Wayne DaCosta: The Horse Whisperer
WAYNE DACOSTA is widely regarded as one of the best horse trainers in Jamaica. He has saddled more than 2,000 winners and is the leading trainer at Caymanas Park.
However, DaCosta, who has been involved with racing for more than four decades, has not had an easy road to success. He said his love for horse racing started when he was much younger.
“Our mode of transportation in those days was our horses. We used to ride in Up Park Camp. Anywhere we wanted to go in those days, we used to ride horses,” he said.
“We used to, on the weekends, ride up in the hills, quite as far as Irish Town and basically spent the whole day up there, but in those days, we were young and we were excited, and so our horses basically carried us wherever we wanted to go.”
DaCosta said that getting into horse racing in the early years was difficult.
“The most challenges that I had in my younger days was to get good horses, because in those days, the system was much different from what it is now,” he said.
“In those days, it was a handicap system, and so you just couldn’t claim a horse and get yourself going. You basically had to come to the sale and buy a horse, and if you never had enough money in those days – and I certainly didn’t have enough money – you couldn’t get the good horses or the well-bred horse,” DaCosta said.
“But nowadays, the system has changed, and so it is much easier for a youngster to come in and get rolling pretty quickly. But in those days, it is was very difficult to get ... quality horses to race in the top classes.”