URTA, Supreme Ventures reach deduction agreement

President Ryan Darby says the United Racehorse Trainers Association (URTA) is relieved that Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment has decided to reduce the deduction from purse money for the month of June by 50 per cent.

Supreme Ventures had initially said that they would be deducting $4.3 million, which will be done through reducing the purse money offered on races.

The decision to recover money is for operational costs incurred by Supreme Ventures during the COVID-19 lockdown which lasted roughly three months.

As part of the deal, a memorandum of understanding was agreed with industry regulators.

"We didn't want to pay anything at all for June, but in the best interest of racing, we have reached a compromise of dividing the bill payment for June in half," Darby said.

"We are not totally happy with it, but in the interest of racing, we all agreed that the negative publicity and fight would not be worth going any further.

"This new agreement has ironed out any disruption of racing because the COVID-19 pandemic has really affected us a lot and we cannot afford any more interruption of racing at Caymanas Park.

Supreme Ventures General Manager Lorna Gooden said she is happy that they have finally reached an agreement.

"The meeting went well in our view, and arising out of this meeting, SVREL has once again agreed to exercise some compassion in hearing the pleas put forward by the trainers," she said.

"This is indeed a win-win for everybody because we believe that we have come out with an amicable position," she said.