Caymanas Park The Birth Place

Why horse racing? That is a common question  I get when someone finds out how much I love the sport. I grew up walking distance from the race track in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Caymanas Park was the place to be on Wednesdays and Saturdays. My father who owned a race horse named Keep Going was a horse player and I wanted to be just like him. I loved sitting around, listening to the Saturday night conversation about the various races that took place that day. Often the conversation would be about a certain jockey or a trainer who pulled off a shocker. My mother disliked how much I loved the horses. She did everything possible to discourage my love for the sport, but eventually she knew the battle was lost. I wanted to be a horse player.

One of the most dramatic moment happened when I was around ten years old. We all were having breakfast when my dads' groom came on the veranda of our home. The look on father's face told me something wasn't good. That was the first time I had ever heard the word colic. My dad's horse had colic and passed away. My mother said nothing. My siblings and I had no idea what was going on but my father excused himself from the table and went with the groom. Keep Going had won one race with jockey Emilio Rodriquez riding him. Emilio would eventually become my favorite jockey on the island. After the passing of Keep Going I would go in the closet that stored the silks of my father's stable and put it on. The smell. The thought that a jockey had put this on made me dream of riding a horse in a race.  I would crouch over like a jockey and using a long piece of stick, I would ride and pump, reciting a race that had stuck in my head earlier. The game had me in its clutches and wasn't about to let me go.

The jockeys were and still are one of the biggest draw to  Caymanas Park in Jamaica. The jockeys would get nicknames from the locals based on how they ride or because of something that sticks out about them.  Emilio Rodriguez nickname was "Bimbo", then you had Winston "Fanna Griffiths who was the people's champion. Jamaicans loved "Fanna" who got his nickname from how he would use his stick on a horse. He would show the horse the whip and like a fan he would wave it rapidly back and forth, usually getting an extra drive out of his horse. Jockeys like Charles Hussey and George HoSang were regular money players for the fans at the track. We had jockeys who lived in the neighborhood and that added to beauty of the races for me. Jockeys like the Andrades lived a short distance from my home. I remembered when the youngest of the Andrades, Boyd Andrade won his first race. The young apprentice stood up in the saddle when he hit the wire and raised his right hand to the crowd. It was big news on the television that night. His career never lasted long because he outgrew the saddle, and he never got the recognition his brother Alton got who was a skilled rider. Other jockeys who lit up the tote boards and made fans angry and happy all in one day were, Robert "Collie" Reid, Pernel Linton, Carl "Duece" Morgan, Neville Anderson, Fitzroy "Pumpkin" Glispie, David "Scorcher" Mckenzie, Hubert "Chinna" Bartley, and many more that gave me  lasting images  on many cool Saturday nights.  These jockeys and their horses would be a topic of conversation at my house on a Saturday evening after the races. Men would argue how badly a horse was ridden and how they could have done it better. This was all usually washed down with jerk chicken and some Red Stripe Beer.

The biggest moment at the track in Jamaica when I was a child was the running of the Derby. Everyone had their horse. Arguments would break out between  people over who the best horse was. Legal Light was the first dominating horse I ever knew. He won the Jamaican Derby in 1977. What a moment that was. Everyone had him it seemed after the race. His trainer, the legendary Billy Williams, nickname Masters, won the prestigious Jamaica Derby five times. Williams was the first Jamaican to saddle a winner in Puerto Rico during the running of Confraternity Classic in 2006, when his charge Miracle Man who had won the Jamaican Derby in 2005 pulled out the win. Williams passed away in 2009 at the age of 78. Another horse that had me excited as a youth was Harlequin. What a horse. I remembered when he journeyed down to Puerto Rico for the Caribbean classic. My dad and his friends circled around the radio to listen to the race. I was buried in the midst. The race caller had Harlequin in front. The excitement enveloped our three bedroom house. Sadly, Harlequin's stay in front would be short lived. He finished up the track, but the joy of hearing one of our own being called in a race, in a place that was foreign to us was thrilling.

Female trainers made their way around the mostly men dominated track. One woman that stood out when I was a child was the legendary Eileen Cliggott. I remembered her big horse truck vanning her horses on race day to the track. She never won the trainers title, but she was a constant force winning over nine hundred races. The British born trainer retired in 2001, and she died at the age of ninety in 2007.

Over the years Jamaican jockeys made the trip across the ocean and landed in places like Canada and The United States. On the backstretch you can find many working as exercise riders and many who have made a living riding in races. Jockeys like Andrew Ramgeet, who won the Jamaican Derby a few times continue to show off his skills along with Ramon Parish, and Barrington Harvey. Also young apprentice Andre Worrie just moved his skills to New York and Jermaine Bridgmohan is still trying to find a steady fit for his talent. The most notable of Jamaican jockeys are Shaun Bridgmohan and Rajiv Maragh. Both jockeys have competed in the prestigious Kentucky Derby, which is big on the island, and both are consistently on the top money winner list year round. Rajiv Maragh has his derby mount this year with Wicked Strong, and Shaun Bridgmohan is hoping to draw into the body of the race with Commanding Curve. Both horses should  make a good account of themselves if  all goes well. Other Jamaicans who have made a name for themselves are trainers Ralph Ziadie and Colin Maragh. Jockey agent Richard Depass was a former champion jockey in the seventies in Jamaica. He has represented Jorge "Chop Chop"Chavez and Rajiv Maragh.

Horse racing is a story line that lives in my blood stream. It came to me one day when the Jamaican sun baked on asphalt and country dirt. It wrote a story of love and joy in my blood. Horse racing became to me what basketball or football would be for any kid growing up in the United States. When I moved to the states it took a moment for me to find my way around the New York tracks. The loves fest began once again once I regained my footing. The story that birthed itself in Caymanas Park started a rewrite with my new journey. The joy came full circle on a chilly day at Aqueduct when my favorite jockey when I was a kid in Jamaica, Emilio "Bimbo" Rodriquez won. Memories flooded to the backdrop of my mind, bringing back that cool Saturday when going to Caymanas Park was the thing that filled a young Jamaican kid with excitement.