Chris Armond, voice that set hearts racing, dies
Published:Thursday | May 12, 2022 | 12:11 AMAinsley Walters/Gleaner Writer
Christopher Armond, whose booming voice as a commentator excited horse-racing enthusiasts at Caymanas Park for a decade, and who served later as an administrator in Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad, died Wednesday at age 66.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame of Thoroughbred Racing in June 2017, Armond retired as Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited's director of racing in December 2020. Up to the time of his passing, he chaired the In-and-out-Running and Observation Committee of the Jamaica Racing Commission.
Deeply rooted in horse racing, Armond first worked at Caymanas Park in the early 1970s at the feet of his father, Joseph, a Hall of Fame inductee who served as co-managing director of Caymanas Park Limited, the first horse-racing promoting company at the Jamaican racetrack.
Armond's grandfather, Altamont, was the founder of the Jamaica Turf Club, which promoted horse racing at Race Course, which later became Heroes Circle, before the racetrack was relocated to Knutsford Park on lands now known as New Kingston.
Chris Armond became a household name through his roaring style as track commentator, leading to his being hired to call races on radio for the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) by the late sporting icon, 'Lindy' Delapenha.
Whereas Armond has been idolised for his colourful racing commentary from 1975 to 1985, his foray into racing administration, in 1989, was a roller-coaster ride.
After leaving Jamaica in the mid-1980s for North America where he called races in Detroit, Michigan, Armond returned to Caymanas Park as administrator armed with a new system of racing, claiming and conditions, which replaced the English system of rating and handicapping. Those reforms have a hung jury deliberating the effect on the racing industry since implementation in 1993.
Armond's exposure to North American racing served the Danny Melville-led board well on his return, coinciding with the installation of a new totalisator system with innovative new bets and the expansion of off-track betting parlours, leading to a period of record sales.
However, many owners and breeders gradually exited the industry on account of claiming races, which essentially offered horses for sale at rock-bottom prices by way of a draw conducted before each event.
Armond, who remained steadfast to the claiming and condition system in three separate stints as head of Caymanas Park's racing office between 1989 and 2020, once declaring a return to rating and handicapping would only happen “over my dead body”.
He staunchly defended his legacy, saying it brought “the small man” into racing as an owner and helped to curb corruption by driving the fear of owners losing horses.
Armond also had run-ins with bookmakers, legal and illegal, establishing a task force with police personnel to launch raids on premises selling illegal bets.
Not satisfied that he was making sufficient inroads into illegal betting, Armond, who had also worked with Watson's Betting as an English racing commentator, once ordered an officer of Track Price Plus Limited thrown out of Caymanas Park for using a cell phone in the North Lounge. He also got on the wrong side of the betting public by discontinuing live racing on local television, in a bid to curb illegal betting.
His first stint as administrator ended in 1998, asked to resign by the Melville-led board, which included prominent racing figures such as Richard Lake, Dr Paul Wright, and Neville Rhone.
Armond left Jamaica in the latter part of 1998 to assume the post of CEO of the Arima Race Club in Trinidad and Tobago for three years. He afterwards went to Barbados in 2001 in a similar role for seven years.
Armond was reinstalled at Caymanas Park in 2009, headed back to Trinidad as an administrator, and returned to a privatised Caymanas Park in 2017, brought on board to head the racing department of new promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited.