KINGSTON, Jamaica - Much, and rightly so, is made of the increased sponsorship of the Mouttet Mile to be staged on the first Saturday in December for a record total purse of US$250,000.
Already certain eligibility criteria for entry are being proposed including mandatory access for horses winning certain stipulated higher-category events.
This writer has no objection to this as one method, however, a fairer approach is to establish handicap rating for local and overseas classification to ensure that at the appropriate time the best horses in training are invited to compete with the handicap form of the runners equalized.
The six-length victory of superior Rough Entry (USA), unraced in Jamaica before winning the race last December, is an indication that the criterion of merely highest stakes earners requires a debate.
By way of a suggestion, the offer of US$150,000 purse for last year is adequate and the US$100,000 increase may have been utilized better if an additional race day and a race, restricted horses bred locally over a different distance, was an offer.
On another matter, except where the use of a whip is deployed in a manner to hurt a horse, the Gazetted stipulations restricting a jockey to a prescribed number of strokes during a race is hardly enforceable as a matter of practicality and should be revisited.
Note also there is an unspecified number of lengths clear a horse leading or one in the rear should be exempted from being whipped. There needs to be specificity here as there is a variety of responses and reactions by horses to use of the whip. Interestingly, except where the permission of the Operations Stewards is sought and granted, also Gazetted is a directive a race should have an actual off-time of no more than five minutes later than the programmed post time.
Still on yet another matter also Gazetted; against the background of an ever-reducing horse population, to restrict the annual importation of gelded horses to 10 and not older than five years was a reasonable time-honoured protectionist move in favour of the local breeding industry, but the timing is now questionable.
Surely a more viable option would have been to abandon restrictions as of now and then going forward conduct a seasonal review of the numbers.
One Response
Great point ,That 100,000$ should put towards another race
Like a Fillies& mare mile R a sprint
Too much money for one race