St Moose blows away My Pal Shawn in feature race of ‘VI Classic’
St Moose, owned by James Bates, completed the one mile run for Class A horses in 1:46 to snatch the $20,000 winning purse.
Mr Bates admitted he was a little nervous coming into the race as he had heard My Pal Shawn was a “speedster” but when it mattered most his horse had way too much for the competition and won easily.
Winning jockey Winston Hurst Jr said: “As longs as I kept close I knew we had the race.”
The highly anticipated race turned into a two-horse race after four other horses declined to compete against the two top horses in the Greater Virgin Islands; My Pal Shawn, owned by Alex V. Lake and the Family Affairs Stables and St Moose, owned by James Bates.
The other horses that were slated to compete were Pumped Up Kicks of St Thomas owned by Brother’s Stable, Giant Valley of St Thomas owned by Dem Man Stables, Suspicious U from St Croix and owned by Benny Blanco, and Bellamy Chief of Top Priority Racing Stables.
The crowd too seemed caught out by the race time which saw the feature race run as race five of seven as there were fewer people than expected to witness the showdown.
Optionality runs off track; Jockey Brian Gonzalez injured
Earlier, race horse Optionality was involved in an off-track incident, resulting in injury to jockey Brian Gonzalez.
Race two, a seven furlong event for Class D horses for a purse of $5,000, was carded to feature Optionality owned by L&B Racing Stables, Sir Whiskey owned by The Boy’s Stables, Mark It A Wynn owned by One Time for One Time Stables, Meddling Birdie owned by Mission House Stables, Tail White, making its debut, owned by No Nonsense Stables out of St Thomas and Grand Family of St Thomas owned by Laquan Charleswell.
According to Public Relations Officer of the Virgin Islands Horse Owners’ Association Esther N. Fraser, the horse was involved in an off track incident but was uninjured.
She told this news site that the mishap took place during the first turn on the second lap of race two.
“The jockey, Brian Gonzalez, at first appraisal seemed to have a broken wrist. He was taken to Peebles Hospital,” said Fraser.
Efforts to reach owner of Optionality Violet ‘Letty’ Delville Hodge for a comment proved futile up to post time.
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30 Responses to “St Moose blows away My Pal Shawn in feature race of ‘VI Classic’”
Paging "Mr. Amazing"...
Tis true. How yo seh it last time;" Mr. Bates 'low' we track!
Lawd what ah race.