By Neto Baptiste
The third and final stage of the Antigua Turf Club’s Triple Crown Series has, once again, been delayed.
This was confirmed by head of the club, Neil Cochrane, who said the meet housing the Governor General’s Cup will now be held on 30th June owing to recent showers which have hampered the preparation of horses.
“The heavy showers of rain which the country experienced last week would have led to us not being in a position to exercise on the track for almost a week so that put back the preparation of the horses and caused us to have to review the original postponement and so now, we have decided to just go for the month end,” he said.
The meet, which was originally scheduled for Whit Monday —10th June — had been first moved to 16th June in an effort to support Caribana activities in Barbuda.
Cochrane said all were in agreement with the second postponement, given the circumstances.
“First and foremost we, for the past three years, have not raced for the Whit weekend and so they were comfortable with the postponement after the announcement of the activities in Barbuda. We started to prepare for the 16th [June],” the president said.
“Everybody understands that once you have rain and you have that level of delay, once you can trailer your horse to the beach consistently then you’re going to lose your time and it will be trying to balance the equation between those who don’t have the facility to trailer with those who have the facility to trailer,” he added.
According to the turf boss, the welcomed showers did little damage to the turf at the Cassada Gardens Race Track, which he believes worked in favour of all involved.
“The horses have begun to exercise again and the track, although not fully dry, is in a workable state and because it is soft they can work on it. It is soft enough to work out on without having to leave significant imprints that delay you from exercising, so while it is drying up we will put on the drag on the track, rake it out and have it in a good state for them to continue to exercise, but for right now, everybody is in training,” he said.
The first leg of the Triple Crown Series, the Antigua Black Pineapple Stakes, was captured by Syrian Soca while Massacre and Mulatto tied in the Sir Cuthwin Lake Super Sprint.
