– No meetings for the past 10 months since Ouditt demitted office

CONSTANT bickering has left the Guyana Horse Racing Authority (GHRA) racing to a new low as executive members have not met to discuss GHRA’sbusiness for the past 10 months.
Vickram Ouditt, the last president of the GHRA told Chronicle Sport that he demitted office in February this year following the expiration of his term, but officials of that body say they have not been officially notified.
Ouditt was elected President of the horse racing body at the Annual General Meeting on February 9, 2014; and according to the GHRA, new elections are due every year.
However, Ouditt is claiming that after his term in office expired,he decided not to seek re-election to the top post, and as such he had informed some members of the racing authority of his decision.

To this end, acting secretary of the body, Chattergoon Ramnauth,told Chronicle Sport that Ouditt has never informed him as secretary or any other member of the authority of his decision.
“The fact is, we at the GHRA never had a meeting since February this year,” Ramnauth said. He added “Elections were supposed to be in February, but truly speaking I have no idea.In my opinion the GHRA is non-functional at this time because no meetings were held nor was there any form of discussion;be it oral or written”.

Ouditt, who replaced Justice Cecil Kennard as president, had faced a torrent of criticisms from the horsing racing fraternity ever since he was first elected president of the body, when the sport was resuscitated almost a decade ago.
Things went well for some time. However, because of the attitude of certain members of the authority,he did not seek re-election at election time.

Khemraj Rai succeeded him as president and carried on for about six months.
Unfortunately,differences arose between members of the authority. He resigned as he felt that he was not getting full support from some of the members;fter which Kennard was elected.

While the sport has become one of the major sporting disciplines locally, the backbiting within the body is one reason the sport has not been a bigger success story in Guyana.
The lack of adequate legislation is another reason the sport is not properly run.
Dubbed the ‘Sport of Kings’, horse racing, since its resuscitation locally, has been operating under a legal document that was registered under the miscellaneous Deeds Act.
But back in 2014, a key step to regularise the sport was taken when the then Legal Advisor to the Guyana Horse Racing Authority (GHRA), Rajendra Poonai, handed over a draft legislation on the sport to then Sports Minister Dr. Frank Anthony.

Nothing much was done by the previous administration with regards to the implementation of the legislation.
However, the present Government cannot escape their fair share of criticism since a copy of a horse racing legislation has been with the government for some time now.
In fact, an official from the GHRA has confirmed that the copy was handed over to the National Sport Commission late last year but remained sceptical about the status of the document.

Assistant Director of Sport,Brian Smith,confirmed that NSC had indeed received the document which was sent to the Attorney General Chambers.
The draft Guyana Horse Racing Authority Act which will allow the sport to run more effectively and to deal with violators includes:increasing the membership of the Racing Authority from nine to 15; including the Bush Lot United Turf Club as a member of the GHRA and implementing a two-year term for members of the Authority.
The legislation which was championed by former GHRA president Justice Cecil Kennard, will also give the GHRA the power to schedule race dates for race meetings in the event that a club is unable to run off a race meeting.