By Neto Baptiste
Popular thoroughbred Baba-Baba, also known as Burndines, has died in Barbados.
This was revealed by owner and popular urologist, Dr Dwayne “Baba” Thwaites, who said the horse fell and struck its head on Friday morning.
“Just some sad news that Baba-Baba or Burndines passed away after he fell and hit his head in Barbados. He actually competed in an interesting race last weekend and this morning [Friday] a truck came by, startled him; he lost his reins, ran down the road, fell and hit his head, and passed away. So for the fans out there, that’s some sad news in terms of racing,” he said.
The thoroughbred, which made a name for itself in Antigua by winning a number of races at the Cassada Gardens Race Track, had keen rivalries with other top horses to include Syrian Soca, Massacre, and Scrumpum.
Thwaites said the death comes as a massive shock, and a great loss since he’d invested heavily in the horse.
“No, he wasn’t insured, so we just have to move on. It’s one of the things we just don’t get into in Antigua, and historically, it’s mostly poor Antiguans, and we used to get a lot of horses with bad feet. We never had the money, but VC Bird wanted this to be for the poor people of Antigua, so we do things a little bit different than most places, and most of our horses are not insured, and this is where we are headed,” he said.
Baba-Baba, along with local stable-mate, Mulatto, also owned by Thwaites, flew to Barbados in February where they have competed since.
There has been no competitive racing in Antigua in over a year owing to a number of complications at the track.