Track’s trickle-down economics helps no one

As another Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica (TOBA) sale looms, continuing decline of the local breeding industry, its output – quantity and quality of horses produced annually – cannot be separated from what ultimately drives demand.

Without a system of racing that is attractive to owners, existing and potential, encouraging breeders to not only increase production by adding more mares and stallions to rosters but also investing in bloodstock with rich pedigree, demand will forever determine output.

The first, and easiest, low-hanging fruit to grab whenever decline of the breeding industry is mentioned will obviously be purse money, reward for placing first through sixth in races run at Caymanas Park.

What proponents of that argument don’t realise, or simply fail to acknowledge, is that were purses increased two-fold tomorrow morning, the benefit would continuously reach no more than the already top-earning few, among hundreds, who would have lobbied and supported an increase.

Put another way, if all the races run so far this year were for twice the purses on offer, what benefit would there have been to the wider population of horsemen outside of who placed first through sixth in those races?

Would purses increased two-fold lead to the top 10 earners of 2026 increasing their holdings in any way that would significantly impact the ailing breeding industry?

Without a system of racing that allows horses of near, or equal, ability to consistently race against each other, average runners and their owners, which is the majority, will forever be starved of earning opportunities, no matter the dollar-value of purses on offer.

The inability of the majority to earn purse money will forever lead to calls for purse increases, supported, of course, by the top-earning few, knowing fully well that no crumb will fall to the majority under the present system of racing.

Having used last week’s Mouttet Mile point standings to show that there are 16 grade-one races on offer this year with no more than, conservatively, 16 horses who could be rated as true top-class runners, even after considering weight allowances, it clearly shows that the number of races is, by far, too many for possibly 14 horses to be spread over trips of sprints, middle and long-distance races.

This dilemma in grades one and two is made even worse – leading to lopsided fields, weak betting, and cherry-picking of races among rival barns trying to avoid equal competition – when horses are allowed to drop class, sometimes two rungs down the ladder, without proving, by way of declining form, that they can no longer win races at a particular level.

Publication of the Mouttet Mile points standings should be an eye-opener to all concerned about how purse money, if properly distributed in a new and equitable system of racing, using a year’s worth of performances as a guide, can positively impact opportunities of all horses to earn, leading to demand on a breeding industry to produce more and better runners.

It would not take a properly constituted committee two meetings to extract the approximately 14 top-class runners from a list of 74 active horses with most points earned, based on weight of race (class), published in the Track and Pools on Saturday, October 24.

Separating these 14 horses from 74 leaves 60 from which at least three lower classes could be carved to create three other levels – grades two, three, and four – to start 2027, based purely, and truly, on performances of the past year.

Conventional wisdom would dictate that each group of horses, one to four, would be splintered into sprints and mid-to-long-distance trips, which would determine how many races and distances are to be offered in 2027 for each category based purely on the number of runners available from the previous year.

Publication of the Mouttet Miles points standings does half the job required to answer the most important question in allocation of races and purses for 2027. It shows how many horses are available to provide competitive fields at the respective distances in the top four classes.

If there are only 60 horses left from which to carve groups two, three, and four, taking distance into consideration, that is an average of 20 horses per class, making these categories of runners not much better than group one as far as numbers are concerned, wouldn’t this lead to fewer but more competitive races, purses spruced up by the excess, being the order of 2027?