KINGSTON, Jamaica – Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), the sole promoter of horse racing in Jamaica has reversed an earlier decision to close the race track for three days of the week for the purposes of exercising horses starting today (Friday, April 8).
SVREL had last weekend issued a public statement saying that as a part of its scaling down operations because of COVID-19, the operations of the race track will be scaled down to four days only - Mondays to Thursdays.
In its weekend release, SVREL noted that it had no choice but to scale down due to severe disruptions and the immense impact of COVID-19, on the country’s economy, in particular, St Catherine.
But in a release this afternoon SVREL said that the race track will open for an additional two days (Friday, May 8 and Saturday, May 9).
“This is a sign of good faith, pending the outcome of discussions with all stakeholders in the horse racing industry,” the SVREL release stated.
Further, there was a meeting earlier today (May 7) involving The Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission, the Project Monitoring Committee, the Jamaica Racing Commission, Government representatives, the United Racehorse Trainers Association, the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association, the Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association, the Jamaica Racehorse Owners Association, the Jamaica Jockeys Guild and the Grooms Association of Jamaica.
This meeting was brokered by president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Keith Duncan who is a member of Government’s COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force.
It is understood by Quickgallop.com that at this meeting a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was agreed on for the possible restart of live racing at Caymanas Park.
This MOU has not been signed by all the parties directly involved as yet.
