Jimmie says | Caymanas’ idle lands a gold mine

North American horse racing’s voracious appetite for casino money to pay purses was dealt a gut punch in Florida last Wednesday. The state’s legislators approved three gambling measures that will render its two remaining thoroughbred tracks, Tampa Bay Downs and Gulfstream Park, at a severe disadvantage of competing with gaming operations at other facilities.

Legislators approved a 30-year ‘compact’ between Governor Ron DeSantis and the Seminoles, not only giving the tribe a monopoly on sports betting, but also permitting the addition of three new casinos on the site of their existing Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, an approximate 15-minute ride north of Gulfstream Park.

With the state set to pocket US$500 million (J$74.6 billion) a year from the deal for the next five years, the bill was easily passed, 38-1 in the Senate and 97-17 in the House.

This has left Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay dreading the worst, with revenue from slots operations to purses being approximately 20 per cent. Gulfstream Park’s slots contribute about US$6 million (J$896 million) annually to purses, which will take a hit from a more profitable competition with the tax rate on its casino operations at 35 per cent as opposed to the Seminoles’ 12.5 per cent.

In addition, horsemen receive about US$9 million (J$1.3 billion) annually from the Calder Casino. However, Churchill Downs Inc (CDI), owner of Calder, has approval to maintain its casino operations but end live racing at the track, which has, in recent years, been operated on lease by Gulfstream Park as Gulfstream Park West.

In a Paulick Report article, Stephen Screnci, president of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said he has had talks with Bill Carstanjen, chief executive officer of CDI, “about the company continuing to contribute to purses since horsemen were instrumental in Calder getting its casino licence”.

This sounds a lot like grovelling, begging a bye to stay alive.

The article ended: ‘His (Screnci) fear is that with Calder no longer an option as a racetrack and purse revenue expected to decline, Gulfstream Park will have to cut racing dates. “We can only go so low (on purses),” he said. “If we lose too many racing days, the lure of year-round racing goes away. That’s one way we’ve managed to keep stables here in October and November, by racing so many days.”’

In a Gleaner article from October 2015, ‘Divestment running on a wet track’, explaining the horse racing-casino business model that keeps North American racing alive and warning that “… a multitude of factors are against Caymanas Park being a viable entity without purse subsidies”, it was posited that “… if Caymanas Park is successfully divested by the Government of Jamaica, the viability of local horse racing might very well be shakily hinged on a tote monopoly and/or subsidies from any other businesses implemented by the new operator of the 196-acre plant”.

Almost six and a half years later, four years post-divestment, the howl from horsemen is the need for a purse increase. Of course, the promoting company has asked the pertinent question: From whence?

However, had ‘the bravest man in the room’, Audley Shaw’s description of Paul Hoo, not been won over by the ‘tweaking’ solution of the Messiah he had brought back to ‘save’ local racing, the impractical belief that the business could pay its way on horse-racing revenues would have been a non-starter and the divestment negotiations a horse of a different colour.

Rival bidder, Richard Lake and company, at least had a fair enough idea that sales at the tote alone wouldn’t have cut it. However, their idea of transforming Caymanas Park into some sort of entertainment centre with night-life activities, gaming rooms, etcetera, with all respects, was also off the mark.

PORTMORE AS AN ‘ENTERTAINMENT’ SPOT

Though Portmore may be the biggest community in the Caribbean, now accessible by toll roads and a widened Washington Boulevard-Ferry corridor, the Sunshine City, bar the Cactus Nightclub, Hellshire or Fort Clarence Beach, has never been an entertainment or leisure pull for Corporate Area residents, not to mention its more affluent, who will not drive past similar set-ups at Barbican, Manor Park, Liguanea, New Kingston and its outskirts, and head for Independence City.

Of course there would be a novelty period, but it would have died, poof, similar to gaming lounges, which once existed at the Portmore Mall, May Pen, and of all places, believe it or not, Montego Bay’s Hip Strip.

Portmore’s gold is its population (hello, that’s why the causeway was tolled) and scarce commercial space.

Caymanas Park has a huge parking lot and idle acreage nearby, the most obvious stretching from the quarantine barn to Valbert Marlowe’s old stable, which ought to be relocated, making way for a second entrance, or exit, to what should be an array of commercial businesses paying top dollar for rental and access to the Caribbean’s biggest community.

Similarly, acreage from the Meadowvale entrance, leading to the grandstand, ought to be sectioned off and developed, taking advantage of dwindling commercial real estate. Therein lies the source of not only a purse subsidy but also funds to help maintain the property and operations overall.

Next week’s focus will be on the stable area and why the promoting company should have never accepted paying accommodations, utilities, and sanitation disposal for private horse owners.

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.