Thank God for that!
That's how Christopher Armond, chief executive officer of the Arima Race Club responded to the decision by automobile giant Toyota T&T Limited (TTTL) to return as a sponsor of local racing.
At a media conference held at the Toyota's suite at the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, yesterday the company announced its $250,000 sponsorship of Toyota President's Cup over 1900 metres which is open to all horses and held on Emancipation Day. The first prize is $150,000, however.
The remainder of its allocation will go to the Lexus T&T Breeders Classic with a distance of 1800 metres and held exclusive to locally bred horses.
That purse is valued at $500,000 and will be jointly sponsored by the Betting Levy Board.
Armond said before Toyota bowed out of racing the company was a part sponsor of the ARC's Caribbean Nations Challenge Race Day which was held in December.
"Emancipation Day last year did not really have a sponsor, but the Betting Levy Board (BLB) in an effort to increase the breeding industry in T&T came up with the idea of running this race the T&T Breeders Classic for T&T bred horses only and they contributed the entire purse of $500,000. We were able to work with the BLB to allow Toyota to come in this year, as a part sponsor for the BLB to divert funds that were normally earmarked for this race and two other races on the calendar," Armond said.
He added: "We have good three-year-olds in this country. When you have races of this value especially and you have people going to a yearling sale here, they will be buying a horse in a yearling sale with knowing that the big money race is there. Without that the sale price of horses may go down. A racing programme is not just written to have races run on a given day. Your races must be written to support your local breeding industry. It's a big fillip for the BLB to come last year and for Toyota to support it this year."
Lamenting that the breeding industry in T&T is not as good as it was ten years ago, in terms of the number of horses that are bred, Armond said the BLB the initiative will reap benefits, but not until the next three years, as breeders now know they can get a better price for their horses having a race like this on the calendar.
Sean Shaffie, marketing officer at Toyota T&T Limited said its return was a direct result of the ARC's decision to reorganise its operations and show an ability to bring back races to the glory days.
"They have proposed to us mechanisms by which they can do that and they asked for us to support them in various ways. They were given a mandate, a term of reference by which they had to comply to convince us that together we can do this. Our board got together and saw the proposal and saw the thing was looking good and we could actually play a significant role in bring back races to the way it was on Emancipation Day which is very important in terms of our heritage."
Toyota President's Cup Card
Post Positions Horse
1 Big Ting (T&T)
2 Read Between D Lines (USA)
3 Golden Dixieland (USA)
4 Galveston (T&T)
5 Lang Amour (USA)
6 Buffalo Soldier (USA)
7 Nominee (USA)
8 Gabby's Gold (USA)
9 Free Passage (Jam)
10 Sacred Trust (USA)
11 Silver Leo (USA)
12 Secret American (USA)
Lexus T&T Breeders Classic
1 Sweet Genius
2 After The Books
3 Brash N Willing
4 Settle D Score
5 Gold Coin
6 Chase The Dragon
7 Ready For the World
8 Honour Roll
9 Gold Rush
10 Pot of Gold