THE government through the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has announced that the long-awaited legislation to govern the sport of horse racing is expected to be tabled this year.

At his annual press conference, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson told the media that the government expects to have it tabled this year.

According to the minister, the government is hoping to have it tabled in the first quarter and later passed before the first half of the year.

“We are looking to lay this in the first quarter based on our parliamentary sessions because you know budget is going to be finished in the first week or so of February depending on when the sessions come and how soon we can meet. I would say the first half of 2024 and that should give us enough time to pass it.”

The government is looking to have this done before the largest horse racing event locally, the Guyana Cup which is set for August.

Horse owners and racing fans have been calling for legislation to govern the sport for several years now and no doubt will welcome this news.

Minister Ramson explained that the work behind the scenes to get the legislation was tedious.

“We’ve probably done maybe 14 meetings where we went through provision by provision, legislation in other countries, a full comparative analysis of what will work for us and it was a painstaking process.”

New legislation will factor in betting

A major factor that had to be worked on in depth was the area of betting; something that the stakeholders had agreed should be given primary focus.

“An important part [of the legislation] Is betting so we couldn’t ignore that part and it’s an important area for many countries to gain revenue,” Ramson said.