ROADTOWN Tortola, BVI, April 20th 2011 - The Virgin Islands (Tortola) delegation was led by President of the VI Horse Owners’ Association Derrick ‘Aruba’ Marshall.
In one of the biggest achievements yet, is that all three Associations have set dates for the first ever Inter-Virgin Islands Triple Crown amongst the three Islands of Tortola, St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The dates announced coming out of the meeting in another exclusive with VINO are for 2012 starting first in January on St. Thomas, February on St. Croix at the Agriculture Day Races and in March on Tortola.
The meeting, according to President Marshall, also highlighted topics such as transportation for horses between the three islands “specifically the cost” and ways to provide support for each other.
Gary Nicholas, the Vice President of the St. Croix Horse Owners’ Association told VINO in an exclusive interview that the “three tracks are all different lengths….. It’s a good distance to come from St. Croix, so we have to work on getting the horses to the tracks in a timely fashion. Anywhere you go the horses need to acclimatise and get used to the surface they are running on.”
Meanwhile Winston Benjamin, President of the St Thomas/St. John Horse Men Association told VINO that while pari-mutuel wagering was not on the meeting’s agenda it was discussed after the meeting.
According to Mr. Benjamin, “we need to bring it to the table again with the politicians so we can have betting at the track. It’s a standard practice in the United States of America (USA), but we need to sell the product as part of the sport.
Once we legalise and regulate it properly, it should be able to work.”
The next meeting is scheduled for July, 23, 2011 this time on St. Croix. Top of the agenda is the cementing of the plans for the Triple Crown, to be run amongst the three islands for the top horse and prizes similar to the Triple Crown run in the USA.
Most developed countries have Triple Crown races which remain the most popular racing season. For example, in the USA the famous Triple Crown is run starting with the Kentucky Derby run over 11⁄4 miles (2.01 km) dirt track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky;Preakness Stakes, run over 1 3⁄16 miles (1.91 km) dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Belmont Stakes, run over 11⁄2 miles (2.41 km), the longest dirt track in thoroughbred racing, at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
VINO will be the place to keep its readers and horseracing fans up-to date on all horse racing developments.
Article taken from Virgin Islands News Online
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