Losses mount for horse racing despite quick restart

CHAIRMAN OF Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), Solomon Sharpe, says the company has suffered losses of more than $150 million following the devastating passage of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa last Tuesday, which severely disrupted operations at Caymanas Park and its Off Track Betting (OTB) network islandwide.

Sharpe told The Gleaner that the majority of the losses stem from the forced closure of SVREL’s OTB retailers across the island, which halted both local horse racing and simulcast wagering from overseas tracks.

“Losses stem from closure of Off Track Betting (OTB) retailers islandwide for the local racing, as well as simulcast racing from overseas,” Sharpe said.

In fact, approximately 70 per cent of Caymanas Park’s sales are off-site bets placed at OTBs scattered across the island, more than 40 per cent of which would have sustained damage from Hurricane Melissa. There are more than 100 OTB retailers islandwide.

He added that the company’s plant at Caymanas Park was also significantly affected.

“The horsemen don’t get to earn purses if there are no races, and on the plant itself, we have over $130 million worth of damage,” Sharpe stated.

“We have to repair roofs and just the clean-up to bring back the plant, and the repairs is a massive sum of money.”

Despite the heavy losses, Sharpe noted that SVREL is determined to recover and resume normal operations as soon as possible.

“This is a big deal, but we have to take it in stride and we have to keep moving,” he said.

“In business, when you get presented with these things, you have to take your blow and you have to pivot and you have to keep moving on.”

Live horse racing is scheduled to resume at Caymanas Park on Saturday, November 15, the first weekend of consecutive Saturday-Sunday meets, featuring a rescheduled Jamaica Cup Day, which was originally slated to be run this Saturday, November 8.

Sharpe explained that simulcast racing resumed on Friday, marking an important first step towards restoring full operations.

“We brought back simulcast racing last week Friday, so we lost five days of revenue and 50 per cent of the OTB retailers’ locations are out through damage from the hurricane, there is no electricity,” he said. “So we are working with our team assiduously to try to bring all our retailers back up, so they can get back their business as well.”