Trib­utes keep pour­ing in for the late rac­ing stal­wart Harold Chadee who passed away last Sat­ur­day plung­ing the horse-rac­ing fra­ter­ni­ty in­to mourn­ing.

Yes­ter­day, the Guardian Me­dia Sports spoke with for­mer Bet­ting Levy Board Chief Lin­ford Carrabon about Harold Chadee and his con­tri­bu­tion to the sport of kings here in T&T.

Carrabon said the pass­ing of for­mer cham­pi­on own­er and breed­er Chadee: "I was in to­tal shock. I was speech­less. I knew he was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal on Thurs­day and like every­one we ex­pect­ed that he would be back with us soon. What was hurt­ful to me was the fact that two days be­fore this we had a forty-five min­utes con­ver­sa­tion and he was his jovial self. That day he was the Harold Chadee which we all know, the wit­ty guy. That day we spoke about rac­ing and how the Gov­ern­ment will have to save rac­ing. He told me he want­ed to talk with me. He said that would be giv­ing me four hors­es at a very good price and the hors­es will be hors­es which would win races. He re­vealed to me that he was re­duc­ing the num­ber of hors­es in his care and would give me Gold­en D'or, Re­gal In­ten­sion, Ear­ly Bird and Ladr Bird."

That con­ver­sa­tion which was our last had me laugh­ing when he told me that I was go­ing to be a 'Big Boy' on the Gam­ing Com­mis­sion. So he want­ed to strike a deal with me. He told me I could not leave rac­ing. I re­spond­ed that if what you are say­ing is true and I get a 'Big Work' then the deal will be that I re-in­vest in rac­ing and I will buy the hors­es that you want to give me."

Then on Sat­ur­day morn­ing, around 3:43 am I re­ceived a text from Glen Mo­hammed in­form­ing me of the death of Harold Chadee. I could not be­lieve it, so I called around on­ly to find out that it was true. Rac­ing had lost an­oth­er stal­wart. Harold Chadee was a live-wire in rac­ing not on­ly on race day. He was jovial and loved his pi­cong. Any­one who was there on a Sun­day in the train­er's stand would ap­pre­ci­ate this. The pi­cong was good. He pledged the first 10,000 when rac­ing was go­ing to be shut down. He saved the sport. Harold raised over $60,000 to stage the next day's rac­ing. He did not stop there he com­mit­ted to pay the stakes the same day when rac­ing was run. That is af­ter each race horse­men were paid. This was nev­er done in the his­to­ry of the sport."

The pass­ing of Chadee is an­oth­er blow to the rac­ing fra­ter­ni­ty.

Chadee, 68, was a cham­pi­on own­er, top train­er and a very suc­cess­ful busi­ness­man.

The fu­ner­al ser­vice for Harold Chadee will be on Thurs­day. His body will be at San­ta Rosa Park at 11:30 am. It will re­main there for a small cer­e­mo­ny and then he will be tak­en to his busi­ness place be­fore pro­ceed­ing to Al­leyne Fu­ner­al Home Chapel. in Ari­ma to com­plete the fu­ner­al ser­vice. Be­cause of the Covid-19 pro­to­col, on­ly a lim­it­ed amount of peo­ple will be al­lowed in the chapel. Train­ers, own­ers and mem­bers of the Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee will be part of the cer­e­mo­ny on the fore­court of San­ta Rosa Park in Ari­ma.