By Neto Baptiste
The Antigua Turf Club (ATC) has identified March 29 as the new date for the return of competitive racing at the Cassada Gardens Race Track.
The club’s President, Neil Cochrane, said the date was chosen with the intention of allowing trainers ample time to prepare their horses for competition.
“We are happy to have been put in that position having gotten some work in at the race track and on the surface itself, so the horses can now exercise with a lot more confidence. We will do some additional work as well shortly, in terms of the finishing touches on it and so we are pretty confident that with good weather and once all is well, we should be having our first race on March 29 which is the Sunday,” he said.
The turf club has not held races since June 2019 when they had the final leg of the Antigua Triple Crown Series, the Governor General’s Cup.
According to Cochrane, all stakeholders are on board and willing to work towards the March 29 date.
“The horses are not that badly off because they have been training in spurts and the track allowed them to do some remedial work … so five weeks gives you a good time wherein you could get your horses ready to go,” he said.
Two of the country’s top thoroughbreds in Burndines (Baba-Baba) and My Pal Shawn (Scrumpum) will be competing in Barbados’ Sandy Lane Gold Cup and Super Sprint in the meet scheduled for March 7.