Drag racing strip moving ahead, horse racing tracks remain shrouded in uncertainty

Whether boats, horses or hot rods, the U.S. Virgin Islands has a rich racing history.

While drag racing is on the verge of resurgence, speakers and legislators at Tuesday’s Senate Youth, Sports, Parks, and Recreation Committee hearing on St. Croix were “frustrated” with the lack of development seen in the territory’s two dilapidated horse racing tracks.

Caribbean Drag Racing Association Vice President Larry Jones said the drag strip on St. Croix will finish construction in September and the first competitive race will be held on Labor Day, but progress on the Clinton E. Phipps Race Track on St. Thomas and the Randall “Doc” James Race Track on St. Croix continues to be stalled.

Flamboyant Park Horsemen Association Treasurer Denis Lynch II said for an “accurate pulse” of how redevelopment of the race tracks are going, it would require “revisiting the many failed encounters portrayed as progress which will aid your understanding of what has transpired, lending toward dismantling the fortitude of horse racing.”

In 2016 VIGL agreed to renovate, operate, and provide race purses in exchange for being permitted to operate video gaming terminals at both tracks but the agreement escalated into a federal lawsuit between the Virgin Islands government, Southland Gaming and VIGL Operations LLC that blocked the redevelopment of the racetracks for six years.

During a Committee of the Whole hearing held March 22, the V.I. Legislature approved a bill sent down by Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. to amend the franchise agreement and allow the government and Southland Gaming to progress with the development of Phipps Race Track.

Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White said nearly a year ago, in June 2021, the horsemen with equines housed at the James Race Track were told to remove all the horses as construction would resume on the premises.

“Since that time, I have seen minimal to no movement on the track by VIGL. It was my understanding that once we were able to remove all the horses from the stables, construction at the facility would continue shortly after. I cannot speak or speculate why work has not resumed to date,” White said.

Lynch confirmed the horsemen moved the horses “in anticipation of the revised and accepted agreement executed by the executive branch,” and said the association ensured that the James Race Track was vacated “to allow for the seamless transition post signing of the contract in preparation for the initiation of construction.”

But with no evidence of continued construction since the time the horses left the facility last year “the determinant that we are concerned about is time,” Lynch said.

“A commodity that cannot be reversed and a luxury that we don't have. We have spent more time in meetings, hearings, and negotiations than it would have taken to build the industry standard facility that we all hoped for,” Lynch added.

Aside from Lynch, other testifiers that did not submit testimony included VIGL and the St. Thomas-St. John Horseman Association because, per their reasoning, there were no updates to provide.

VIGL's general manager of racing operations Jason Williams said, “Legal counsel has advised us not to make any public statement given the sensitive and delicate situation we’re in and the talks that we’re having with the administration.”