… KMTC president Kennard disappointed

By Clifton Ross

TURFITES will endure a strange end to 2020 with their premier holiday event, the traditional Kennard’s Memorial Turf Club (KMTC) mega Boxing Day race being called off due to no permission given by the COVID-19 Task Force.

In an interview with Chronicle Sport on Friday, KMTC boss, retired Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Cecil Kennard, confirmed that the biggest horse meet event of the year and arguably one of the premier tournaments in the country’s history was forced to cancel its 2020 plans.

A disappointed Justice Kennard said that he supported the Task Force for properly assessing the pros and cons of possibly permitting the race; adding that the nature of the event makes it highly impossible to adhere to social-distancing guidelines.

Back in March, the annual Phagwah Day race was also postponed following the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak which inevitably led to lockdown on all sports as well as other social aspects of mingling.
The next proposed date which was also forced into cancellation was summer’s big race billed for August 4. However, similar to now no permission was given to any sport association to engage in live action, with horseracing again feeling the brunt of the blow.

Now with things 50 percent back to normal with regard to sports being played live again under strict COVID-19 mandates, the horse-racing community is still left wondering when some sort of permission will be given to resume races in the Ancient County of Berbice.

Justice Kennard was, however, in good spirits as he said that the safety of the jockeys as well as the horses remained the most integral part of preserving the fraternity during this period of uncertainty.

This blow will also have significant financial implications as Kennard, a few months back during the initial height of the pandemic, said it was hard on the horse-racing community as not too many of the horse owners and jockeys were wealthy and needed the occasional events to help generate income.

Meanwhile, Justice Kennard and KMTC had met with clubs Nand Persaud, Rising Sun, Port Mourant and others prior to lockdown and held regular talks on how to cope with COVID-19 and make plans going forward.