The little boy had heard stories of Caymanas Park’s early days when Jockeys vying for the lead at the three furlong pole were alert for the shout of the Master himself, the great Arthur Jones. “Dog coming!” Jones would yell, “Rent due!” This was to signal younger jocks ahead...

“Have I missed anything?” the small boy in the disheveled prep school uniform hopped nervously from foot to foot, peering over his father’s shoulder for a glimpse of the as-yet-forbidden fruit. “Take a bath, eat your lunch and then we can talk” was the gruff response. “But, have they...

The new racing promoter has taken some steps in the right direction. For example, I notice there has been an attempt to raise the value of claiming tags albeit only at the top end. A few races have been successfully offered for horses prepared to enter for claiming tags...

I spent last week glued to the world’s best flat racing festival, Royal Ascot. Some fun facts about the five days of world class horse racing: Royal Ascot welcomes 300,000 race-goers across five days; 70,000 attend Thursday’s Gold Cup Day; Viewed in over 200 countries around the globe; Approximately...

 Recently, traditionalists, programmed to believe only England has answers to anything, have renewed a call for the return to an English system of handicapping/rating as the panacea for what ails local racing. “Bring it on,” I say. Hurry up! Let’s scrap the claiming system and return to the rating...

Toldja! Since I wrote about the embarrassing scenario among Jamaica’s jockey colony as exposed by 54-year-old Gary Richards (published June 4) the Old Master has ridden 7 winners from 34 rides (21% win percentage) which is bettered by only one (Shane Ellis; 22%) of the top ten jockeys. He...

I’ve bad news for SVREL. It’s stuck with Caymanas Park. I don’t care how many rumours (or whether they’re true) of “exit” clauses are bruited about, Government isn’t taking it back; The financial hole which Government spent the past 40 years digging for all horse racing promoters is too...

It’s been bittersweet watching 54-year-old Gary Richards teach our pathetic jockey colony how race riding is done. When Gary started riding in 1979, Jamaica was blessed with a set of jockeys who could excel worldwide.  Gary stood out among them to the extent that iconic jockey Neville Anderson publicly...

Cawn’t sey mi neva dida warn yu! Punters got useful pointers for Jamaica’s first two classics from my very early look (published April 6).  After 1,000 Guineas winner Disability Charm’s winning debut (1000m round; January 20), I noted: “Disability Charm was visually impressive….lengthening stride and readily drawing clear final...