Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

Left: Arscott.   Right: The Garrett Arscott-trained DOMINADOR (Richard Mitchell) winning the 1200m Knutsford Park Cup at Caymanas Park on September 9. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Trainer Garrett Arscott has been getting among the winners on a regular basis in recent months and this could be his breakthrough year if the trend continues.

The 36-year-old conditioner has so far saddled 11 winners this season, the last eight since the beginning of August.

His winners during that period are BABY RENEE beginning on August 1, DOMINADOR on August 5 and again on September 9 when landing the Knutsford Park Cup; MUSIC MASTER, DON'T STAY NAKED, the 19-1 outsider CRUSADER'S RALLY and NIJINSKY'S WAR in the Reca Trophy over 1600 metres on September 2.

Prior to August he had posted the fleet-footed DEARDREAMER to back-to-back wins early in the season, as well as ticking off wins with KEELER and MOST WANTED.

Contender

Already he is being touted as a contender for the most improved trainer award for 2006, despite not having a horse running at the overnight or open allowance levels.

Among his string of 15 are mostly claiming horses, some of whom have served him well before being claimed, the most recent being LIGHTENING ALLEY who was taken for $420,000 last Wednesday after his unplaced effort behind BANJUHAR in the Cecil C. Charlton Trophy event.

Among the younger horses are the lightly-raced but highly-thought-of three-year-old gelding, DOMINADOR, who has won his last two races in impressive fashion, along with the improving three-year-old filly CRUDADER'S RALLY and the sparingly raced four-year-old colt BEYOND BRILLIANT who, despite winning back-to-back races last year, has proved difficult to train. He also conditions four unraced two-year-olds, one of whom will race shortly.

Arscott attributes his recent run of success to hard work, application and a greater attention to detail.

Hope to achieve

"You just have to put in the work if you hope to achieve positive results and the stable's recent run of good form is not by accident.

"It means attracting good owners and the unwavering support of my stable staff. I should single out my assistant trainer, Dwight Newby who has gone the extra mile to ensure that things progress smoothly," explained the trainer.

"I am a man who believes in working with what I have, at the same time hoping to get better quality horses down the road. Of course I would love to have an allowance or stakes horse, but right now this is not the case and I have to utilise the claiming system as best as possible," he added.

Arscott got an early introduction to racing through his father Derrick Arscott who is a former president of the Owners Association and owner of the 1976 Derby and Governor's Cup winner RECA, then trained by the late Ren Gonsalves.

Garrett attended Duhaney Park Primary and St. Andrew Technical before going into general construction with his father in 1987. In the early 90s he switched to racing, assuming the role of assistant trainer to his brother 'Mikey' Mattis. He became a full-fledged trainer in the summer of 1998 after successfully completing the JRC course for assistant trainers. His batchmates included Rowan Mathie, Ryan Darby, Eraldo Fullerton and Louis Richards.

First winner

Arscott saddled his first winner, BRAM STOKER, with Wilbert Gobay aboard a month after graduating. And as the years progressed, other winners followed - SELENA MYSTIQUE, with whom he won seven races; CIELO MYSTIQUE, EVER HARD, MR. VIGOROUS, ROBICON, ANCIENT SOUL and PHYSICS BOOK, with whom he won five races.

He saddled MR. VIGOROUS to win the 2004 'Claimer of the Year' award as well. The trainer has so far saddled 67 winners.

Quiet and unassuming, Arscott hails from Duhaney Park and is the father of two. The man who names eight-time champion trainer Kenneth Mattis, father of his brother, as his mentor, enjoys watching football and athletics.