Horse racing action for this weekend has been cancelled due to the insufficient number of horses entered
The second meet of the 2024 horse-racing season, which was scheduled to be run off on Sunday, January 28 at the Rising Sun Turf Club (RSTC), has been cancelled because an insufficient number of horses has entered.
Promoter Fazal Habibulla has said, “I have to apologise to owners, trainers, and sponsors for the cancellation of Sunday’s seven-race card because of insufficient entries. RSTC had extended the entry date from Sunday 21st January to yesterday, but the extension failed to gain the required result. As such, we were forced to cancel the card.”
Habibulla explained, “This card was written based on requests, and condemnation that promoters are not writing sufficient races for the Guyana-bred horses. RSTC decided to listen to the horsemen’s cry, and wrote races to facilitate them. For example, RSTC wrote a race for three-year-old Guyana-bred horses (zero entry), a race for four-year-old Guyana-bred (four horses were entered), a K-Class race for Guyana-bred horses (four horses). While the feature race only attracted four runners, the West Indian-bred four-year-old only attracted three runners.”
Habibulla continued, “It will be unfair to patrons to stage a four-race card and charge any fees to enter. So, in the best interest of all, RSTC took the decision to cancel the day’s card. May I also point out (that) this card was advertised very early this month? Would you believe we had to extend the entry date to encourage trainers to enter their horses? This will stop; we are heading towards a regulated industry and we have to get ready. There will not be any late entry or entry on the day of racing anymore, so promoters will be doing their part to get all horsemen ready. Therefore, late entry and delayed entry will be history moving ahead.
“I have to thank owners, trainers, and most of all the new sponsors, who made it possible for RSTC to raise the purses in the lower-class races. Yet this was not taken advantage off by horsemen. So, as a promoter, you will be very disappointed, not because I have already lost money with the cancellation of the race card. To me, they have lost more than me, as the same persons who have been ‘swearing’ that we only writing races for the big owners have failed to answer to their cry. Races are written for them and they have not entered their horses. These are the challenges we encounter. As the saying goes: damned if you do and damned if you don’t. It will take time, but everybody will be on the same page, as promoters intend to enforce their entry date times”, Habibulla predicted.
The next race day will be on Sunday, February 25, at the RSTC at Rising Sun, West Coast Berbice, and entries will close on February 21, 2024, four days before the race day.
