Sports Minister gallops to Lanka's Ascot

Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera who says that horse racing “can attract tourists” and “bring about clear investment benefits to state coffers – wants to give the Nuwara Eliya Race Course a new ‘lease’ of life.

He wants to charge only Rs 200,000 for the first year and negotiate a fee for the rest of the ten year lease he has proposed.

This race course now belongs to the Ministry of Sports. Its maintenance and management is vested in the Sugathadasa Sports Complex Authority. The Royal Turf Club, which entered into a lease, has been operating the race course since 2015 and on an extended agreement that is to expire on December 31.

Minister Jayasekera, who is seeking approval to call for applications from new lessees notes that in 2016, there were 103 horses and 29 horse owners. The staff at the race course was 89 persons.”