The owner of the purse-winning Guillaume took the St. Thomas-St. John Horse Racing Commission to court this week after they barred the seven-year-old horse from future races over fitness concerns.
Arturo Watlington Jr., an attorney who formerly chaired the V.I. Elections Board and a longtime horse owner, said in a complaint filed in V.I. Superior Court Tuesday that another veterinarian had cleared the horse to race and suggested that a conflict of interest existed because the commission’s veterinarian, Dr. Laura Palminteri, is also a voting member.
“Further,” he wrote in the complaint, “there is no written veterinary rules or standard as exist in other jurisdictions which the defendants or their representatives can rely upon to authorize the prevention of a race horse from participation in a race days or weeks prior … to that event.”
Watlington told the Source Wednesday that he’s been part of the Virgin Islands horse racing community for decades and that just this week, he scratched an injured horse from a race scheduled for Sunday.
“I cannot run an injured horse; I will not run an injured horse,” he said. “That’s what you can really write: Arturo Watlington Jr. would not run a horse that he believes, who his trainer believes, is injured.”
Watlington wrote in the complaint that he purchased Guillaume in Florida, where he raced three times and “at no time … was the horse restricted from racing in either nationally accredited racing jurisdictions or by any state or track veterinarian.” The horse was later moved to Puerto Rico, where he raced four times, before arriving in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He raced at the Clinton E. Phipps Race Track three times and took first place on May 2 and second place on July 5, “making him the number one money earning horse thus far in 2025.”
According to exhibits attached to Watlington’s complaint, Palminteri emailed the owner in April after a veterinary exam, noting both front fetlocks had “no mobility when attempted flexion” and “Grade 1 lame Right front limb.”
“At this time ‘Guillaume’ is unfit for racing and is not racing sound,” she wrote. “It is highly advised that this horse be retired from racing.”
Despite the horse’s subsequent successful races, Palminteri continued to voice “grave concerns” about his fitness and wrote in a July email that his front fetlocks were “completely fused.”
“These joints should flex 90 degrees and his do not flex at all,” she wrote, noting that the joints should be acting as shock absorbers to lessen strain on tendons, ligaments and bones. “Despite his limitations, he has a big heart and races hard. This also increases his risk factors. [If] he continues to race, there is a high probability of breaking down on the track. He has treated you well and deserves to be retired a winner and not breakdown [sic] on the track. I strongly urge you to retire the horse to his next career. He will not pass the next veterinary examination.”
Watlington replied by noting that Guillaume consistently trains at the track four days a week and spends two at the beach without issue and that his own veterinarian, Puerto Rico-based Dr. Randi Armand, disagreed with Palminteri’s assessment. According to Watlington’s complaint, Horse Racing Commission members met in August without Watlington’s knowledge to affirm Guillaume’s racing ban.
The Clinton E. Phipps Race Track reopened last year, but horse racing in the territory got off to a rocky start after multiple breakdowns. Three horses had to be euthanized after a disastrous race day in December, which prompted a temporary closure and commission investigation into the track surface. The track reopened in time for the 2025 Carnival Races, and HRC Chair Hugo Hodge Jr. said the surface was never an issue.
“Some of the horses were lame,” he said. “We put things in place — the vet’s doing their job to make sure lame horses don’t run, and that’s all we got to say.”
The case may ultimately be heard by a judge in the St. Croix district. Since Watlington filed his complaint Tuesday, two St. Thomas judges have already recused themselves. Superior Court Judge Denise Francois noted that Hodge is a close family friend, and Judge Carol Thomas-Jacobs noted that Watlington’s wife is a judge in the same district.
St. Croix Source
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