Bernard Jude has been involved in horse racing in the U.S. Virgin Islands for decades, celebrating the good times and riding out the tougher ones.
That’s why Jude — and quite a few horse owners and racing fans — is looking forward to today’s 2024 St. Thomas Carnival Races at the newly-reconstructed Clinton E. Phipps Race Track.
The seven-race card marks the return of “the sport of kings” to the territory after a seven-year absence caused by heavy damage from hurricanes Irma and Maria to both Phipps Race Track and Randall “Doc” James Race Track on St. Croix in September 2017.
“After seven years of the absence of racing in the Virgin Islands … it’s going to be a great sight to see those races come back, and at such a magnitude,” Jude said Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Daily News.
“This is in our blood — just seeing your hard work, getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning and having things done — and having things back at this magnitude is appreciated because of the love we have for live racing.”
Today’s race card is headlined by the Governor’s Cup feature, whose $43,000 purse is more than double that paid out ($20,000) in the last Governor’s Cup race held in April 2017. Two other races — the Enrique “Ricky” Ashby Cup ($20,000) and the Albert “Boysie” Benjamin Cup ($25,000) — have purses of $20,000 or more. The remaining four races have purses between $12,500 and $15,000.
In all, the total purse for the seven races — it now stands at $143,000, and could be higher by race day as more USVI businesses come on board as race sponsors — is the most for the Carnival Races since 2012, according to Arturo Watlington, secretary of the Nadir Horse Owners and Trainers Association and a long-time horse owner on St. Thomas.
“It’s really good news that we’re back,” Watlington said. “Normally, the Carnival purses are usually double what a normal race card is. But with Southland Gaming’s participation, it’s now going to be at least $100,000 — there’s now a contract that spells out what the purses are per race.”
Those numbers are welcome news for horse owners, who — like all of the businesses in the Virgin Islands — face having to deal with the cost of living … and the last seven years have been tough on them.
“It’s been a long wait,” said Diego Luna, whose horse “Protector” is entered in the Governor’s Cup feature. “But horse racing has always been an integral part of our culture … it’s been a part for more than 100 years. It’s been a part of our DNA for a long, long time.”
Some of the territory’s horse owners and trainers have been able to keep busy — for example, several spent time on Tortola and raced in events at Ellis Thomas Downs before its shutdown in late 2022 in a dispute between property owners and the BVI government.
Others sent their horses over to Puerto Rico to race at Hipodromo Camarero, the island’s only race track located east of San Juan, and a few that owned “native horses” on St. Croix held bush races before they were shut down due to safety and liability concerns.
However, the rest have simply rode things out — and getting ready for the day when horse racing would resume in the Virgin Islands.
“Did we miss it? Definitely we’ve missed it for seven years,” Luna said. “We’ve had some people taking care of horses for seven years. We’ve definitely needed this. This is the ‘sport of kings’ — and it’s not cheap.”
A lot of the horse owners entered in today’s St. Thomas Carnival Races will be fielding new mounts — outside of the five horses entered in the “natives” race for horses born in the territory, only five of the 33 horses in the other six races have raced at Phipps Race Track before.
That could make all seven of today’s races wide-open affairs, with no clear favorites.
“It’s been seven years, so everybody is expecting a great performance by the horses, and the facility is now very updated,” Luna said. “We’re all looking for something spectacular come tomorrow.”