Jimmie says … The real cost of a pound of flesh

From the very outset of Caymanas Park’s divestment, the original terms, some of which still exist, stood as a sure recipe for financial failure. However, instead of taking heed, those in charge at Caymanas Park back then read the headline and dismissed commentary on what was one of the worst deals ever struck as Jimmie’s journalism mischief-making.

After Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited’s (SVREL) losses started piling up amid uncovering of faulty chattels that were deemed to be in perfect working order, despite what should have been due diligence, somewhere along the line came an ‘oops’ moment, which was not only played out in the boardroom but also within management at the racetrack.

It is this ‘oops’ moment that continues to fuel one of the biggest debates surrounding what was promised as opposed to what is being delivered by SVREL to whom the racetrack was divested.

On one hand stands horsemen, saying SVREL has not lived up to its agreement, especially that of purses, essentially, prize money for horses competing in races.

On the other hand stands SVREL, saying things were not what they seemed, or presented, thus it has had to be spending on matters of priority in order to keep racing running on a weekly basis. 

SVREL had stated its clear intent to incentivise purses, which it started out to do with a $100 million increase before the first race was run under new ownership. After skating through losses of $607.7 million in 22 months, amid the due-diligence cracks which started emerging, journalism mischief-making started making sense.

Among the journalism mischief-making of more than a decade ago was a particular column, October 2015, ‘Divestment running on a wet track’, explaining that it was the horse racing-casino business model that kept North American racing alive, warning that “… a multitude of factors are against Caymanas Park being a viable entity without purse subsidies”, it was posited that “… if Caymanas Park is successfully divested by the Government of Jamaica, the viability of local horse racing might very well be shakily hinged on a tote monopoly and/or subsidies from any other businesses implemented by the new operator of the 196-acre plant”.

Fast-forward to May 25, 2021, another mischief-making column appeared, ‘Caymanas idle lands a gold mine’, suggesting centralisation of the stable area and commercialisation of the remaining 196-acre plant, which, in 2026, has been proposed by now-awake SVREL as an outright sale.

This proposal has been rejected by horsemen, who are steadfast that the promoting company was the successful bidder and, as promised, should deliver on purse increases, install the elevators, fix the roads, and put up the fine-dining restaurants, Shylock demanding of Antonio his pound of flesh.

If it is that horsemen consider themselves ‘stakeholders’, why is there an insistence on inflexibility as it relates to the original terms of divestment, especially now that Jimmie’s mischief-making journalism has come to roost 11 years after ‘Divestment running on a wet track’ and five years post ‘Caymanas idle lands a gold mine’?

One would have thought that it would have been all hands on deck, reaching out to the Government of Jamaica, not for bailout of a corporate entity but instead taking detailed stock of how horse racing survives internationally.

Locally, it’s not that betting doesn’t generate substantial revenue, it’s a matter of where does the money end up, especially portions allotted to the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission, the CHASE Fund, and the Jamaica Racing Commission 

In 2022, representatives of the United Racehorse Trainers Association of Jamaica and the Jamaica Racehorse Owners Association, subsequently subsumed by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica (TOBA), signed a purse deed with SVREL, guaranteeing 49 per cent of gross gaming revenue from local-racing sales to purses.

This deed, which has been ‘rubbished’ by TOBA, represents, in its purest form, parity, as far as revenue-splitting is concerned but is certainly not sufficient to fund purses.

SVREL, from its 51 per cent, is expected to deliver Shylock his pound of flesh while for 2022-23 the BGLC ($57m), the JRC ($191m), and CHASE Fund ($16.4m) collected millions from the racing industry, plus unclaimed winnings of $105m and $174m to the Consolidated Fund while pitying ‘stakeholders’ with BGLC and JRC racedays at Caymanas Park.

Why aren’t stakeholders questioning what comes of the annual US$330,000 lease being paid by tenant SVREL to landlord Caymanas Track Limited for a property with roads in dire need of repair and all the other issues being brought to the fore?

SVREL will soon have to make up its mind whether it's a promoter of horse racing, focused on diversifying and complementing revenue, or, instead, a property-management company ensuring Shylock’s pound of flesh is secured ahead of everything else.