Foreign imports a shot in the arm but … Space needed for local horses to develop

As at Saturday, May 10, almost half-way through the year, were the Mouttet Mile to be run next week, and the allotted six ‘foreign’ entries filled, only three local-bred runners - MONEY MARKET, ZULU WARRIOR and DON KWESI - would have made the cut based on the new points system to earn a starting post in the US$300,000 event.

The top six spots are occupied by United States-bred runners, led by defending champion RIDEALLDAY, who won the first win-and-you’re-in race, April’s Ian Levy Cup, which, truth be told, is a tad too early for the winner to be assigned as automatic-entry for an event being run in December.

However, that should correct itself next season with the appropriate amendment. Ideally, no Mouttet Mile win-and-you’re-in should be run before summer, June onwards, ruling out the possibility of any such qualifier, absent from the races with a mid-season injury or setback, yet hogging a gate at the expense of sounder horses, who would have been next in line on points.

The best thing to have happened, as it relates to the new points system, is the declassification of three-year-old classic races as win-and-you’re-ins.

First, all three-year-old classics, bar the 1000 and 2000 Guineas, are at distances in excess of a mile, putting average local-breds at a severe disadvantage against older and far more experienced imported runners, who would have been campaigning in grade-one races for possibly two years, not to mention foreigners shipping in as overseas winners.

Not since Atomica, the 2022 Jamaica Derby winner, has another three-year-old classic winner made grade one, coinciding with the surge of foreigners being imported for the Mouttet Mile, which was first won by Excessive Force followed by Rough Entry, FUNCAANDUN, and RIDEALLDAY.

Domination of top-class races by foreigners is not confined to grade one, extending its tentacles to as low as overnight allowance, the level to which three-year-old classic winners graduate, making it rather tough for the local-breds to compete.

Classic winners also struggle in restricted overnight-allowance events, races for horses who have never won at the level, considering imported three-year-old maidens are allowed to race against native non-winners of two races, some running up a sequence of victories before reaching grade one.

In a classic case of you-can’t-have-your-cake-and-eat-it, the top classes being replenished by foreigners, drawn by the lure of the Mouttet Mile purse, was exactly the kick the local industry needed.

However, a balance must be struck in the form of a race that rewards and incentivises the local breeding industry, a rich event restricted to local-breds, preferably run in November at a mile after August’s Jamaica Derby.

This is where the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica, whose annual sale is traditionally held that same month, should be focusing its attention, making such an event a reality, seeking sponsorship and collaborating with promoter Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited.

Whereas imported runners are key to resuscitating the top classes, local-breds must also be similarly incentivised, which can only happen by way of a race pitting the best of generations against each other, similar to the discontinued Superstakes.