President of the United Racehorse Trainers Association Ryan Darby is hoping that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) can be signed this week between the Ministry of Finance and key horse racing figures, potentially paving the way for a return to racing at Caymanas Park.

Discussions started just under a week ago, and Darby is quite optimistic that once the document is signed off on, racing can be resumed in four weeks. He shared that trainers and other interests have been preparing for some time and are eager to get things going again.

“We are hoping to have racing in another four weeks because for the most part, the stakeholders are starting to prepare,” Darby told The Gleaner.

He added that once ink gets put to paper on the MoU, it will be up to promoters Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited to restart the races.

“We just need to get the Finance Minister (Nigel Clarke) to sign this MoU. We sign off on it and then Supreme Ventures can sent out a projection that we can work towards,” Darby said. “We have been working on it since Friday, and so, hopefully, we will see what happens this week.”

There has been no horse racing at Caymanas Park since SVREL shut down operations indefinitely on March 21 due to the spread of the novel coronavirus disease in Jamaica.

Up to yesterday afternoon, Jamaica had recorded 502 cases, nine deaths, and 78 recoveries.

READY AND WAITING

Meanwhile, despite the long layoff, Darby stated that trainers are doing their part to ensure that the equine athletes will be ready to go once the green light is given.

“The horses will be ready to run whenever racing is ready to (resume), and so all they (SVREL) need to do is to get racing ready to run once the MoU is signed off,” Darby said.

He noted that with no opportunity to earn, it is costing the owners and trainers over $20 million per week collectively to maintain their operations.

“There is no income coming in, and owners are finding it very difficult to keep up with the bills, and so everybody is having a hard time over here,” said Darby. “We need racing to restart as soon as possible because it can’t go on like this for much longer. Everyone is suffering to keep up with the bills because it is very expensive to look after these horses over here.”

There were no details on the key points of the MoU.

Vitus Evans, executive director of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC), said his organisation would be ready to carry out its functions whenever racing returned but highlighted that this must be done only when it is deemed safe to do so.

“Once they are ready to go, then we will be ready, too,” said Evans. “I think once it is safe, then racing should resume … that’s why we exist. That is where we make our income from.”