BY AINSLEY WALTERS, Staff reporter
DIXIE MILANO (left, Brian Harding) winning at odds of 13-1 in the fifth race on Wednesday. FOREVER SUNSHINE (right) was second. The Rashford Worrelll-trained six-year-old mare is owned by Gresford Smith. - IAN ALLEN
TOMORROW'S RACE MEET at Caymanas Park is in limbo. Paul Pancho, president of the grooms' association, con-firmed his members unan-imously voted yesterday to withdraw their services, showing their frustration at prolonged wage negotiations with the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers' Association (JRTA).
"The members have spoken and no groom will be leading any horse on Saturday," said Pancho, who has been lobbying for grooms to be paid $3,720 per horse and 40 per cent of that sum for each animal thereafter.
Grooms are paid $1,500 per horse by trainers, whose representative, Vincent Edwards, said his association had offered $300 more per horse and are unable to meet the demands unless promoting company Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) grant owners, their employers, a purse increase.
"They have the democratic right to strike but Mr. Pancho does not seem to understand the economic reality," Edwards replied when told of the grooms impending action.
Edwards said some trainers are already charging owners $600, 40 per cent below the required $1,000 per day as training fee, and could not afford what he described as a 175 per cent increase in grooms' wages.
CTL, seeking to be relieved of a three per cent tax on gross sales, which the promoting company said would enable it to provide a purse increase, is still awaiting word from junior finance minister Fitz Jackson, under whose portfolio horseracing falls.
Jackson had promised to present CTL and bookmakers with new proposals after both protested the gross sales tax but is yet to sit at the table with either.
Pancho said the minister, who had failed to respond to a letter from the grooms, apologised on Wednesday and asked for time to deal with the matter.
"He called but I told him we had a meeting on Thursday at which the members would decide what to do," said Pancho.
No comment was forthcoming from CTL as chairman William Chin-See was said to be off the island and chief executive officer Walford Brown was reportedly out of office for the remainder of this week.
Meanwhile, owners association president Laurence Heffes has appealed for a resolution.
"I believe the trainers should resolve the matter with the grooms, who should act in the best interest of racing," he said.
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