The rating system in Trinidad and Tobago horse racing list 231 horses in training.
According to the list, there are 10 horses rated 100 and above; 8 horses rated 90 and above; 7 horses rated 80 and above; 8 horses rated 70 and above; 20 horses rated 60 and above; 38 horses rated 50 and above; 48 horses rated 40 and above; 57 horses rated 30 and above; 24 horses rated 20 and above and 11 horses rated 10 and above. The reality in the paddock however is radically different from what the current listing shows. Research with the relevant officials in the paddock suggests that there are really 214 horses currently in training.
This difference is primarily the results of poor administration by the Arima Race Club (ARC) since a cursory investigation of the list by anyone familiar with racing will indicate many horses that are known to have been retired or died, even if it did not clearly indicate those horses who because of injury are not currently in training.
The list of 214 horses does not take into consideration however those horses who are unable to race due to injury.
Of the actual horses in training, the breakdown is as follows.
There are nine horses rated 100 and above; 4 horses rated 90 and above; 4 horses rated 80 and above; 7 horses rated 70 and above; 19 horses rated 60 and above; 32 horses rated 50 and above; 46 horses rated 40 and above; 54 horses rated 30 and above; 23 horses rated 20 and above and 10 horses rated 10 and above.
These statistics still flatter the overall picture since many of the horses in the category of 80 and over are not currently available to take part in any framed races. As a result, and based on the robotic policy of promoting horses by 4+ points once they have won a race, it is only a matter of time until the higher echelons are filled by horses who really should be competing at much lower levels. In effect, what we are seeing is a dumbing down of the supposedly top-class racing.
With all due respect to the latest crop of locally bred horses, comparisons with locally bred horses of the past who may have succeeded against the top class animals are becoming increasingly irrelevant. When the majority of the field for the highest class events are dominated by the Caribbean bred horses, the race really becomes a glorified Caribbean bred horses stakes event.
This might be inevitable because of the decline of the sport in this country, and if that is the case, so be it, but we should not bury our head in the sand and seek to compare the performance of West Indian or locally bred horses in 2020 Open features with those of their counterparts in yesteryear.
This same analogy will be true of the Classics for three-year-old West Indian bred horses from 2020. Prior to the running of the Guineas on September 24th, the only allowance provided in the Classics was the sex allowance. From September 24, 2020, the native bred horses will receive an allowance of 3kg from their Jamaican bred contemporaries.
The argument apparently put forward is that the Jamaican bred horses were dominating the Trinidad Classics and so this adjustment was meant to balance the scale. The argument about dominance is irrefutable, but whether the solution was the one proposed is not the objective at this point. The point is that going forward we will no longer be able to compare the performance of locally bred horses in the Classic with those of locally bred stars of the past.
Up to 2019, those horses had to compete on level terms with the Jamaican bred, from now on, there will be the 3kg allowance.
The points made above are intended to highlight a contradiction in the sport at present. The number of imported horses from North America have greatly reduced (if not disappeared altogether), leaving most of our imported horses to come from Jamaica.
This may soon dry up as well given the possible disparity in prize money and high cost of travel. Because of the dearth of horses in the higher rating bands, very few races are framed for these animals and increasingly, those races are being populated by the West Indian bred horses.
The most competitive rating band at present takes place in races involving horses with ratings between 50 and 70. Horses promoted out of that band, suddenly find themselves with a reduction in racing opportunities and/or are outclassed when racing in the higher levels (of course as indicated before, this will resolve itself over time as the higher classes end up being populated solely by these horses).
A possible solution could be to abolish the system of automatic point raises for victory and replace a weight penalty for horses who are victorious but really do not need to be promoted, for example, a horse who wins a maiden at its 20th attempt.
For the truly competitive class, the horses rated between 50 and 70, don’t schedule races on alternate race days, that is, 60 to 45 on one day, and 70 to 55 on another.
There are 51 horses rated between 50 and 70; our modified handicapping approach allows horses with ratings within 3 points of those bands to compete in the event so it means there are another 15 horses actually in training who can compete in these events bringing the total to 66 horses. Those represent enough horses for the ARC to successfully frame two races each race day for this class over a variety of surfaces and distances.
The objective is betting turnover and accepting the reality of where the competition exists would go a long way to enabling the Club to earn a better income from the races staged.