© Ellen Barone. A Day at the Races, Island of Tobago, Caribbean

The Kentucky Derby it most definitely was not. The steel bands were a clue. Another hint, for the unsure, is that there wasn’t a horse in sight. Nevertheless the race day at Buccoo on the island of Tobago is one of the great social events in the Island calendar. What they race here are goats.

The quality of goats is important on an island that depends on the creatures for milk, cheese and meat. Seventy-eight years ago an eccentric Englishman hit on the idea of not just exhibiting them to show their beauty (whatever turns you on, some might say) but actually racing them to prove their stamina.

And so an annual tradition was born. That’s the way in Tobago — any excuse for a party. It’s the most colorful spectacular; silk shirted “jockeys” sprinting barefoot behind their roped animals (some barely hanging on) sprinting down a ragged grass racetrack.