Victorious Jockey Mensah appeals to Govt, Corporate bodies
Jockey Jonathan Mensah has appealed to the Ministry of Youth and Sports and corporate bodies to help develop and promote horse racing in the country.
Advertisement
This, he said will not only create employment opportunities for the youth but will help them desist from engaging in social vices.
Jockey Mensah, currently placed second on the jockeys championship chart, made the appeal last Saturday after he rode Mercedes to finish tops in the Novices category on the first day of the Easter Race Meetings held at the Accra Turf Club at Borteman near the University of Ghana Farms.
“We travel all the way from Nima, Labadi, Achimota, Dansoman and other places to participate in these competitions because this is the only thing that keeps us going but unfortunately we don’t get the necessary rewards because there are no sponsors”, he cried.
“Our seniors have told us how this sport opened doors for them in the past so we were very happy when the organisers revived it last year but so far we are not seeing any improvement so if the ministry or other companies will come on board to sponsor the competitions it will help us a lot”, he added.
The Novices event saw Jonathan Mensah and favourite horse, Mercedes beat competition from other seven contenders to win the ultimate in a time of 2:07 minutes over a distance of 1,000 metres (five furlongs) to go home with the bragging rights.
Mercedes, who had a good start opened a gap of about 600 metres, leaving behind Sweet MOrinus (Benjamin Kotey), Omo (E.A Dery) and Bushon (Eben Charwey) who came second, third and fourth respectively.
In the Division 3B event, Who Is Free, ridden by Charles Ampah, finished first in a time of 1:28 seconds over a distance of 1,200 metres (six furlongs), while Sea Never Dry (S.T. Madu) and Nine Eleven (Joseph Lamptey) took the second and third positions, in that order.
Jockey Joseph Lamptey led Mr K to win the Division 3A competition after finishing with a time of 2:08 seconds in a distance of 1,200 metres, while contenders General Salute (David Tetteh) and Die Hard (J. Mensah) were first and second runners-up respectively.
