Blood donation call for DaCosta
Published:Sunday | March 14, 2021 | 12:38 AMRobert Bailey - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Elizabeth DaCosta, the wife of many-time champion trainer Wayne DaCosta, is appealing to the public for blood on his behalf.
DaCosta, an 18-time champion trainer, has been hospitalised at the Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies since last month, where he has been receiving treatment for an unspecified illness.
While not in the frame of mind to speak yesterday, a clearly distraught Elizabeth, urged Jamaicans to support the call for donations of blood for her husband.
DaCosta, who last won the trainer’s title in 2018, has saddled over 2,000 winners at Caymanas Park, including seven in the Jamaica Derby, the most recent being King Arthur in 2020.
President of the Grooms Association of Jamaica, Fabian Whyte, said he will be making his blood donation this week and he will be encouraging his members to do so as well.
“I am going to be the first to give blood and, if I do so, then I know that the members of my organisation will also do so as well,” said Whyte. “I have spent my whole life in racing and I have known Wayne DaCosta all of my life and he is a very good person.”
Whyte is also encouraging other members of the racing industry to go out and support the call for blood donations on DaCosta’s behalf.
“I am very saddened by the situation that he is in right now and so I am wishing a very speedy recovery for him, because racing needs him and he has done a whole lot for the racing industry over the years,” said Whyte.
“I think that people not only just in the racing industry alone, but other walks of life, should go out and donate blood for DaCosta,” he added.
When news first surfaced of DaCosta’s illness late in February, several members of the local horse racing fraternity rallied behind the veteran trainer, in expressing their well wishes and support.