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Caymanas Park Faces Horse Racing Crisis - 02-06-08
February 6 - Vin Edwards the president of the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers' Association (JRTA), is calling the current situation at Caymanas Park a crisis in horse racing.
The Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) recently instituted new prerequisites for trainers' license renewal; the trainers need to be up to date with the payments on their grooms' behalf to the National Insurance Scheme and the National Housing Trust. They also need to be registered with the JRC in order for their horses to be eligible to run.
Many trainers have run into hassles with these stipulations not because they haven't bothered to keep up to date on the payments or registration, but because the grooms don't want money taken off their salaries. Herein lies the problem. Ruth-Ann Smith-Sutherland, GM for the JRC says that a problem has developed in that grooms get nothing when they retire. If payments were made throughout their careers, then at least they would get something from the NIS.
The trainers have not been caught unawares by these new stipulations; they were told already in December 2006 with their license renewal notices. The new prerequisites were supposed to be implemented in January 2007, but the trainers association requested an extension which was agreed upon.
The result of the trainers not having their licenses is that the caliber of racing at Caymanas Park has gone down due to small fields and a reduction in sales. Additional concerns abound regarding the price of feed which is continuously rising as is the price of equipment. Racing today was almost cancelled as for 8 races, only 59 horses were entered.
An emergency meeting -- at which 80 trainers were present -- was held yesterday in the Trainers Room to discuss all these issues and Edwards has called on Don Wehby (the Finance Minister and well known race horse owner) to address the concerns.
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Digiturf - Train and race your own horses |
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| | 2009/11/20 11:34:14 AM |
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