Sunday racing returns January 30

Sunday racing will return to Caymanas Park early next year, with a race meet on January 30.

This was confirmed by Chris Armond, acting CEO and director of marketing at Caymanas Track Limited (CTL), earlier this week. Armond disclosed that approval has been given for only the third Sunday meet at Caymanas Park, and his hope is that the crowds will flock to the track as they did for the first two meets at the backend of 2009.

The historic first Sunday meet on November 29, 2009 was a tremendous success, as crowds descended on Caymanas Park in record numbers for the eight-race programme. The second meet was held on December 13 and that, too, attracted a large crowd, only not as huge as the first.

Despite the support, the two previous meets actually lost money. At the eleventh hour the Government, in an effort to appease the Church, issued a directive that the Off-Track Betting parlours (OTBs) would not be allowed to open on the day.

With the OTBs accounting for 70 per cent of CTL's sales on local racing, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for CTL to make a profit on the meets, despite the large crowds.

For the upcoming Sunday meet, Armond said CTL will have to cut overheads. In this vein, he said the races being offered will be geared more towards the lower classes, rather than having open or overnight allowance races where purses are in excess of $700,000.

He added that other strategies are being considered to make it a successful race meet.

- O.C.