Howard Hamilton

The recent adjustment in purses did not address the needed adjustment in the claiming tag.

Low claiming tags are having a disastrous effect on the Breeding Industry and the economic viability of trainers. The system, as currently practised, has dramatically changed the profile of ownership. No longer do we have the type of owner who invests in the business for the love of the sport. These types of owners don't want to lose their animals and would rather stay away. These are the people who can best afford the luxury of participation in what was once the Sport of Kings.

The low prices which have prevailed have served nothing more than to transfer horses from one trainer to another with the result that trainers are unable to have any long- term plans to rehabilitate lame horses or to ensure that their horses are properly conditioned for racing. Lame horses are 'patched' up and put in for a claiming tag in the hope that some poor unsuspecting soul will relieve them of the problem. Racing cannot be allowed to continue like this.

The promoters are unconcerned as to whether the horse is lame or not - their only concern is to see their racing programme filled. This is just not good enough and the Jamaica Racing Commission must take a more proactive position in this matter.

Their veterinarians must be much more vigilant, weeding out horses who are consistently lame and keep coming to race in the hope that they will not break down completely. Where is the human concern for the animal? Is there no soul, no heart in those administering our veterinarian services?

The claiming tag should be nothing more than a system for handicapping races - not a means of purchasing horses.

The minimum price to bring a yearling to the sale and prepare for racing in June each year is in the order of J$500,000 and will escalate even further with the increasing cost of imported animal feeds. The minimum tag should, therefore, be J$300,000 with the scale going up by increments of J$50,000 to J$600,000. These tags should at all times be above the total purse offered - not the purse to the first past the post as thought by some members of the Racing Commission. Why do we forever have to invent the wheel? Just check what other jurisdictions are doing and how the their claiming tags and purse money.

I have tried on multiple occasions to explain that if someone wants to buy a horse, then he must either go to a farm (for an untried horse) or negotiate with the owner/trainer for a horse that is currently racing. Claims should be at the minimum, not the 'supermarket' sales which currently exist.

We do not have the luxury of many tracks where horses move from track to track in search of some unsuspecting soul that will claim their horse and relieve them of correcting the lameness. Here at our only track everybody knows everything so there is no typical 'claim' as happens in those jurisdictions that practise the claiming system.

In Jamaica, the claiming system was introduced as a handicapping tool. That is what it should revert to and this is what all concerned horsemen expect and want. The new chairman of Caymanas Track Ltd. has been quite vocal in his concerns of the effect of this system on the breeding industry and racing in general. Now that he is in a position to do something about it, let us have some urgent action.

Please stop this 'supermarket' nonsense and let good sense prevail.

Howard Hamilton is a former chairman of Caymans Track Limited and is currently the president of Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders' Association. He can be contacted at howham@cwjamica.com.