Kelvin 'N'

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Rac­ing Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA) head­ed by Dr David Kan­ga­loo had a tough time at their Spe­cial Board Meet­ing last Tues­day (Feb­ru­ary 15) in which they had to de­lib­er­ate on sev­er­al mat­ters be­fore it.

Among the mat­ters ad­dressed were the sus­pen­sion of for­mer Cham­pi­on jock­ey Prayven Badrie, who will be out of ac­tion from Feb­ru­ary 18th to March 25th 2022.

The mat­ter re­gard­ing the ap­pli­ca­tion for re­in­state­ment of Train­er’s Li­cence for Christo­pher Prime was ad­dressed and he was be re­in­stat­ed un­der the Train­er’s li­cence un­der stip­u­lat­ed con­di­tions.

Al­so, the meet­ing dis­cussed the With­draw­al of Prince George from Race 4/Day 6 held on March 27, 2021.

The meet­ing point­ed out that: Hav­ing con­sid­ered the ev­i­dence sub­mit­ted by Dil­lon Fer­min (Groom), Ryan Lal­la-Ma­hara­jh (Train­er), Dr Sasha Neckchud­dy (In­dus­try Vet­eri­nar­i­an), Richard Con­stan­tine (Groom) and Robert Lochan (Groom), the Board found that the treat­ment of Prince George by Fer­min may have caused the horse to be­have in a frac­tious man­ner, there­by caus­ing him to rear and fall in the Pa­rade Ring, which led to his with­draw­al from the race.

As such, pur­suant to Rule 8(4)(t) of the Rules of Rac­ing (2020) the Board has de­cid­ed to fine Fer­min the sum of Three Hun­dred and Fifty Dol­lars ($350.00). This sum is to be paid by Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 28, 2022. Fail­ure to pay said sum may re­sult in the sus­pen­sion of Fer­min’s li­cence.

The Board wished to urge Fer­min to be mind­ful that fol­low­ing the pas­sage of the An­i­mal (Dis­eases and Im­por­ta­tion) (Amend­ment) Bill, 2019, any­one found to be guilty of an­i­mal abuse and cru­el­ty, “com­mits an of­fence and is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine of Two Hun­dred Thou­sand dol­lars (TT$200,000.00) and im­pris­on­ment for a term of five years.”

Al­so, pur­suant to Rule 72(3) of the Rules of Rac­ing (2020), “No per­son shall act in a man­ner prej­u­di­cial to the in­tegri­ty, prop­er con­duct or good rep­u­ta­tion of horserac­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go whether or not such con­duct shall con­sti­tute a breach of any of the Rules of Rac­ing.”

With re­gards to Re­quest For En­quiry by Own­er Derek Joseph and train­er Har­ry Singh in­to the re­fusal of jock­ey Prayven Badrie to ride race­horse Zhil­iang on Box­ing Day - Day 13 - De­cem­ber 27th, 2021.

The meet­ing point­ed out that: "Hav­ing giv­en due con­sid­er­a­tion to the ev­i­dence pro­vid­ed at the en­quiry the Board found as fol­lows:- Prayven Badrie (Jock­ey) was de­clared to ride ‘ZHIL­IANG’ in Race 5/Day 13 of the 2021 rac­ing sea­son (Mon­day 27th De­cem­ber 2021) and he re­neged on this oblig­a­tion, with­out just cause. The Board not­ed that Badrie paid the One Hun­dred Dol­lar (TT$100) fine im­posed up­on him by the race day Stew­ards for the mat­ter, in keep­ing with Rule 51(6). How­ev­er, the Board al­so ad­vised that reneg­ing on a race and tak­ing up an­oth­er mount in the same race was un­eth­i­cal and very ir­re­spon­si­ble. This was a breach of Badrie’s con­tract with Har­ry Singh (Train­er), and by ex­ten­sion, Joseph, the own­er of ‘ZHIL­IANG’.

The Board cau­tioned Badrie that: "This type of be­hav­iour will not be tol­er­at­ed, as it sends the wrong mes­sage to the rac­ing in­dus­try, as well as, rac­ing en­thu­si­asts and it is in con­tra­ven­tion of Rules 72(3) of the Rules of Rac­ing (2020), “No per­son shall act in a man­ner prej­u­di­cial to the in­tegri­ty, prop­er con­duct or good rep­u­ta­tion of horserac­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go whether or not such con­duct shall con­sti­tute a breach of any of the Rules of Rac­ing.”

As such, pur­suant to Rule 72(5) of the Rules of Rac­ing (2020), the Board has agreed to sus­pend Badrie from race rid­ing for the pe­ri­od Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 18th 2022 to Fri­day, March 25th 2022. How­ev­er, Badree will be per­mit­ted to con­tin­ue ex­er­cis­ing hors­es. The fourth and fi­nal item on the agen­da fea­tured an en­quiry in­to jock­ey Ronald Ali's per­for­mance while aboard At­lanta in Race 5/Day 11 of the 2021 Rac­ing Sea­son on No­vem­ber 27th, 2021.

Hav­ing giv­en due con­sid­er­a­tion to the ev­i­dence pro­vid­ed at the en­quiry the Board found as fol­lows:-

The Board, af­ter an ex­ten­sive re­view of the race and hav­ing giv­en care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion to the ev­i­dence sub­mit­ted by Ronald Ali (Jock­ey) and Train­er Chester Roberts, found that Ali failed to take all rea­son­able mea­sures to en­sure that ‘Ata­lan­ta’ was giv­en the full op­por­tu­ni­ty to ob­tain the best plac­ing pos­si­ble in the race, in con­tra­ven­tion of Rule 53(2) of the Rules of Rac­ing (2020), “A jock­ey shall take all rea­son­able and per­mis­si­ble mea­sures through­out the race to en­sure that his horse was giv­en full op­por­tu­ni­ty to win or of ob­tain­ing the best pos­si­ble plac­ing.”

How­ev­er, the Board not­ed Ali’s mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors and found mer­it in his ac­tions/de­ci­sion. In light of his state­ment, there­fore, the Board opt­ed against tak­ing fur­ther ac­tion against Ali but rather wished to re­mind him of his oblig­a­tions and what he rep­re­sent­ed as a Jock­ey.

Ali was ad­vised to be ever mind­ful of the in­her­ent risk in­volved in his pro­fes­sion, re­gard­less of track con­di­tions.

The Board re­mind­ed Ali that he is a cham­pi­on and ex­pe­ri­enced Jock­ey and he rep­re­sent­ed the own­er and train­er of all the hors­es that he rides. Ali’s state­ment that he was con­cerned for the wel­fare of his charge, as well as him­self, giv­en the track con­di­tions, was not­ed. An­i­mal wel­fare is­sues are a grave con­cern to all. The Board ad­vised him that he must con­tin­ue to set a good ex­am­ple to the young Jock­eys who would re­gard him as a men­tor.

The Board is­sued a stern warn­ing to Ali that should there be a re-oc­cur­rence of a sim­i­lar na­ture, a more se­vere sanc­tion may be im­posed up­on him.