Mixed Sale still on at Caymanas Park

THE THOROUGHBRED Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica (TOBA) yesterday announced Sunday, December 7, as the new date for its annual Mixed Sale, allaying fears that the event would have been cancelled this year, a fallout from the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

After days of anxiously awaiting word from TOBA, consignors and potential buyers, locally and abroad, let out a collective sigh of relief when the breeders’ association named Sunday December 7, a day after the US$300,000 Mouttet Mile, to replace Sunday, November 23.

TOBA’s Mixed Sale, hosted annually inside Caymanas Park’s Officials’ Car Park, was originally set for November 23, a blank Sunday on the month’s racing calendar.

However, broadcast-infrastructure damage at Caymanas Park and its off-track betting hub partners, forced racing promoter Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited’s (SVREL) hand to reschedule the November 8 racemeet to November 23 after losing the first meet of the month, November 1.

TOBA’s directors reportedly chose December 7, as opposed to November 30, on account of giving consignors more time to recondition horses who might have been affected by the adverse weather caused by the Category 5 hurricane, the most powerful to have ever made landfall in Jamaica.

At least two thoroughbred breeding farms suffered catastrophic damage during the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Trelawny’s Orange Valley Estates Limited, many-time champion breeder, operated by TOBA director, Alec Henderson, and wife Jacqui, was battered by Hurricane Melissa.

YS Farms in St Elizabeth, run by Dawn Browne, also bore the brunt of the most powerful hurricane to make landfall in Jamaica, leaving a trail of destruction in the western half of the island.

Meanwhile, it is all systems go for live horse racing 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.

Solomon Sharpe, chairman, SVREL outlined November’s schedule of live racing, stating that only one racemeet would be lost after the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

“November originally had six meets,” Sharpe pointed out. “We lost the first, which is understandable after the passage of Hurricane Melissa. However, Jamaica Cup Day, which should have been Saturday, the 8th, will be moved to Sunday, the 16th,” he explained.

“Therefore, the racemeets for November will be the 15th, 16th, 22nd, 23rd, and 29th. We are returning with a bang, back-to-back weekends, including two Mouttet Mile win-and-you’re-in races on a Sunday, the Jamaica Cup and Port Royal Sprint,” Sharpe added.