Solomon Sharpe, govt chair of Caymanas Park in Kingston, Jamaica, is a third-generation horseman whose ardour for the game is matched solely by his ardour for its enterprise facet. When the monitor opened in 1959, Sharpe’s father was an assistant coach, making the success of horse racing on the island private.Â
After graduating from Tiffin College in Ohio with a level in enterprise administration with an emphasis on advertising and marketing and sports activities administration, Sharpe returned dwelling. Now 55, Sharpe was employed by monitor homeowners Supreme Ventures Racing and Leisure, which took over administration of the monitor from the federal government in 2017.
“We knew we needed to do one thing totally different, to alter the entire feel and appear of the product, and to deliver the product right into a modern-day and actually join on a world scale,” he mentioned.Â
However the adjustments did not cease there. Below Sharpe’s management, Caymanas Park added new video boards, expanded its betting menus, cast relationships with AmTote and the New York Racing Affiliation, and continues to push ahead with different upgrades.Â
Excessive on Sharpe’s to-do listing are lights and a turf monitor. Join BloodHorse Each day
“It is not low cost to construct a grass monitor proper now. We’re sitting on a water desk, so water is simple to get to. It will be simple to irrigate the racetrack as a result of proper now we have now two wells on the monitor that assist us. … I informed (SVRE) that if I get lights and if I get a grass monitor, it’ll considerably change the entire recreation, as a result of I can now import all of the animals that they’d like.”
With Caymanas Park having lately hosted the $250,000 Mouttet Mile, Sharpe has his sights on rising its largest racing weekend into one with worldwide attraction.Â
BloodHorse: With a handbag of $250,000 for the Mouttet Mile, that is going to catch lots of people’s consideration.
Picture: Courtesy Grapevine MarketingCaymanas Park CEO Solomon Sharpe is interviewed by Fox Sports activities’Â Acacia Clement on Mouttet Mile Day 2024
Solomon Sharpe: We needed to stimulate this entire trade, to revive it, to get again to the glory days. … We expect that we are able to make Caymanas Park a world playground for races. The entire vibe and the thrill of at this time has gone additional afield. It is not simply an thrilling race for the people who find themselves serious about horse races, as a result of now it is grow to be a very thrilling occasion for folks, for non-horse racing folks. And if you are going to develop any sport, and if you are going to develop any product, you’ll be able to’t look to your conventional viewers to repeatedly get assist.
BH: You wish to be extra concerned within the international horse racing panorama. The place do you see Jamaica in that panorama say, 5 years from now? Ten years from now?
SS: I might like to go additional afield and never simply companion with NYRA, but additionally companion with Hong Kong Jockey Membership and UK Tote, and produce (the Mouttet Mile) to being a very international occasion. In 5 years, I might love to have the ability to implement a grass monitor, and in 5 years, if we have now a grass monitor, then it opens us as much as extra international participation, not simply on the grime monitor that we have now, and we have now a really good grime monitor with that. We use dune sand. The entire foreigners that come right here completely love our racing floor, however we wish to be extra dynamic with the product. So we would like to have lights. We might like to have grass, then a Mouttet Mile (day) would have at the least 30 to 40 non-public jets on the tarmac on the airport—a actual international playground. Now we have nice climate proper now. While you take a look at three-quarters of America proper now, they’re freezing. If you happen to take a look at 90% of Canada, they’re freezing over. In Europe, it is fairly chilly. So Jamaica, presently of the yr is a superb place to be.
We wish to be like the entire international locations the place it is an actual enjoyable weekend, at the least one nice race day, perhaps two. … After which it should assist with our distribution of our betting platforms, and it’ll improve betting on our betting platforms, we are able to improve from 80 days (of racing) to we expect 100 days per yr. Now we have the area for it on the property. Now we have below 96 acres.
When we have now extra international liquidity going by way of the totes on our totally different platforms, then we’ll be capable to present extra purses and higher purses, and progressively develop the game. On race days, we’re averaging about 9.5 starters per race, give or take. As soon as we do this, our subject dimension can be nice for international betting. That can be nice for native betting. Then on that day, that huge international day, we’re most likely going to be operating for a complete of 1,000,000 {dollars} U.S. We’re most likely going to have perhaps a few $300,000 races. And considered one of today, perhaps one for $500,000, and we expect that we are able to get there.
BH: You’ve got mentioned there have been points rising the game domestically however as soon as these points have been examined, the trade moved shortly. Are you able to discuss what these steps have been and the way you have been capable of flip issues round, to get yourselves on the trajectory that you just’re on now?
Picture: Courtesy Grapevine MarketingCaymanas Park CEO Solomon Sharpe with followers on Mouttet Mile day 2024
SS: That wasn’t simple, as a result of so that you can flip round one thing, you nearly must have radical change, and you need to problem the established order. … On the time after I took over, (Caymanas Park) was 60 years previous, and I needed to strip it right down to billboards, figuratively. Generally I felt that I used to be actually doing that, as a result of in horse racing we’re huge on custom and really afraid of change. However I noticed that for us to suit into the worldwide market, we needed to make the adjustments, and we needed to begin to talk in a complete totally different means. We needed to begin altering how we function. … As soon as we took that strategy, and I wrote a marketing strategy for the enterprise in 2019 and I offered it in early 2020, just for COVID to return in the way in which. Nevertheless, the marketing strategy spoke about agility. The marketing strategy spoke about being nimble.
BH: You talked about wanting to show this occasion and the monitor into a world playground. While you accomplish this, it’ll imply loads to extra than simply the racing trade. It will have a better influence on all the Kingston group, will not it?
SS: It will have an incredible influence on all the Jamaican group. So we’re going to have the ability to market Jamaica to the worldwide viewers that can be watching us. That is primary. As a result of should you even get 10,000 folks coming, flying in for the occasion, you are going to have 300,000 folks watching, and people folks watching can be as impacted because the folks on the bottom. Even when we do not get these folks for that weekend, we’d get them the weekend after the week and after, so it’ll be an incredible recruitment product. Anyone who would have come right here goes to inform you concerning the time they’ve had. … It is not simply concerning the racetrack, however we have now a wealthy cultural historical past in Jamaica that this playground goes to be needed available with wives and households. Now we have seashores in Kingston, and if I’ll drive an hour and a half to a racetrack, which lots of people must drive to the Kentucky Derby, to the Breeders’ Cup in Santa Anita Park, to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, there’s an airport in Montego Bay. We do not simply wish to fill the motels in Kingston, we wish to fill the motels alongside the coast, the place they’re leaping right into a bus they usually’re coming in numbers just like what you see in any respect the worldwide occasions. … We would like our occasion greater than the Pegasus someday.
