TOBA kicks off three-day Easter Carnival on Saturday

CAYMANAS Park’s three-day Easter Carnival of Racing, Saturday to Monday, has been dubbed a Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica (TOBA) celebration of champion owners and breeders throughout the years.

TOBA, which recently subsumed the now-defunct Jamaica Racehorse Owners Association (JROA), has merged both entities’ annual racedays into a big extravaganza of owners and breeders, presenting winners of 25 races over three days with major prizes and trophies, sharing the spotlight with the Thornbird and Prince Consort Stakes, plus the Easter Cup Sprint.

Winners of races are guaranteed horse feed as additional prizes, courtesy of sponsors such as Nutramix, Hi-Pro and Cal’s Manufacturing, and courtesy of champion owner Carlton Watson, who will also have presentations of gift baskets.

Other sponsors on board TOBA’s Easter Carnival of Racing are Burger King with giveaways of gift vouchers redeemable at the fast-food giant’s outlets. Andrew Azar, former Caymanas Track Limited board member, now TOBA director, returns for a second consecutive weekend as gift-prizes sponsor, through LP Azar.

TOBA’s celebration continues later this month, Friday, April 21, with ‘An Evening of Excellence’, an awards ceremony for ‘Champions of 2022’, set for the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel, for which fast-moving tickets are already on sale at $6,000 each. Finance Minister Nigel Clarke will be the event’s guest speaker.

Raring to go since Clarke set the horse-racing industry abuzz by announcing removal of the 15 per cent General Consumption Tax (GCT) on the importation of horses, TOBA, which stages the annual Mixed Sale of Yearlings and Two-Year-Olds, is looking forward to its first auction of imported horses.

Clovis Metcalfe, chairman of the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) and Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC), recently revealed that the JRC will soon establish a revolving-loan fund, administered by TOBA, solely for the purpose of importing horses for auction.

“We already fund TOBA’s revolving-loan fund for horses at the annual Yearling Sale. However, this will be a separate fund, set up for the importation of horses. I plan to give TOBA $20 million in the first instance so we can get the ball rolling right away with probably 10 horses

“There can be an auction every three months. My only ask is that they bring in a mixture of colts, mares and fillies, to ensure that these horses can head to the breeding shed after their racing careers,” Metcalfe pointed out.

Previously, GCT on horses, when applied to all the attendant costs to land a horse on a farm or stable in Jamaica, was estimated to be a crushing 28 per cent of the animal’s purchase price, creating a major deterrent for breeders and racehorse owners.