Howard Hamilton - Horse Sense I NEVER fail to be "impressed" by the amazing "contribution" which the vice president of the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association (JRTA) is "touted" to be making.
His Cambridge University educated "publicist" uses every opportunity to "tout" the good deeds for racing for which this honourable gentleman is responsible. He has single-handedly removed two sets of directors from Caymanas Track Limited, he has brought about the "dismissal" of the president and chief executive officer, he has revealed a number of misdeeds some of which has been the cause of court action.
Unfortunately, one of the court cases led to some massive expenses for the president and executive of the trainers association because they were proven to be false. His publicist, however, was quick to assert that lack of finance prompted an out of court settlement by the president.
TRAINING
We have been advised that the vice president was responsible for arranging to fix a section of the Caymanas track roadway for J$1.9m while management of Caymanas Track Limited had spent in excess of J$10m to do a similar section of roadway. Fantastic, would you not all think. Certainly, this gentleman would better serve his constituents in another area other than training.
This multi-talented gentleman is certainly being wasted as a probable head of such a mundane body as the trainers association. While he exhorts his constituents to "log on to progress", "give me a third term" and "not to stop the progress", it is important that they check what sort of professional example he has set and whether his performance as a trainer is worthy of emulation.
The records will show the following:
Year wins starters Stakes
'000
| 2003 | 3 | 61 | 1110 |
| 2002 | 1 | 38 | 255 |
| 2001 | 3 | 55 | 406 |
| 2000 | 2 | 58 | 446 |
JAMAICA RACING YEAR
Fifteen per cent (15%) of this amount is paid to the trainer. Number of stalls 17, Starts per stall (2003) 3.6.
Hardly a commendable record of performance.
His publicist will go at great pains to tell you that he is the "champion of the small man". My retort is that he should therefore stay in politics and leave the training of horses to professionals.
He should be telling his "supporters", mainly those 63 trainers with less than 10 horses that they must ensure a minimum of 7 starts per stall per annum or else the promoting company, who owns and maintains these stalls, will have to ask them to seek accommodation elsewhere.
BANKRUPTCY
The promoting company will tell you that less than seven starts per stall per annum is a sure recipe for bankruptcy.
The vice president should also be telling his constituents that unless they perform like professionals then they will have no future in the restructured racing industry.
Telling them nonsense about ownership and "logging on to progress" is nothing more than political clap trap and has no place in the running of a professional trainers association.
My advice to the vice president's constituents is that they start to get their act together and be ready for a new dispensation where performance will be the only criteria for moving forward.
Those who seek leadership and control 90 per cent of the voters, according to his well informed publicist, are relics of the past, popularly called 'dinosaurs', a description that the publicist finds abhorrent.
The only comment I have is that this is the 21st Century and we better "log on to real progress" or we will continue to be participants in poverty alleviation programmes.
Last week I mentioned the need to build a new race track because the circumstances of the current track are beyond correction. I had the opportunity of visiting the stable area after races on Wednesday.
With me was a visitor who owns and races horses in South Africa and a number of tracks in the United States. He was appalled at the lack of security and ease with which he and hundreds of other people walked through the stable area.
STATE OF AFFAIRS
He commented that this was an appalling state of affairs but recognised that there was little that could be done because of how the track was laid out. To re-conform this track, with the inherent problems of houses bordering the boundaries, would be a futile exercise and we would be better off building a new track.
I trust that the Divestment Committee will take this into consideration and relate the need for housing and a greenfield area to the possibility of starting all over again with a state of the art racing and entertainment complex.
Howard L. Hamilton is a former Chairman of Caymanas Track Limited and is the current President of the Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association. He can be contacted at howham@cwjamaica.com.
