Consortium interested in taking over Marsa race track presenting trophies to winners

Representatives of a private consortium interested in taking over the Marsa horse racing track are presenting trophies to competition winners, the Times of Malta has learnt.
Though the racetrack privatisation deal has yet to be announced as talks continue, Colin Purkins, on behalf of Marsa Race Track Consortium, was seen presenting trophies to race winners.
Horse owners, who have complained they were left in the dark on what was being discussed, said they could not understand why consortium representatives should be distributing trophies when nothing had been concluded yet.
"When we ask members of the Malta Racing Club, they tell us nothing has been decided yet and that the government is still discussing it. We are now having our doubts on the veracity of these statements," a jockey said.
Asked about the state of the negotiations, which have been ongoing since 2015, a spokeswoman for the Education Ministry, conducting the negotiations, told Times of Malta no deal had been struck yet.
Insisting that the negotiations were "in an advanced stage", she said "announcements would be made public when such process is concluded".
The ministry said at the beginning of this year that the...

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