompted a lawsuit by two New York taxpayers backed by special interests.

The case was formally dismissed in October 2023 on grounds that upgrading the track constitutes a "predominantly public purpose" similar to state funding for sports stadiums.

There are many other instances of how states ensure horse racing is kept alive worldwide, most instances being horsemen approaching government, the biggest recipient of racing’s revenue.

Therefore, Captain Brown, stop putting the cart before the horse in saying, “I have always wanted to work with the promoter and, eventually, work with the Government to put the industry in a better place.”

Captain Brown, it is the other way around. Remove your blinkers, return fitted in a visor, gather your troops, and approach Government. It is not SVREL that is giving Government in excess of $500 million. It is policy, which, in real terms, through proper representation, will allow the constituents — TOBA, URTAJ, jockeys, grooms, farriers — the power to lobby and effect change for the greater good.