Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

Darby Sr.

Trainer, Robert Darby Sr., was the undisputed 'Claiming King' at Caymanas Park in the '90s in tandem with his nephew, one-time perennial owner Derrick Darby.

After the Millennium, his empire crumbled and he was soon overshadowed by his sons, Robert Jr., and Ryan, who followed him into the training ranks.

Now Darby Sr. is back with a vengeance to reclaim his throne.

Last Wednesday the 62-year-old trainer saddled his 31st winner of the season when the vastly improved SIMPLEXITY made all over the straight five course at odds of 15-1.

As a result of his revival, Darby has taken up pernament residence in the Top 10 this season, currently holding down sixth position with 31 winners and close to $9 million in stakes. His tally included a triple comprising ROYAL MALICE, MAMA'S GIRL and MOST WANTED on May 27.

Although this is a far cry from the glorious days of the mid and late '90s, when he saddled as many as 70 winners one season (1997), Darby is pleased with his progress and is hoping that it will be the good old days all over again come next year.

"I have a lot to be thankful for this year," he says. "My 31 winners put me level with Gary Subraite and statistically speaking, only three trainers - Wayne DaCosta, Anthony Nunes and Philip Feanny have saddled more winners at this stage.

"I vowed to give it my all at the beginning of the year and thanks to some hard work it has paid off. But, this is merely laying the foundation for next year.

"I hope to expand my string of 20 to 35 next year ... some owners are interested and better horses will come. Trust me, I will rule again," emphasised the trainer who to date has saddled close to 500 winners.

Confident

Ever confident in his ability to send out winners, Darby demonstrated this some weeks ago when he posted the winner of the fourth race in impressive fashion.

"You think him win easy," he told me. "The other one gwine win even further."

It did!

Darby was also prominent on the Top 10 list of owners for the first six months of the season, but has since fallen off. As far as he's concerned though, the conditioning of horses is the focus and he's the master at turning around problem horses owing to his patience and application.

In recent months Darby has won races with SIMPLEXITY (twice), MAMA'S GIRL, DON'T STAY NAKED, TIME OF MY LIFE, MOST WANTED, FIWI EMBLEM, WHITE WATER, QUICK MEDIC, LATIN KING, YESSBABY, NATURAL SELECTOR, HOOKEDONJAZZ, ROYAL MALICE, SAID I SAID I, TOCUMEN and BABY RENEE, all typical claimers.

At this point in time he has lost nearly all of these horses to the claiming market, but concedes that this is just part of the game.

A past student of Calabar High where he represented the school in the Manning Cup football competition as goalkeeper in the early '60s before moving to Cavalier in two unbeaten seasons with the famous club, Darby is a trained accountant who was once employed to the ICD Group of Companies.

However, racing proved an irresistible magnet and he entered the sport as owner with trainers Harry Jaghai and Thomas Rochester to whom he was assistant trainer.

Darby successfully completed the Jamaica Racing Commission training course and became a fully-fledged trainer on February 1, 1991, and six days later saddled his first winner with his first runner, WINDSTORM, with jockey Gary Santos. He has not looked back, going on to rewrite local racing history.

He capped the award as most improved trainer in 1994 and the following year was named the outstanding trainer of 1995.

In 1996, he recorded one of the most remarkable training feats when saddling run of the mill claimer PRINCE AKEEM to finish second to the Trinidadian horse ADORING GROOM in the prestigious Red Stripe Superstakes, upstaging the Triple Crown winner and hot favourite, WAR ZONE, which was unbeaten in 12 previous races.

The following year he purchased the ailing ROBIN HOOD for a 'song' (almost nothing) and turned the horse around to win eight consecutive races. ROBIN HOOD entered the Superstakes as one of the highly fancied runners in 1997, but broke down during the race and was never the same horse again.

Without the backing of his two major patrons, Derrick Darby and Mark Hinds, Darby may never reach those dizzy heights again. But, now on the rebound, he plans to give it his best shot next year. And being a bit older and wiser, you can bet he's going to make a race of it.