Court action brewing as horseracing troubles deepened in Guyana

Apr 21, 2024 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, Sports

By Samuel Whyte

Kaieteur Sports – Whilst some are of the view that the Horseracing situation is getting better in Guyana, the vast majority of Guyanese and fans holds an opposing view.

Case in points is the latest upheavals that occurred at the latest horseracing meeting held recently at Port Mourant. As was said before, as Journalists, our job is not to go after anybody, but to present facts and ask questions and seek answers so as to inform persons what is happening in different spheres of life.

Some might like what you write whilst others may not, especially if it fits into what they like or dislike. Although so much was written before pointing out the many shortcomings and the do’s and don’ts of horse racing in Guyana, things seems to be going further south.

After doing some inquiries and cross checking a few things came up. It was noticed that horseracing promoters are now running off their meetings under the drafted Rules of the Guyana Horse Racing Authority, although there is not GHRA in place, except the Kennard Memorial Turf Club (KMTC). According to Matriarch Mrs. Chan Kennard, she is using rules of the KMTC since there is not a GHRA in place.

A question to ask is, doesn’t this GHRA Rules originate from the Demerara Turf Club (DTC) legislation which has been amended over the years. From what I gathered is that the DTC rules is the only legal document available coming out from an Act of Parliament. So any changes of rules have to be by an act of parliament and in the meantime those rules Stands.

You cannot have two set of rules governing the one sport. The issue of the passage of legislation seems to be, is the distance since there are still a lot of work to be done.

Things are not nice and apart from money making, chaos continues to be the order of the day with persons imposing themselves as those in authority.

Some questions being asked is, could someone in authority says who the current members of the GHRA is? Who represents the various race tracks, horse owners, jockeys, trainers, grooms etc.?

From my recollection there were representatives in place, were they voted out or replaced and by what authority? Could those minutes of the respective meeting be made available?

It was also learnt that late stalwarts like Senior Council Marcel Crawford, Justice Cecil Kennard and Insanally Habibulla among others had registered certain information at the Supreme Courts of Guyana. Those cannot be changed and are there for all to peruse.

There are rules that covers the categories and class that North American and West Indian bred horses can race in and not the haphazard arrangements that entails today. Those arrangements helped the local breeding industry in the past.

Who made those changes and can someone make the documents authorizing those changes available?

How could imported horses be running in races drawn up for locally bred horses” What could happen, is that there could be races for imported horses only in the various classes. The locally bred horses could have an option to run with them.

The country is supposed to be heading for new legislations, only supposed. However, with the up and down nature of the sport in Guyana the latest word that Litigation is ominous. A number of prominent personalities are consulting legal authority to move to Court shortly if things do not improve to ask the court to determine the way forward.

Demerara Turf Club (DTC), Guyana, horseracing, Port Mourant, Situation

Latest News