Gordon Robinson | It’s the economy, stupid!

Those close to me know, during the third week of June, I travel (virtually) to London to attend horseracing’s greatest spectacle.

It’s my annual pilgrimage to Royal Ascot. As flat racing’s apex, it showcases the best talent and epitomizes excitement. It’s the ultimate horseracing can offer. This year, I couldn’t help reflecting on decades long weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth by disappointed dinosaurs about the claiming system allegedly ruining local racing. They yearn for ye olde English handicapping system force fed us by colonizers and slavishly maintained until 1993 when an enlightened Chris Armond recommended fundamental product shift.

I returned to this theme because of Kiavash Joorabchian. Kia[is an Iranian-born British-educated businessman mostly known for involvement in Association Football. But, recently, he invested heavily in English horseracing via Amo Racing Limited. Amo purchased famed Freemason Lodge formerly ten times champion trainer Michael Stoute’s training home.

On the eve of this year’s Royal Ascot, in an in-depth interview conducted by UK Daily Mail’s Mike Keegan, Kia exposed details of English horseracing’s unhealthy underbelly.

“In racing a lot of things are hidden. The real truth never surfaces. It’s like a secret society. There’s an unwritten rule. In football if you separate from a manager everyone knows why. But in racing if you separate from a trainer you aren’t allowed to say why.”

Kia spoke of sobering episodes in racing including at least two suicides in three months and a general turning of blind eyes to mental health issues. He blames a lack of proper pay.

“There are people in the industry living week to week…. Yo ur general stable lads, for example, the boys who wake up at 4.30 am and muck out until 2pm.. They don’t get the support they need.

“You’re talking about people who have no happiness and who may need to take drink or drugs to find it.”

I remember falling gravely ill in January 2020 to the point that Old BC sent out an SOS for blood donations. Many persons answered the call, for which I’m eternally grateful. Chief among them was my best friend, the late, great, horseracing legend, Wayne DaCosta. As soon as he heard about my situation he summoned his grooms and loaded them in his van. “You’re going to donate blood” he instructed.

Well, only one groom donated because, when they arrived at the blood bank, it was discovered that every other groom was on ganja so ineligible. Grooms are paid J$5,500.00 per horse per week. Some look after two; a lucky few three. They work from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m and again from, say, 3 pm to 5 pm. Theirs is the dirty but essential work.

Jamaican grooms get an additional benefit not available to English counterparts - five per cent bonus from purses won by their charges.

In Jamaica, grooms don’t noticeably suffer from mental health issues. If they do, they keep it well hidden. Reliance on “weed” is cultural not driven by anxiety or depression. But what do you think results from poor pay, tough working conditions and scant regard from higher-ups? Why, corruption of course. Only the strongest-willed groom can resist the temptation of a $20,000 offer to “slow up” his horse.

This has NOTHING to do with the claiming system. It’s the economy stupid! And an industry in denial just like the English racing scene after which our handicap system lovers hanker.

English horseracing media wasn’t spared Kia’s critique. He pointed out media are unwilling to break racing’s omerta.

“I did an interview recently with Nick Luck. He, in my opinion, diverted these subjects when I brought them up. It seems racing media doesn’t want to be out there exploring.”

Same here Kia! Our racing “journalists” are happy to complain ad nauseam about the claiming system and lust after the return of a system that put owners’ investment in the hands of a handicapper vulnerable to corruption. But what about racing’s economy that oppresses the most vulnerable and extorts punters?

Kia turned to the much vaunted English racing product itself:

“You had the lowest attendance in [Epsom’s] history this year. You walked in and it was flat; no buzz; no excitement. You’re slowly killing the racetracks. The competition is non-existent now. You don’t get huge horses running against each other.”

So, uncompetitive races are possible even under the beloved handicapping system? It’s not the claiming system that’s making racing uncompetitive?

It’s the economy stupid!

Kia compared English racing to the American version:

“I was at the Belmont Stakes last Saturday. It was incredible, the crowds, the competition. It was an electric atmosphere. The biggest horses were competing against each other. I think in UK people are falling out of love with racing.

“In US they’ve all the information and can make informed decisions. Every breeze is available including videos; but that isn’t the case here. There isn’t that transparency.”

In Jamaica, racing is even more opaque than its English equivalent. The Track and Pools is almost irrelevant; SVREL’s website pre-historic; racing’s marketing and media coverage embarrassing.

Track and Pools is riddled with errors; doesn’t explain some bets; excludes full up-to-date statistics; contains twelve lines of unreliable form and very few exercise reports with fewer breezes. SVREL website users wanting to view a particular horse’s past races must first know when and in which race it ran.

Kia focused on transparency: “In UK there are gambling stables and non-gambling stables. Millions and millions go into gambling. When you go into bookmakers and wager on football you’ve all the information. Who’s injured, who’s failed a late fitness test.... It’s all public domain, but in horseracing unless you’re deeply involved you wouldn’t know how the horse has been training or if the stable [or the trainer] is betting on that horse.

“It’s not a problem that trainers can gamble as long as there’s transparency like the stock market where if a CEO sells or buys shares the public know. Why is it a secret in UK [racing]?”

It’s a secret here too Kia. There are no workout videos. Unless you know the horse by sight and go to the track in the morning you’re at the mercy of “clockers” who are often on trainers’ payroll. It’s a secret society. That’s what turns punters off. That’s what turns investors off.

It. Isn’t. The. Claiming. System!

On December 7, 2024 (Mouttet Mile Day) SVREL produced the best spectacle seen in Jamaica for two decades. Did the card not include a claiming race? Race 6, marketed as the Iprint Crown, was for claimers ($1.5 million–$1.2 million); attracted a competitive field of 16; produced a rare odds-against favourite (9-5; finished 8th) and a winner, Milos, at 6-1.

Proper marketing; attention to stakeholders’ welfare; and a claiming system properly-so-called (instead of the current selling system) with realistic claiming tags pegged to US$ can produce a better, more popular product

It’s the economy stupid!

Kia again cited America’s racing economy as inspiring “When I see what’s going on in America I come home and think….how much of a gap there is. There was a [recent] race here, £2.5m worth of horses running for the first time. The winner took home two-and-a-half-grand. No wonder people are afraid to invest.

In US people will buy a horse for US$250-300,000 because they know they have potential of making that and [more] in prize money.”

Jamaica’s racing promoter keeps its head firmly embedded up its own rear-end failing to realize less is more. It refuses to contribute anything from simulcast sales to purses and wonders why investors flee horseracing like rats from a sinking ship. Kia believes English Bookies/Totes aren’t putting enough back into horseracing. Again, same here Kia!

“It allows you to pay a stable lad more than just enough to survive that week. Betting companies are getting bigger and bigger and the people richer and richer but the sport facilitating those bets doesn’t get enough benefit.”’

It’s the economy stupid!

Kia plans to do more than criticise. His first project at Freemason was a stable housing upgrade. “There was mould in there. Now the guys on site live in brand new accommodation. Everything is high quality. TV, WiFi.…”

How’s our stable staff living? Does anybody care? Of course not! It’s so much easier to rage at the claiming system.

It’s time to stop whining. Fix horseracing’s economy. Government must reduce up front taxes; incentivize breeding so better bloodlines can be imported. SVREL must reduce unnecessary recurrent expenditure; give more to punters and purses. Market a modernised sport to Generation Z. That’s how you encourage investment. Competitive races will follow.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com