The following is a statement issued by the Chairman of the Jamaica Racing Commission on the decision of the stewards to disqualify the winner of the second race, Tekapunt, the protest which followed, and the abandonment of seven races.
“The Jamaica Racing Commission strives to provide world class horse racing regulation to our stakeholders and in particular our betting public, the industry's most valued customer. Coming out of an incident in today's 2nd race that occurred on our Heroes Day race meeting, we note that the punters and racing partners would have faced inconveniences and therefore were disgruntled with the panel of stewards’ decision regarding disqualification in the said Race number 2.
The panel of stewards after review, saw where there was interference and intimidation and as such the winner of the race was disqualified.
This resulted in an extended impasse between the punters, SVREL and Stewards, due to the throwing of garbage and objects towards the stewards’ room, stands, jockeys and other racing personnel.
Due to the increased uproar and Lasix timelines with the delay, the Racing Promoter recommended to the Stewards that the remaining races on the card be abandoned.
This incident will be investigated by the Board of Commissioners and we await the fulsome reports from the officiating Stewards.
We sincerely regret the inconveniences and frustration that the abandonment of the remaining races may have caused and empathize with all Stakeholders especially the Promoters, Owners, Trainers, Jockeys and Grooms for the negative economic impact. We must at all times remember that there is a process and the Commission encourages appeals for any matter that occurs from a race day decision. Today's incident is no different as we are committed to ensuring fairness and equity at all times.”
One Response
The decision should be reverse and the race be good Ben to the winner and Walker be penalized for coming over on Sam horse