Jimmie Says … Negotiations between TOBA, SVREL more than meets the eye

Word making the rounds at Caymanas Park is that the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica (TOBA) and promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL) could soon move the negotiating needle as it relates to desirables by either entity.

Both parties have made it absolutely clear what their priorities are. On one hand, TOBA has relentlessly argued for a purse increase, prize money for horses placing first through sixth in races, whereas SVREL has indicated its desire for an outright purchase of Caymanas Park, citing alternative private development of its 196 acres as being key to sustaining live horse racing.

TOBA, through President Andrew Azar, has not masked its opposition to an outright sale of Caymanas Park’s lands, citing fears of a future lockdown of the horse-racing plant should SVREL decide to opt out of being a promoter of live racing for the lure of developing prime real estate for commercial, or even residential, purposes.

There, however, could be some veering of TOBA towards agreeing to ‘ceding’ — never mind that the entity does not own the land leased by SVREL from the government of Jamaica — a portion of the property for whatever development is being touted, a way of ‘ensuring’ specific acreages be maintained perpetually for live horse racing.

Key to TOBA’s stance would be the agreement of other bodies representing jockeys, grooms, trainers, farriers and jockeys’ agents, primarily the professional bodies employed, mostly indirectly, by owners.

As in any agreement, the devil is always in the details, especially when too many cooks are called in to prepare a broth.

Let’s take, for example, TOBA, a body which, by name, should have been representing owners’ interests, only started doing so approximately three years ago, January 2023, when subsuming the Jamaica Racehorse Owners Association (JROA).

At the January annual general meeting, many JROA members had opposed the move, citing differing industry objectives by either group. Nevertheless, it was put to vote, which majority won.

TOBA has since become more overarching under Azar’s leadership, acting somewhat as a ‘horsemen’s association’, inviting jockeys, grooms, trainers, farriers and jockeys’ agents to meetings in the name of inclusivity, diverting, some of its members have argued, from its core function of prioritising the interests of owners and breeders, which differ from those of the professional groups.

An increase in purse money, which holds pride of place among the matters that TOBA has been championing, should be keenly dissected by the professional groups, who have been called on to walk to the mountain top, hand in hand, with owners and breeders for prize money.

The professional groups, in case they forgot, should cast their minds back to March 2017 when SVREL introduced itself with a 20 per cent purse increase, $110m, which, by 2021, had brought everyone back to ground zero.

Breeders are commercial operators, depending on owners incentivised by purse money to purchase horses, whether privately or at TOBA’s annual sale. The professional groups, however, do not make a living from purse money, requiring a totally different negotiating apparatus as it relates to sustainability.

Trainers, jockeys and grooms earn commissions of 15, 10 and five per cent, respectively, from owners whose horses place first through sixth, incentives on whatever contractual agreements exist with their employers.

Whereas trainers are retained by owners and should charge a fee recommended by their association from which grooms and stablehands are paid, jockeys survive by commission and farriers by bills charged to owners.

A quick glance at the standings of earnings in any Track and Pools will show that purse money has never, and will never, trickle down in any substantial way to 90 per cent of owners, trainers, jockeys nor grooms.

Because of the nature of the beast, the bulk of purse money won will always be concentrated in the hands of few, whether by way of numbers, majority of earning horses ridden by a handful of jockeys owned by a few, groomed and trained by an even more diminishing number.

Therefore, jockeys and their agents, grooms, trainers and farriers should be cognisant that any negotiation being undertaken by TOBA, the now overarching body, should take into account their overall welfare, which goes way beyond purse increases.

The professional groups should be asking one serious question of TOBA, their self-appointed knight in shining armour. Will their welfare – health, accommodations, pension – be dealt with, hand in hand, at the same time, during, not after, and signed off at any negotiation with SVREL?