Racing fans will soon have more Sunday racedays as the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) has ratified proposals by the promoting company, Caymanas Track Limited (CTL).

Denzil Miller, racing manager at CTL, disclosed that the company had formally written to the JRC requesting an increase in the number of Sunday racedays for the rest of the year and that permission was granted for an additional three Sunday race meetings, one in November and two in December.

“Yes, I can confirm that we (CTL) had sent official communication to the JRC asking for permission to promote more Sunday programmes. That permission was granted on Wednesday (September 18),” Miller said.

Johnson scored an aggressive point out that the request for more Sunday racedays will not increase the number of racedays for the year, but instead will be a case of switching three of the scheduled Wednesday race meets with Sundays.

“As we are all well aware, we simply do not have the horse population to go over what we consider to be the optimum number of racedays for any one year. This year a total of 80 racedays have been scheduled. We are keeping to that number but will be changing three of our Wednesday racedays to Sundays for the remainder of 2013,” stated racing manager Miller.

The change from Wednesdays to Sundays follows encouraging sales returns on the last Sunday card held on August 25, when nine races were offered along with a full simulcast card from various tracks in the United States. The recorded local sales on the day was $24.6 million compared with an average of $22 million for a normal Wednesday race meeting. The August 25 race meeting also marked the first time that CTL was able to open its Offtrack Betting Parlours to punters wishing to make raceday wagers.

Based on the published racing calendar for 2013, there are seven Wednesday racedays scheduled for the rest of the year.