St Leger Day faces Beryl wait

CAYMANAS PARK hunkered down yesterday with one eye on the passage of Hurricane Beryl and the other on Saturday’s Jamaica St Leger Day, the second leg of the Triple Crown classic races for three-year-old horses.

Traditionally a rain-or-shine sport, horse racing at Caymanas Park has perennially braved the elements to run its biggest races, one of the most notably being the 1994 Superstakes won by RESTLESS BABE in a downpour with a weather system fast approaching the island.

Hurricane Beryl has put this weekend’s racing on hold as officials at Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), like other Jamaicans, remains in wait-and-see mode.

Christopher Wills, vice president, operations, yesterday said the safety of all, equine and human, is continuously being assessed while Beryl skirts the south coast of the island on which the 196-acre racing plant lies in Portmore, St Catherine.

“Given the current weather conditions. Priority is being placed on the safety of all stakeholders and animals. As such, we made the decision to forgo nominations for Sunday, which were due today, until we have confirmation that everybody is safe and we have an idea when we can resume normal operations,” said Wills.

Meanwhile, nominations, which were taken for Saturday’s St Leger racemeet, will stand with scratch time (finalisation of the programme) suspended, a possible postponement, dependent on infrastructure damage.

“The racemeet scheduled for Saturday, pending no adverse reports, should continue as planned but we will keep everybody informed as we await Beryl’s passage,” Wills confirmed.

Up to mid-afternoon, Wills said only flooding was reported in some areas at Caymanas Park.

“We are getting reports, nothing serious as yet, no damage to any property. There are reports of flooding but a full assessment will be done in a few hours to determine how we resume operations,” Wills added, pointing out that simulations will have to be undertaken before wagering is offered on its various platforms of live and simulcast racing from overseas.