The Arima Race Club (ARC) celebrated its 22nd anniversary of centralisation at Santa Rosa on Saturday.
Over those years, turfites have supported the Club and enjoyed the performances of numerous outstanding horses. One of the first changes, when the sport was centralised was the shift from importing UK bred and based horses to importing horses from the USA. This was in response to the shift from turf to sand and from racing in a clock-wise direction to racing in an anti-clock-wise direction. It is history but let us recall some of the stars of yesteryear.
One of the first stars was the Laurel Stud’s Sian’s Gold. This filly had raced a few times at the Big Yard with decent form but nothing to suggest that she would be special. Sian’s Gold took the racing world by storm in 1994 and 1995, sweeping everything before her. Her great rival during that period was Vandross. Those two had some epic battles but there was never much doubt who was superior.
After Sian’s Gold dominated, winning the Stewards/Gold Cup double in successive years, we had a motley and largely forgettable group of winners such as Double Helix (also did the double), Personal Decision (also did the double), Senor Rojo and Propane before the dawn of Sugar Mike, owned by Mike Samlalsingh who was the next superstar. Also in the mix was Infallibility and Invincibility, all three horses that would draw the crowds.
Sugar Mike was followed by the Derek Chin owned Storm Street who was a super sprinter and decent stayer but whose career was dogged by controversy. He was nevertheless a fabulous racehorse. The top class sprinters numbered horses like Still Alert, Cash Wager, Sir Alex and Signal Alert. Two horses that never got the chance to fulfil their potential were Daredevil Hero and Ready Set Jet. The former numbered a win in the Arima Race Club Cup but unfortunately lost his life early in his career. The latter was a sprint star who won the Santa Rosa Dash before injury curtailed her career. Film Director, Hello Yankee, Cactus Amour, Raging Halo and Another Decision are other top class horses to have competed on the local scene.
Among the creoles, the first Derby to be run off at the centralised track was run off in a thunderstorm and saw a smashing victory for the Joe Hadeed’s Lash Dem Lara. This gray son of Norse Lad had shown some ability in his prior starts but he was a transformed animal in the Derby and upset the favoured Da Vinci, owned by the Poon Tips. In time thereafter, Da Vinci would show that horse was far superior to the Derby winner though he sadly ended up in Guyana where ironically enough, he proved to be a very successful sire. 1997 will be remembered as the year in which Trinidad was introduced, in mass, to the viability of purchasing Jamaican bred horses to compete in the local classics. Mr Lover Lover in 1997 and Terremoto in 1998 whetted the appetites of local owners to the value of Jamaicans. This took a few years but when the Bernard Dulal-Whiteway owned imported Jamaican - Border Dispute -won the 2005 Derby at good odds, the deal was sealed. Jamaican bred horses have now won 7 of the last eight derbies with the odd year being won by a horse brought into the country in utero.
At the same time that this trend was unfolding, the quality of the local stock was receding. The main cause of that decline was the death of Freshly Squeezed. In the nine-year period between 1996 and 2004, Freshly Squeezed sired the winner of seven Derbies with the other two being won by the aforementioned Jamaican imports. His first Derby winner, Adoring Groom, was good enough to go over to Jamaica and whip them in their own Champion Stakes. Subsequently, two of his sons, Carnival Messiah and Top of the Class raised the bar for local breeding by becoming Triple Crown winners on the sand. The Poon Tips who brought in Freshly Squeezed have been on the hunt for an adequate replacement but without luck so far. Unfortunately, one potentially star sire, The Mea-John’s Big Country, was struck down just as his value was being recognized by local breeders. The quest continues however and local breeders have begun to purchase more mares in foal spurred on by the great success seen with Ruthven Smith’s Headline News. The tables may yet turn hopefully.
We will also never be able to forget 2011 when competitors from all over the Caribbean descended on the Santa Rosa racetrack to compete in the first and so far only truly Caribbean version of the Breeders’ Cup. The excitement generated by those races remain unmatched and it was fantastic to see competitors come to Trinidad all the way from St. Lucia and compete with great success.
The latter years have seen the likes of Tres Amigos’s Bruceontheloose, Basrkaran Bassawh ‘s Bigman in Town, maybe the best ever, Crime of Passion, Nominee, Readbetweendlines and others light up the track. Today we have The Gatsby and Academy Award, who threaten to take all before them.
Horseracing has been good to many in the sport, but now it is time for several persons to give back without expecting favours, something which in T&T appears alien.