Chickens of racing woes coming to roost
THAT Caymanas Track Limited (CTL), the government entity vested with the responsibility of promoting horse-racing in Jamaica, is broke is a known fact.
That purse payments are some six to seven weeks behind schedule is a known fact. That gives the slide in the dollar against the major world currencies is increasing costs for participants in racing is a known fact. That owners and trainers are suffering as a result is a known fact.
So it was not surprising when on Tuesday, Joseph Matalon, the chairman of CTL, announced at a press conference major cuts in purses and other payouts offered by the company.
The chickens of horse-racing have indeed returned to their roost and what have they found in the coop? They have found purses across the board cut by 4.8 per cent and purses over $3 million slashed significantly and they have found a suspension of breeders’ bonus for an initial period of one year.
These are game-changing decisions by the CTL board which touch the very heart of horse-racing.
Matalon, at the start of his tenure as CTL chairman, did come clean publicly saying the company was strapped for cash and was operating at a significant operational loss. Now the harsh and bitter medicine has been put in place in an attempt to recoup and set the industry along the path of viability. This will be a very difficult task as the professionals in the sport, the owners, the trainers, the jockeys, and the grooms are going to be earning less in an economic environment currently based on a downward inflationary pattern and one shrouded with untold uncertainties.
Adapting to this reality is not going to be easy on these professionals but based on the presented facts by Matalon if racing is to continue in any way or form something had to be done and something drastic.
Over the last three to four years, CTL has been experiencing significant losses on its operations culminating last year with an operating loss of $149 million. This landed the company into overdraft, a situation which it is currently fighting its way out of.
Matalon blamed the company’s plight primarily on a purse increase of $110 million in 2009 when CTL was haemorrhaging financially and major increases in operating costs. He was quoted as saying at the press conference that “this increase in purses virtually sealed the fate of Caymanas Track Limited and subjected the company to a downward financial spiral”.
While these are cogent reasons for the failure of CTL, this writer suggests there are many others. Failure by succeeding boards over the last 10 years to introduce online betting thereby bringing horse-racing to the people; failure to effectively confront and shift the company’s business in the wake of competition from a much larger and more sophisticated and technologically friendly gaming industry and failure to provide consistent and competitive racing programmes to increase the betting options of punters.
Governments are to blame too. The brutal decision of the last government to give the bookers the right to sell local racing on a race-by-race basis, thereby competing directly with CTL, was wrong and is still scarring the industry.