Thoroughbred Baba Baba has joined stable-mate Molatto in a bid to race in the Barbados’ Sandy Lane Gold Cup slated for March this year. This is according to the owner of both horses, Dr. Dwayne “Baba” Thwaites, who said the God’s Grace Stables is in the process of making the necessary finances available to move the process forward.
“We have received word and we just need to go now to send in our nomination fees for Molatto and Baba Baba. Scrumpum has an injury; we were going to take three, but we will try our best to take two,” he said.
Thwaites, in December last year, announced that newly-acquired thoroughbred Molatto could feature in the premier regional events. He added that the horses must first go through a series of mandatory requirements before they are accepted to run in Barbados.
“One of the things with Barbados is that they have already ranked us, and now we are putting a submission for nomination, and if we are nominated then we will move forward from there, but everything looks like it’s going along …,” Thwaites said.
President of the Antigua Turf Club (ATC), Neil Cochrane, said having local horses compete in the popular meet could open doors for the sport here.
“As it stands now, we are in the process of completing our stud book, which is one of the major requirements for us to become an officially recognised and accredited racing country again, and having horses run in prestigious races like this can only support our case for being officially recognised again, and we would be part of a community which, perhaps, we might be able to get some support financially and so on, but it definitely would up the profile of the sport,” he said.
Both horses are set to run at the Cassada Gardens Race Track on Sunday when the turf club hosts its second meet of the year.