Letty Hodge lashes out at VI Horse Owners' President
“I was totally appalled at his comments and the statements he made recently,” she said.
Smith had expressed as a caller on the programme, that there was a lack of cooperation from the horse owners in the Virgin Islands (VI) and it was affecting horse racing.
Mr. Smith also told radio listeners that horse owners do not pay for water or electricity at the race track and when the horse owners wins a race they do not give any of their purse money back to government.
However, Ms. Hodge the co-owner of the popular L & B Stables said “Being the President of the Horse Owners' Association, he was supposed to be elected. No one was elected for that position. He came in as [part of] a coup,” she said, adding that “they waltzed in and took over.”
Hodge said she didn’t know what point Smith was trying to make in stating that electricity and water bills are not paid by horse owners at the race track. “The multi sports complex is a government’s facility, However none of the athletes or other users pay for electricity or water; why is no one mentioning that.” Hodge said, “the race track does not belong to the horse owners, it has been here from the very beginning… from the time the race track was opened.”
Hodge also remarked that, “Mr. Smith is not doing anything for the horse owners.” She felt that horse owners had no idea what the committee was doing most of the time since and decisions made by the committee were heard on the street or on the radio or elsewhere. “That is not how it is run,” she expressed adding that there was no consultation with horse owners when things are being done at the track.
She also felt that the Association is there to represent horse owners and it was something they were not doing.
“The government has to step in, if they don’t put qualified people in position to run a race track, we would never go anywhere and that is exactly what is happening right now,” the upset Hodge said.
There are forty stables at the racetrack and perhaps only twelve horses of which all are not fit to run, she explained.
Hodge also expressed concerns about the state of the track and the type of grading being done as being inefficient expressing that the poor state of the track caused her to lose one of her best horses.
“We need electricity run at the stables for all the horses,” she continued. She added that the current President knew of the problem and only secured electricity for his stables and neglected the rest.
“I cannot see [someone being the] President and looking out for himself only.”
Hodge said she hoped to secure a meeting with the Premier and Minister for Sports, to explain the truth to them about what was really going on in the Association. She expressed that urgent support from the government is critical to running the track effectively.
“You cannot have fans, if you don’t have horses,” Hodge complained after expressing that the President might be obsessed with fans of the sport, but seemed to be looking at the wrong issues for the Association.
Hodge said given the fact that she had ran the Association previously and had the necessary experience to advise persons about the sport, then she was naturally the “most qualified person in the VI to deal with horse racing.” She quickly said that this does not mean that she wants to be President, but wants to see horse racing progress just as much as the next person.
While she was President, Hodge noted, there was a rule that horse owner's should not be President of the Association, yet the situation currently is in complete opposite of that rule.
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32 Responses to “Letty Hodge lashes out at VI Horse Owners' President”
Netty is absolutely right...horse owners should never be apart of the association...it's not the right thing to do...Roy picko Pickering i feel can be the best person to run that association..he has the entire knowledge of horse racing..lets go from there Hon. Walwyin..lets get it done right!..the sport is almost dead..when aruba them had it... it was going fine..but as netty said lesmo them... he and barry just plotted the whole thing to remove the last association...Bam..Bam..Bam!
Say I told you so, Funny Man Minister decided to leave out the Liberator from decision making at the Track and pick up OJ and Mario as his advisors and front man, so what do you expect?
Letty, from the time your horse got damaged on the bad track and the Mmnister didn't consider your contribution important enough to give you a call, you should have known what to expect. Good to see you have the blals which the men don't seem to have, to speak up.
so he has to step down and give us the fair chance of voting for who we want to be president
what money he spend he already get back so please please go go he just come he knows nothing about race tracks
it was she who first came up with the idea for the tripple crown, it was she who came up with the idea for entertainment between races, it was she when she was the president who came up with the idea of fun rasors...come on do not get me started. Lesmore and his selfish ways can never walk in letter shoes...oh kudus letty on the victory in court..good is good
thanks to the minister for that great support for the races dabby could grade the track but the president bring aman from east who dont know about race trackand mess it up he even damage the railing horse foot break in the hole that was made by the non horse track grader facts to talk ha ha
UnKnown you need to stay "UNKNOWN" for you knows nothing about whats going on what Ms. Hodge is saying is the truth and God nows she is telling the truth. The remodel of the grand stand was Mr. Fraser's idea for he had already presented the drawings it to the previous associations. But the 2XCHAMP couldn't wait he wanted the fame and what did he do but mess up the layout of the drawings. And by the way when St. Croix came to the BVI it was not because of Lesmore and his coupe it was because of members of the past assocaition who reached out to horseowners in St. Croix. Did you know the members of the former Assocaition went to St. Croix for triple crown meetings and the President and Vice President did not attend those meeting?
Why? They were to busy plotting against the past commiette.