Jimmie says | Local racing shoots itself in the foot

HORSE racing is the second-most popular spectator sport in the United Kingdom, coming only behind football. According to industry surveys, approximately six million people attend the races each year in Britain alone, with 40 per cent of the attendees being women - www.racingexplained.co.uk.

For various reasons, Caymanas Park might be way off offering “restaurants, bars, tearooms, and event spaces, making them the perfect place to socialise with friends and enjoy a day out in between the action”, but in an age of technology, there is absolutely no excuse for local racing to remain stuck in a certain demographic – mid-age to senior males, the youngest being, on average, upwards of 30 years old.

Females at Caymanas Park, its Off-Track Betting (OTB) parlours and bookmakers’ shops, are cashiers, who themselves know next to nothing about the horses or sport on which they monotonously punch bets into the system for male punters.

Despite the millions up for grabs in Caymanas Park bets such as the Pick 4, Pick 5, Pick-6, Pick 9, and Placepot 8, even the mostly all-female cashiers cast pays scant regard to jackpots that could forever change their lives. Yet many play the lotteries on offer at the race track, hoping to randomly strike it rich in games based purely on chance.

The cashiers at Caymanas Park represent a microcosm of Jamaican females who are almost on par with the number of males, young and old, observed patiently standing in lottery lines all over the country, oblivious to millions that can be won wagering on jackpot-style horse-racing bets.

The first turn-off wagering on horse racing presents to potential female bettors is having to enter an OTB or betting shop packed with males, who observe no form of courtesy as it relates to waiting in line or simply conducting themselves in a manner inviting of newcomers.

However, these same males patiently await their turn in the lottery lines in the company of women, primarily because they are not rushing to wager race-by-race as they do at Caymanas Park or OTBs.

INTIMIDATORY SYSTEM

Second on the list of turn-offs for potential new bettors, not to mention women, is the intimidatory system of horse racing Jamaica adopted in 1993 from North America – claiming and conditions - ditching the UK’s rating and handicapping, a simple and straightforward process of classes A, B, C, D, E, and F in which horses carrying the heaviest weights are deemed those most likely to win.

A Newsweek article of August 2016 noted: “ … only one per cent of Americans listed horse racing as their favourite sport. It ranked as the 13th most popular sport, just behind swimming and track and field.”

Operating North America’s system of claiming and condition races requires every potential bettor to become an in-depth follower of horse racing, minus the aid of a team of handicappers, whose job, under the UK’s rating/handicapping system is to allot equitable weight to horses of similar ability, technically helping punters to wager by doing the legwork of assessing horses’ form and other variances involved in selecting winners.

What if the regulations were amended to allow lottery outlets to sell Caymanas Park million-dollar bets such as the Pick 4, Pick 5, Pick-6, Pick 9, and Placepot 8, exposing them to a new market of women bettors and a younger demographic overall?

What if scanning a race programme immediately assists this new market of women bettors and younger demographic, who would identify that the heavier horses in each race are deemed those with the best chances of winning as allotted by the handicapping team?

Though there are other nuances involved in selecting winners, rating and handicapping does 90 per cent of the legwork, the other 10 per cent is nothing compared to asking potential new bettors to possess the skill required to navigate claiming and conditions.

The third fallacy that needs to be removed from local racing, which North America has sensibly resisted, is metrification of weights and distances. Which potential new bettor will bother to first study metrification of weights and distances, the two most important components of horse racing, to place a bet on a sport already convoluted by claiming and conditions?

If there was ever an industry that is being a hindrance to itself, local racing deserves a gold medal.

Ainsley ‘Jimmie’ Walters has been covering horse racing for more than 25 years for the Gleaner Company (Media) Limited and is the editorial and production coordinator for the Track And Pools race form.