Nunes delighted after ‘tough’ title win

Trainer Anthony ‘Baba’ Nunes says this year’s championship title was the most difficult of the three he has won at Caymanas Park.

Nunes, who trailed Jason DaCosta, the son of many-time champion trainer Wayne, by more than a million dollars in stakes entering the final two race days of the racing year, captured his third consecutive title by $2.9 million on Monday’s final race day of the 2021 season.

Nunes tallied stakes earnings of $63,770,610 ahead of DaCosta with $60,978,855. Gary Subratie $49,728,395, Ian Parsard $37,034,460 and Richard Azan $19,865,075 rounded off the top five.

“Obviously, this one was extremely competitive as we were behind up to the second to last day of the championship,” said Nunes.

“This one was tough against an opponent who is an extremely good trainer because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and Jason is very talented at what he does,” he said.

“The truth is what Jason did in nine months is very awesome because I don’t see anybody ever doing that again, and he did a phenomenal job as he pushed my barn to the limit,” Nunes said.

Jason began training in Jamaica in March of this year after he took over the stables of his father when the latter died that month.

COMPETITIVE TRAINERS

Nunes underscored that he had to pull out all the stops to secure this victory because all the other trainers were very competitive throughout the year and they pushed each other to the limit.

“It feels good to win but like I said, this one really wasn’t expected in the last two months because earlier in the year we had a comfortable lead, then Gary Subratie came alive and Jason got closer and closer and so it was really a battle throughout the year until the end,” he said.

Nunes, who currently has 55 horses in his stable, pointed out that it is going to be very difficult for him to retain his title in 2022.

“I have always said that every year that I train, I try to win the championships, but realistically I think it is going to be very difficult for me to win next year,” said Nunes.

“My barn is depleted and Jason is loaded and he will be for many years,” he said. “My honest opinion is that I would need to try and reset and regroup the stable and usually it takes a year, or maybe two, to try and get back the set of horses in every class that you want, but that doesn’t mean that I am not going to try (to win) because I am always trying to win the title,” he said.