KINGSTON, Jamaica - The regulatory agency for horse racing, the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) has officially gazetted new changes to the Rules of Racing, with effect as at April 1, 2024.
One of the amendments is Rule 44, which concerns the starting time of races.
The amended as gazetted is as follows:
Rule 44 of the Racing Rules 1977 as amended is further amended by adding after Rule 44(iii) a new subsection/Rule 44(iii)A which reads as follows:—
Save and except as permitted by the Stewards in the exercise of their discretion, under no circumstances shall a race start more than five (5) minutes after the published post time. Failure to comply with this rule will result in the automatic abandonment of the delayed race/s.
This amendment to Rule 44, means that once a post-time for a race is made official, for example, 12:40 pm, that race can be abandoned by the race day stewards if the starter does not press the start button within five minutes after the published post-time.
There is, however, a caveat, as the race day stewards can due to circumstances they deem fit can allow a race to start more than five minutes after the listed post-time.
Quickgallopja.com invites readers to share their views by commenting on this rule amendment by the JRC.
4 Responses
It’s is embarrassing. Why does it take so long to get this rule in place. Why publish a post time if the race gonna start 45mins after. This is really embarrassing.
Thanks for your comment.
Really like they going 2 enforce it
The fields R already Small give me a break
this is a simple fix,horses get to the gate on time,affix a clock to the gate with a countdown timer,not much parading behind the gate,trouble horses must be deemed a priority to load by discretion of the starter,great rule change..