Trainer Wayne DaCosta (standing at right) receives the first of his 18 championship trophies.
The crème de la crème: Caymanas Park’s all-time greats
In today’s edition I will be using data-based objective analysis supported by available statistics from the efficient recordkeeping established in 1936. This, to have a compilation which will not necessarily be a ranking exercise but hoping to spark some debate. Owners, trainers, breeders and jockeys will be accounted for but not grooms as their statistics and recognition are a fairly recent phenomenon.
Between 1936 and 1958 there was no dominant individual owner until Patrick W Chung won championships 1959-65 for six consecutive years until Richard Naseef Azan won his first in 1995, and added a second in 1997. Then from 1999 to 2003 Azan secured another five in his name before a similar number was achieved through his Elite Bloodstock Limited company topping the category in 2010-11,12,14 and 15.
The category of trainers,as it is elsewhere in the world, is not always competitive in that the richest owners rightly gravitate to the tried and proven. Abbie Grannum was unchallenged from 1936 to 41 and was back in 1944. Milliard Ziadie was uninterrupted from 1946-50 whilst Gerry Skelton enjoyed a similar statusfrom 1955-1959 and was back for his final title in 1961.
The modern Caymanas Park era began in earnest with Laurie Silvera lifting four titles in 1962, 65-67 and finally in 1970 before migrating to Canada where huge success awaited him. Allan E “Billy Williams, back from an engagement as a head lad at the Capt William Elsey barn in the North of England a year earlier took 1964, 68-69. Arthur Sharpe lifted the crown in 1973 followed up 77-78 then migrated to the Eastern Caribbean.
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Retired jockey Kenneth Barrington Mattis was best in 1979-80 before Philip Michael Feanny, back from a stint in Ireland where he fine-tuned his skills at Vincent O’Brien outfit in Tipperary, won his first in 1981 and repeated in 82. Mattis was back on top in 83 but gave way to Wayne Anthony Dacosta in 1984, who was destined in a practice of 35 years to be the first trainer achieving stakes earnings exceeding J$1.0 billionalthough his second title was not achieved until 1999.
The Mattis, Feanny and Dacosta exchanges were quite extraordinary with the ex-jockey ruling from 1985 to 88.Feanny took over in 1989 but was dethroned in thedramatic circumstances of the final race day of 1990 with Mattis’s $1.53 million bettering Feanny’s $1.40 million in Stakes earnings for his seventh and last title.
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Feanny was unchallenged 1991-1998, lost it to DaCosta in 99 but was back on top in 2000-01 and again in 2004 after yielding to Dacosta 2002-2003 for a 14th and final title to date.It was clear that having become the first and only trainer to break the 100-barrier with 108 wins in 2002, although he never scaled those heights again, would be the dominant force over the next decade and a half with a total 18 titles with the last 14 consecutively 2005-18.
At the time of his death in 2021, DaCosta had amassed 2291 wins and Feanny, still practicing, is the only other over 2000. Emulating the1976 feat of his father Nigel, AnthonyCharles Nunes won titles in 2019-21 before yielding to Jason Anthony DaCosta 2022-24for these second generation conditioners to share the last six titles evenly.All things being equal, the two will be battling for honours in the foreseeable future.
In my next column I will be looking at the greatest jockeys and I’m fully aware that, for some punters, “great” means their favourites but statistics have to be the basis for objective analysis. At the end of this exercise, I will present a list of the greatest horsemen of all time.
