Ellis Thomas Downs gets professional 8-stall starting gate
The new gate, which was sourced from Louisiana, United States, will be put into action at the August Tuesday Races. It will replace the usually faulty training gate.
According to President of the Virgin Islands Horse Owners Association, Patsy C. Lake, these are the first professional gate in the VI and hopes there would be no starting problems during races.
“I hope we have none of them because this gate has three different mechanisms to open it,” which lake said included manual and ‘press button’.
“If one fails you have two backups.”
Lake further said it was a 10-stall gate that had to be adjusted and fitted with a special dolly that would allow it to be manoeuvred on the Ellis Thomas Downs track.
“I bought for the future. While we are not going to be running eight horses we will just push the two extra gates inside the track, so that when we develop the track we don’t have to spend no kind of money again, because it is not cheap.”
Lake also clarified that more than six horses can possibly start at one time at Ellis Thomas Downs run but is not likely to be allowed for safety reasons.
The cost for the gate was not disclosed by Lake, who noted that the association was given “fantastic help” with the shipping of the gate by Ocean King Services.
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