Goat racing

Goat racing is a sport that originated in Buccoo, Tobago, which is part of the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The sport has been continued by some legends in Townsville. Started in 1925 by a Barbadian, Samuel Callendar, goat racing historically occurs on the Tuesday after Easter day, which is known as 'Easter Tuesday' in Trinidad and Tobago and is an unofficial public holiday in Tobago. Today, it is called the Buccoo Goat Race Festival, which is a popular and lively event that draws thousands of spectators, mainly from Trinidad. Also part of the festival is the less popular crab racing. In crab racing, large blue crabs and their jockeys are placed in the centre of a large circle drawn in the sand and coaxed towards the circle's perimeter by their jockeys through a bamboo pole with a string attached to the crab. The first crab to breach the circle is the winner. The Buccoo Goat Race Festival is Tobago's most internationally acclaimed festival.

Since 1925, Buccoo, a small seaside village on the southwest coast of Tobago, has hosted goat racing. In the early twentieth-century, since horse racing was reserved for the local elite, goat racing developed as a poor man's equivalent. With horse racing traditionally occurring on Easter Monday (the Monday after Easter), Easter Tuesday (the day after Easter Monday) was chosen to run goat races by the Buccoo Goat Race Festival Committee, a sub-committee of the Buccoo Village Council, that organises the goat race annually. Like race horses, the goats are all named.

Initially, goat races were held on Chance Street but were relocated twice when Chance street was paved. The first relocation was to the Battery, which was unpopular because overhanging cliffs were near the finish line. The second and current relocation is the Buccoo Integrated Facility, which is a $100 million goat race arena that includes stables.

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