Work to commence at horse track, January return predicted

Work on replacing a collapsed culvert at the Cassada Gardens Race Track is set to commence this week.
This is according to President of the Antigua Turf Club (ATC), Neil Cochrane, who said the appropriate size culvert has been sourced and efforts are being made to have it installed.
“We’re in touch with Ministry of Public Works for their assistance with fixing the jaws in terms of putting them in the appropriate place and that they are installed properly and to the specification of the engineers. We will also need to later, bind the surface under which they will be laid. The backhoe should be at the facility tomorrow [Wednesday] to assist with getting the work done,” he said. 
A culvert running under the track had collapsed in late October resulting in a section of the track caving in. This halted all activities at the facility, forcing the turf club to cancel scheduled meets.
Last week, Cochrane said that an earlier predicted Boxing Day (26th December) return for horse racing at the facility could be pushed back owing to issues the turf club encountered in sourcing the correct size culvert.
He has confirmed that the December return is no longer a reality.
“Boxing Day would definitely not be possible. Horses require about an average of six weeks to go through their paces and be ready and prepared to race, you can force them to be ahead of schedule but that is not really in the best interest and the health of the horses because that’s when you begin to have injuries and so on pop up. So I think that we will need at least five to six weeks before we can actually race,” he said.
Racing is now predicted to return in the middle of January next year. The last competitive race at the Cassada Gardens Race Track was held in July.