By Kent Layne
Sir David Seale was among those honoured for contributions to local horse racing, when the Barbados Turf Club 2018 to 2021 awards ceremony was held at The Sands Hotel, Worthing, Christ Church on Wednesday night.
The occasion was conducted in front of a sizeable crowd comprising owners, trainers, jockeys and the general public.
Member of Parliament Kirk Humphrey gave the opening speech and reminisced about the horses of his childhood such as Bentom, Stangrave Park, Piou and Coo Bird, and also hailed Sir David for the role he has played in horseracing in Barbados and the wider Caribbean for more than 40 years.
Race caller Lindon Yarde was the host for the evening’s awards which had been stalled for the past two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and also for two years prior to 2020 for reasons never officially stated.
Yarde started off with the 2018 Liquid Bliss Award for the champion locally bred two-year-olds which was won by the late Sir Charles Williams’ filly Good Vibration. Sir Charles posthumously won the Sir John Chandler trophy being champion breeder for three of the four years, taking it in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Peter Odle was the winner in 2020.
The Chally Jones award for a champion rider for the past four years went to Rasheed Hughes who had a wonderful time winning the 2019 Sandy Lane Gold Cup and the 2021 Triple Crown.
Eric Daniel was the winner of the Byron Clarke Apprentice trophy for 2019 and 2020 with Delano Lopez capturing that award for 2018 and N’Rico Prescod claiming the honour last year.
Champion stallion Janak showed he was king in the breeding shed taking the Happy Boy award for champion stallion for the past four years with his groom Renne Roberts collecting the award.
Victor Cheeseman won The Vale Gale award for champion trainer for 2018 to 2020. Andrew Nunes stopped him from having a beaver-trick taking the 2021 award.
Groom Compton Lawrance collected the Blue Print award for champion creole (older) won by Gandalf in 2020 and 2021. Northern Star and Butterfly grabbed the award for 2018 and 2019 respectively.
