Emancipation Race Day – grand parade of horse racing bloodline

IN HORSE racing, of course, bloodline is everything. While proper care (i.e. nutrition, handling) is also clearly important, lineage offers a strong early indicator of potential speed and/or stamina.

It’s what will be on show at the upcoming Emancipation Race Day. This grand parade of horse racing bloodline is that elegant alchemy of (animal) science and (human) art, practised generationally by the breeders that yields the champions and legends that pique the interest and spur conversations on race days.

As the leading breeders recognise, such legacies are impossible to build on mere chance. A couple hours’ drive from Caymanas Park is the Orange Valley Estate, located on the border between Trelawny and St James, a stud farm that has been carefully building a track record of excellence and accolades.

The 23-time Breeders’ champion (13 consecutive) was started in 1963 by Ian Henderson and one of Jamaica’s foremost horsemen, Calvin O’Sullivan. They began with a handful of mares and local-bred stallion Birnamwood.

After achieving moderate success, Henderson secured, from the UK, four more mares and the stallion Zaleucus, who had just won the Royal Hunt Cup (1964, at Ascot). He wasted little time in justifying the investment, siring many winners over his long career, including 1973 Horse of the Year Tachyon, who died in 1989 at the age of 28.

Having a shorter lifespan, but no less recognised was The Peacemaker, whose progeny include The Viceroy and Distinctly Native. Other notable sires include Texas Prospector and He’sTheRealThing.

Back then, racing was largely centred on Knutsford Park, 85 acres that sat where the concrete, steel and glass towers of New Kingston now dominate.

Dawn Browne carries the torch of the famed estate today, just as Alec Henderson and his wife Jacqui look to further the Orange Valley legacy. They all acknowledge the significant challenges, economic and otherwise, that the industry currently faces, and they are resolved to proceed in the most efficient and expeditious way possible.

Both operations sit on large former sugar estates, with buildings and other historically significant features and attractions.

But being home to legends of the racetrack remains a strong focus, and even as they prepare for yet another generation to assume its place, these legacy horse breeders look forward to seeing their respective charges face the starter at events such as the Emancipation Race Day.

Winners, after all, never quit...it’s in the blood.