Bud White controversy before St. Croix Horse Racing Commission
According to news reaching Virgin Islands News Online from its sources in St. Croix and St. Thomas, Slevin’s owner, James Bates, had lodged a protest against Bud White’s entry shortly after the race in which his horse came in second to Bud White at the Randall “Doc” James racetrack, St. Croix, USVI in the Triple Crown's second leg on February 19, 2012.
This information was also confirmed by President of the St. Thomas Horse Racing Association, Winston Benjamin, who previously said he had been interacting with Mr. Bates on an almost daily basis to convince him to enter Slevin in the final leg of the Triple Crown slated for March 18, 2012 at the Clinton E. Phipps Race Track in St. Thomas.
Mr. Bates, when contacted by Virgin Islands News Online, declined to comment.
He had, however, previously told this news agency that he was not entering Slevin in the third and final leg of the Triple Crown. “He’s a horse, not a machine. He was to rest before the Triple Crown,” Bates explained, when asked the reason behind his decision.
Mr. Benjamin had said he wished that Mr. Bates would reconsider but, “At the end of the day he is exercising his right to not compete and we have to respect that but the Triple Crown will go on”.
According to him, the issue was more about the misinterpretation of the rules rather than an error by the Triple Crown committee.
But Mr. Bates was not the only one that was against the inclusion of Bud White in the second leg as the VI Horse Owners’ Association as well as L&B Stables were also against it.
President of the VI Horse Owners' Association Lesmore Smith had said it was not a case that there were any fears about the horse entering that the Association objected but that at this stage ( 2nd leg) no new horse should have been allowed to enter. He said it was something that was discussed previously among the Associations but was not put in the guidelines for the Triple Crown.
Meanwhile, the President of the St. Thomas Horse Racing Association had stated there were six horses pencilled in to run in St. Croix but there was space for two other horses in the feature race and the other horses with points either declined to participate or could not run for whatever reason hence Bud White, which Virgin Islands News Online understands was brought in specifically to challenge Slevin, was allowed.
Meanwhile, Michael ‘Lulu’ Smith, the owner of Bud White had said he is preparing his horse for the third and final leg of the Triple Crown and welcomes any new challengers including those new horses rumoured to have arrived in Tortola.
Speaking on the St. Thomas radio programme ‘The game’ on Friday February 24, 2012, Mr. Smith had noted that while a spot in the final leg was not guaranteed for Bud White as there are other horses with points that can exercise their right to enter, he was being optimistic that the horse would get a spot. “There are horses in front of us and there are also rules to follow so we will see how it goes.”
Responding to claims that two horse owners in Tortola had brought in new horses that may be entered in the final leg of the Triple Crown, Mr. Smith said he had no problem if that was the case. “I am just a sportsman, whoever bring in horses can come down and if you get into the third leg of the Triple Crown we will race you. We racing anybody, anybody bring any horse we ready to run. If you from Tortola and if after this race and you ready for carnival and after carnival we come Tortola and all and run, we have no problem with that. The competition does good for everybody so if you have a new horse we accept you and after that we will go to Tortola as you know we take our horses to Tortola.”
Nevertheless, it is interesting to see what would be the decision of the St. Croix Horse Racing Commission on the “Bud White issue” since it had approved the races of the second leg of the VI Triple Crown.
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