Cadiz to mediate as chairmen fight over horse race
THE racing industry has been thrown into turmoil as the chairmen of the Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority and the Betting Levy Board have clashed over the dope test result of last December’s Gold Cup winner Boogie Blues, owned by the authority’s chairman, Derek Chin (see page 21).
The TTRA is the regulatory board for horseracing, while the BLB funds the industry.
Trade and Industry Minister Stephen Cadiz will be asked to intervene in the battle with the two top racing officials.
Chin has launched a scathing attack on BLB chairman Kama Maharaj for comments he made in an interview with a daily newspaper in an article on Monday headlined “Dispute over Boogie Blues’ victory” for saying that there are no threshold “levels” in local racing and that the original report from Iowa State University laboratory stated that Boogie Blues’ urine sample (which was tested “suspicious positive”) was in fact a positive test.
Maharaj, a former Arima Race Club (ARC) president, said in the article that the club mistakenly paid out the Boxing Day stakes because the TTRA submitted a supplemental final report with a cover letter stating all samples were negative and not the actual final report from the testing lab.
The TTRA chairman criticised Maharaj, saying that he should not have attacked him and, however, commented on the issue since he was aware that an inquiry would be held.
“He wants to be judge, jury and executioner,” Chin said in an interview.
The TTRA chairman is accusing Maharaj of breaching the rules of confidentiality and attacking a chairman of another board.
Chin said he is dispatching a letter to Cadiz about the attacks the BLB chairman made on him in the daily newspaper.
“He (Kama) has no ethics and no morals that is the reason why I had opposed his appointment as chairman of the BLB and I told the minister why I did not want him in the first place,” the TTRA chairman said.
He claimed that the BLB is refusing to honour a contract to pay his technical adviser, Jamaican Chris Armond, which was agreed to seven months ago.
But Maharaj has countered, saying that he was simply responding to a question by a reporter, who indicated that the sample came back with a trace of a prohibited substance.
“As the former president of the ARC, I am aware that the lab does not do quantitative testing and the report was either negative or positive,” he said.
“All I said to the reporter, who called me, were the facts.”
“I find Chin’s reaction bizarre because the article also quoted a former TTRA chairman who stated the same facts and even went to further to explain,” Maharaj said.
Maharaj was due to meet with Cadiz on Wednesday to discuss matters of the BLB and also clear the air on the comments he made about the controversial dope test result.
On the question of Armond’s salary, Maharaj said there is no signed contract and the BLB is seeking clarification from the TTRA.
