Father’s Day Ellis Thomas Downs Races cancelled; St Thomas pulled out!
Mr Smith, who has been instrumental in negotiating with the St Thomas/St John Horse Owners’ Association confirmed this information moments ago, speaking exclusively with our newsroom. He explained, “At this time, without St Thomas we would not have enough horses to run on Sunday, as the St Thomas horse owners had conflict in their schedules, including graduations”.
Is the sport on the decline?
When asked if the pullout in recent years of two major local stables, L & B belonging to Letty and Bob Hodge, and The Boyz led by Romney A. Simmonds, had affected the growth of the sport, Mr Smith said, “There will be persons buying horses in the coming weeks, so by August we will be able to run without St Thomas.”
Mr Smith stated there are plans to have a Virgin Islands (VI) race day at Ellis Thomas Downs on July 9, 2017, as a warm up for the annual August Tuesday races.
When asked if St Thomas will be on Tortola for those races, he said it was unlikely as they are running on July 3.
The last race day at Ellis Thomas Downs was the Easter Races held on April 2, 2017 that saw a record low turnout.
Mrs Lake to encourage horse purchase
It is believed that local horse owners’ president, Mrs Pasty C. Lake, has a plan to help potential horse owners purchase some reasonably priced horses to help boost the ‘Sport of Kings’ and keep it alive. Mrs Lake is in her second one-year term as President of the volunteer VI Horse Owners’ Association. She is the third woman over the many years of horse racing associations in the British Overseas Territory at the helm of the organization.
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