Indefinite halt to racing

Chairman of the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) Clovis Metcalfe said in light of the two confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus in Jamaica, his organisation was left with no other alternative but to suspend local horse racing at Caymanas Park until further notice.

Metcalfe told STAR Sports that the JRC had no choice but to follow the lead of the Government, following the declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the coronavirus is now a pandemic. “Our position to cancel horse racing is based on the WHO declaring the virus a pandemic and the policy of the Government, which is to discourage large gatherings and for me personally, it is out of abundance of caution,” said Metcalfe.

Saving of lives

“In other words, the saving of lives is more important than a sporting event,” he said.

“We know that a lot of people will be disappointed, but sometimes you can’t speak out of your pocket alone because people’s health come first and so we think it is in the best interest of everyone,” Metcalfe said.

He underlined that when everything gets back to normal, racing at the track will resume immediately.

“We would encourage racing once we see that the epidemic is contained and once we see the numbers not growing, then certainly we would encourage the racing game to resume,” he said.

In the meantime, chairman of Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL) Solomon Sharpe said his association stands to lose millions of dollars from the cancellation of racing, especially with the back-to-back racecard which was scheduled for this weekend.

“We can only take the direction from the Government because we have done everything possible to try and create a very clean environment and so we are just awaiting further word,” said Sharpe.

“This will have a big impact for us because this will severely impact the horsemen. They earn from purses when races are run and this will certainly impact the horsemen,” he said. Twenty races were scheduled for this weekend, 10 tomorrow and 10 on Sunday.

Sharpe noted that the cancellation will not only impact the horsemen but also a lot of individuals who depend on the racing industry to earn a living.

“I am not so worried about the impact of the losses on the business as I am worried about the impact of the losses on the horsemen and everybody within our industry,” he said.