UPDATE: Its official, No Easter races for 2013-President Smith-Aaron
President Aaron confirmed she communicated this information to all committee members and all are now aware of this decision. She said the reason is lack of horses both in the VI and USVI as many of the horses are down due to injuries as confirmed by the veterinarians.
Races on races off!
Confusion loomed earlier this week when this news site had already accurately reported the cancellation of the Easter races after speaking to committee member Mrs Violet ‘Letty’ Hodge, who represents the horse owners on the 9-member VI Horse Owners' Association Committee. Mrs Hodge told us this decision was communicated to her by Vice-President Lesmore Smith.
A couple of days later, President Smith-Aaron told this news site that the decision to cancel the Easter races was not finalised as no meeting of the entire committee had taken place.
However, today March 30, 2013 she told this news site that communication had now been made with all committee members and the decision is now confirmed to cancel the traditional Easter races.
President Smith-Aaron, in her third month as the horse race committee boss, assured the racing fans that St. Thomas had not snubbed the Virgin Islands traditional Easter races as the only issue was “lack of horses due to the many injuries and that this was confirmed by a veterinarian in St. Thomas."
St. Thomas is next!
It remains unclear when the next horse races will be run at Ellis Thomas Downs. St. Thomas is preparing for their Carnival races at the end of April 2013 and many Tortola horses are expected to compete.
The Virgin Islands speed demon and Triple Crown winner Really Uptown aka ‘jet blue’ of the popular L & B Stables and the defending Governor’s Cup holder Good Prospecting from Top Priority Stables are expected to be in the Governor’s Cup.
See previous article posted on March 28, 2013
Easter races not cancelled – Smith-Aaron
President of the VI Horse Owners’ Association, Karen Smith-Aaron has refuted claims that the scheduled Easter Races at Ellis Thomas Downs have been cancelled.
Smith-Aaron has instead stated that no final decision has been made on the outcome of the proposed races.
When contacted by this news site, the President of the local horse racing body said she was first made aware of the situation after reading it on this news site.
“That decision hasn’t been made up to this point,” the President noted, “I’m off island so until I get back, we’re not going to make that decision.”
Mrs Smith-Aaron further noted that the committee has to meet before deciding the way forward and suggested that this will take place sometime over the weekend.
This news site attempted to contact the President as well as the Vice-President of the association previously but was unsuccessful.
Committee member, Mrs Violet ‘Letty’ Hodge indicated previously that she was informed by the Vice-President of the Association, Mr Lesmore Smith that races would be cancelled and expressed disappointment at this.
The absence of horses from the neighbouring island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was previously given as the reason for the reported cancellation.
See previous story posted March 27, 2013:
Easter races cancelled at Ellis Thomas Downs – ‘Letty’ Hodge
- withdrawal of St Thomas horses given as prime reason
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI – Co-Owner of L&B Stables, Violet ‘Letty’ Hodge has disclosed that the traditional Easter horse races at Ellis Thomas Downs have been cancelled.
According to Mrs Hodge, Vice President of the Horse Owners Association Mr Lesmore Smith indicated to her that the cancellation came as a result of the withdrawal of participation by horses from the neighbouring isle of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
“What he told me was no horses from St Thomas would be coming… we on our track, can’t even hold races on our own because we don’t have enough horses, so we are dependent on them and once they don’t come we don’t have any races,” Hodge related.
It is unclear how many horses from St Thomas were initially scheduled to participate in the races.
According to Mrs Hodge, the races were pushed back to April 7, 2013 following the final leg of the recently completed VI Triple Crown Challenge in St Thomas.
When asked about participation by St Croix horse owners, Ms Hodge replied, “we would never depend on them, they would never come.”
She explained that the winning purses were too small and it was therefore not feasible for St Croix horses to come to Tortola to participate in races for those types of purses. “They don’t even need to leave St Croix, they have their promoters… they have the works.”
Mrs Hodge said she was very disappointed that the races would not be held especially for the horses that could not travel or participate in races over the past few months.
Attempts to contact President of the VI Horse Owners Association, Mrs Karen Smith-Aaron and Vice-President Mr Lesmore Smith were not successful.
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31 Responses to “UPDATE: Its official, No Easter races for 2013-President Smith-Aaron”
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