No Governor’s Cup, Superstakes in limbo
Published:Wednesday | June 10, 2020 | 1:02 PMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
Chairman of Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited, Solomon Sharpe, yesterday confirmed to The Gleaner that this year’s Governor’s Cup race meet has been cancelled.
Sharpe also confirmed that a decision will be taken on whether or not this year’s Superstakes will be contested, pointing out that the lockdown of racing due to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced his organisation to reschedule the racing calendar for this year.
“The Governor’s Cup will not be held, based on the timing and the fact that we have now lost another week, and that has now made the whole programme compressed,” said Sharpe.
“We have had at least two meetings with the horsemen and we stipulated what we are trying to do to get restarted, and the potential of what would have happened and what would not happen,” he added, before noting that the lay-off has caused a serious congestion in the calendar.
“We can’t find a spot given the whole crunch of how the calendar is set up right now, and the proper spacing and timing to find a spot for the Governor’s Cup,” Sharpe said.
The Governor’s Cup is usually used as a preparation race for the Jamaica Derby, which will now be held in October.
A Spot for Superstakes
Meanwhile, the Superstakes, which is usually contested by the best horses in the country, takes place annually in early November.
However, Sharpe underlined that they are still searching to find a spot on this year’s calendar for the Superstakes, but stated that if they are unable to do so, then they will also be forced to cancel this event.
“The whole Superstakes has not been cancelled, we are just trying to find the spot,” said Sharpe.
“We don’t have a very strong number of grade one horses at the moment, and so when you look at your computer software that tells you what you have, you have to look and project accordingly,” he said. “The jury is still out as to what will happen with the Superstakes, and going into the latter part of the year, we still have some more things to fix and tweak.”