By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua Turf Club (ATC), Hansen Richards, says the body would gladly accept any offer from government of lands on which to erect a state-of-the-art racing facility here.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, the recently-elected president said that although the current facility in Cassada Gardens is still usable, an international track with state-of-the-art amenities would require much more lands than are available to the current location.
“We’re sitting down on just around 31 acres of land, and in order for you to operate a successful racetrack you would need a minimum of 80 acres to get to a proper facility including quarantine facilities, receiving brand and test barns, a little veterinary facility,, and all of that cannot hold at Cassada Gardens. The surrounding areas, some of them on the airport side are privately owned. We have approached some of them and they are not willing to giving us any assistance in terms of utilising the land, but if we get the opportunity to relocate to a more suitable location, of course, we would move in a heartbeat,” he said.
Racing at the Cassada Gardens facility has been stalled for over a year due to issues with the track which were further compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Richards, elected in May this year to run the affairs of the association, however said the body must first demonstrate it can properly manage and operate the existing track before expanding or investing into a much bigger facility.
“It is something that we have discussed internally, but we have to ensure that we are capable of operating what we have now before we can even look at that [a new facility]. Over the 60 years we have been at the Cassada Gardens Race Track we have been up and down and there is absolutely nothing to show at the moment of being capable of operating the facility and maintaining it, and that is the change that we as the new executive have pledged to do,” he said.
A date has not been set for the return of racing at the Cassada Gardens Race Track with Richards indicating that work on the surface and replacing of the rails should commence within the next two weeks.
