THA Chief Secretary Orville London has disclosed that the internationally-known Tobago goat races will be part of the Assembly’s “Tobago Day at the Races” at Santa Rosa. There will be one goat race on that day when owners will bring their jockeys and charges for the event.
“Tobago Day at the Races” was staged for the first time last year at Santa Rosa as a means of promoting local tourism to the island. Goat and crab races are held on Easter Monday at Mt Pleasant and on the following day dubbed “Easter Tuesday” at the new $112 million Goat and Crab Racing track at Buccoo. This year the Assembly introduced a Derby at the races.
However, efforts are currently being made to have the event staged at other venues when goats will be awarded points to qualify for the “big event” at Mt Pleasant and Buccoo tracks.
London said the Assembly believed that this whole goat racing industry should not just be confined to the Easter Weekend since it has potential and it does bring attraction.
He said the Derby starting next year was going to be linked to a series of events which the Assembly hopefully would have scheduled at both venues and persons with goats should note that their animals will qualify based on points accumulated during the year.
He said the Assembly was also hoping to link it with the cruise ship sector and have situations where this was one of the highlights of ships coming to Tobago because “we are aware that there is a lot of competition among the various venues in the Caribbean especially for land base activities and we have a responsibility in Tobago to ensure that we have as varied a menu of land base activities as possible”.