On your marks, get ready, goat!
It’s the Tobago Goat Race and your favourite blogger and his pal, who I have the privilege of getting to name (Bandanaman), are off and running.
Against Anthony Vickers’ charge.
After an initial period when he got giddy at the starting line and whinnied and almost bolted, he has now settled down.
The goat was as good as gold.
I have a rope attached to my new friend and I relax and allow Bandanaman to take the lead.
As my trainer, also called Anthony, and champion racer Levi have advised.
Which gives me the advantage over our party’s Middlesbrough Anthony who is trying to run abreast with his goat.
This is too much fun and the Tobagonians https://www.visittobago.gov.tt have told me that I can now track how Bandanaman fares at the Goat Races at Easter.
Goat racing draws thousands to Buccoo every Easter www.buccoo.net and also during the Heritage Festival https://www.tobagoheritagefestival.com inj July.
But it is on the hallowed turf of Canaan where Dwight Yorke first played that we are putting Bandanaman through his paces.
While his former team-mate and mentor, both for Phoenix FC and the Trinidad & Tobago national team, Terry Williams, is helping his son Elijah fly a kite, a popular Christmas pastime on the island.
Goat racing (and crab racing) have been popular in Tobago since 1925.
When Barbados native Samuel Callender brought it to the island as a rival sport for the poor while the rich indulged in horse-racing.
And so now every year thousands flock to Buccoo where there is a festival to all things Tobagonian.
Punters bet, stall-holders sell their fares and Tobagonians literally open their homes to strangers.
Fast forward four months and Bandanaman is winning by a neck in the 100m dash in a new world record time of 11 seconds.
Which means I will have to stick around on the island and shave four seconds of mine and Bandanaman’s personal best of 15secs.
Maybe Terry can get me a game for Phoenix FC too while Auntie Ali promised me a job washing dishes up at the Blue Crab… http://www.tobagobluecrab.com.
I might even take the crab I raced, or rather kicked, over the line with me.
And in case you missed any of my Tobagonian adventures… Give us this Day – Sunday School, Tobago, It’s Robinson Crusoe’s very own Tobago, Not any old Glasgow bar.
And in a nod to Samuel Callender here’s what I made of his beloved Barbados… Let’s rumba in Barbados and My kiss with Rihanna.
MEET YOU ON THE ROAD
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