Ferreira must rescue racing
DOES ANYONE know what they are doing? Why are the notes from the stewards to the Arima Race Club so vague? Maybe because the notes are irrelevant to most of those in the racing circles that matter. Is it true that the Arima Race Club and the Betting Levy Board are on a collision course, where there can only be one winner? Perhaps it is the lethargic nature of officials in the Arima Race Club and the Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority that is at the centre of the turmoil surrounding horseracing. In any business — and if we are to believe the Minister of Sport, the Honourable Roger Boynes, then horseracing is more a business than a sport — there must be established guidelines and regulations if proper procedures are to be maintained . There are several inconsistencies in horseracing at the moment, which lead to crys of favouritism and preferential treatment, particularly if you are not considered to be one of the "boys." This is an age-old problem, that will not easily disappear. The current composition of the Arima Race Club Management team aligns itself to that feeling. But more importantly if the current president Gerard Ferreira is to be seriously acknowledged as a good and capable leader, then he must insist that proper accountability exists in the management of horseracing. At the moment, given the fact that there are no apparent clear reporting chains or lines in horseracing, many observers are uncertain whom to credit or blame for a particular incident. Given the universally treasured role, that Ferreira now holds, as chairman of the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago, he must be careful that if there is any impropriety in the Arima Race Club, it does not tarnish his good name and reputation. When Sports Minister Roger Boynes spoke with me on i95.5 FM Sports on Saturday, he was emphatic that Ferreira was a man that could be trusted, a man of his word, and there is no reason to doubt that at the moment. If Ferreira is to be measured on his performance rather that old talk, then he needs to breach the widening divide between trainers and the officials of the sport. Also he needs to address, the rationale behind having racing stewards who are toothless tigers, and who are easily influenced by men with flashy ties, expensive cars and fast lips. No man is an island. There are no untouchables in any sport in my opinion from officials to athletes, everyone must be held responsible for their actions. The problem though is when everyone are afraid to openly express their opinions in horseracing because of certain executives at both the Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority and the Arima Race Club. This must be eroded by Ferreira, because this country would hate to believe that the man empowered by the Government of the day, to manage the "funding" for all sports is allowing certain people to do what they want in horseracing. What sort of mixed signal will that send about the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago? Maybe there may be a need to send auditors to review their accounting records immediately. Recently we watched as a farce unfolded in racing involving trainer Jack Debideen, the ARC Stewards who may have been outwitted. The wily Debideen kept both his three-year-olds — Border Dispute and Flying Millie — in their stalls and later brought them to the parade ring already saddled, merely to be mounted by their jockeys and make a single round of the Parade Ring at the Trinidad Derby. The majority of three-year-olds were paraded in front of the public for over 18 minutes; surely two minutes from these two three-year-olds cannot be considered the same thing. Does this constitute parading? If it is then every single steward on the day should be given a job as a deckhand on the Titanic. Also any owner who feigns ignorance of his colt or filly being highly favoured this way is either dumb or believes everyone else in racing is dumber. Unfortunately for him/her, there are still those of us who believe in justice and fairplay and whose reporting diet, does not consist of lavish gifts. There will never be any justification for these misguided actions on Derby Day, because this palace coup was rewarded with over $175,000 in prize money. A salutary $100 fine, if it was eventually charged would be laughable. The idea, that a veterinanan and the Clerk of the Parade Ring have to concur with a trainer’s request for special treatment to facilitate the saddling in the paddock, is another open time bomb that can easily be manipulated. Simply put as four independent trainers told me last week; all that is needed is proper usage of the last stall in the parade ring, with proper equipment to saddle troublesome horses. How can a trainer with four horses, saddle all of them in the parade ring, so that the public (the major stakeholder) can view and share opinions while others escape unscathed? A non-sporting Government Minister, because of my penchant for horseracing, asked my opinion on the status of horseracing, and to be honest, I had to express my serious concerns that transparency is now non-existent, that there are two rules in racing, one for their friends and another for the rest. More significantly, I have to state that the betting public has been shortchanged time after time with no recourse; prime examples are the poor facilities, the inadequate information on the racing programme, the slow tellers, limited eating options and too few television monitors. There is more, but space limits any further expansion. Perhaps in conclusion, Gerard Ferreira and his bunch of merrymen could adopt some of the professionalism and qualitative approach of the Betting Levy Board. 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"Ferreira must rescue racing"