Phillip Feanny – acclaimed yet unfazed

HIS IS a name so widely known that even the uninitiated and the casual observers of the Jamaican horse racing scene are familiar with it, whether from Winners Circle captions, sports page headlines, or interviews on radio and television.

Indeed, by the end of the upcoming 2025 Emancipation Race

Day on August 1, the name and visage of Phillip Feanny, in this his 50th year as trainer of thoroughbreds, should again figure prominently in the media and reverberate around the track and wherever horse racing takes the spotlight.

While he remains one of the most unassuming and unpretentious figures in sports (not just racing), that synonymous association with horse racing is deep rooted. The son of a doctor (and an owner of horses), young Feanny had early exposure to the animals and, over time, developed a preternatural ability to visually assess the physical gifts and overall condition of the animal before him.

Feanny is not only a Jamaica Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductee, but also the record holder for the most classics won at Caymanas Park. His remarkable career includes conditioning the most Triple Crown winners and, in 1992 to 1993, he held the World Record for the most classic horse races won with jockey Winston Griffiths, OD.

Feanny also copped the inaugural Mouttet Mile last year with his charge Excessive Force crossing the post in a thrilling finish. Having saddled an unprecedented 45 classic winners, including 10 Derby winners and five Triple Crown winners, Feanny, when quizzed to name his favourite horse, said “the number was too many to recall”.

Always either downplaying or calmly acknowledging his considerable abilities and accomplishments, Feanny attributes his success to understanding owners (“who don’t interfere”), skilled jockeys, good grooms and stable hands and — crucially — the right horse.

While he says that not all his charges were born great, they are universally “good horses”. Who could argue, when a compilation of his winners offers up some of the most beloved and accomplished steeds to ever grace the track.

In addition to EROS (his own charge which, at the risk of bias, he matter-of-factly describes as “the best horse that I’ve ever trained or seen”), and THE VICEROY, other legendary horses trained by Feanny include PRINCE CONSORT, TEMPERENCE OAKS, HELLO POOCHIE LIU — the horse that provided him with the first of his many Jamaica Derby wins; A KING IS BORN, BRUCEONTHELOOSE, DISTINCTLY IRISH, KAZ HOSHAY (who’s Superstakes victory run is still referenced with awe among commentators and punters) and VESTIA. Triple Crown winners LIU CHE POO (1988), MILLIGRAM (1992), I’M SATISFIED (2000) and SIMPLY MAGIC, who in 2002 became the first filly to win the Triple Crown at Caymanas Park must also be listed.

Feanny hardly shows the years or any signs of slowing down, even though he does insist that some of his focus at this stage has shifted from training to breeding. Indeed, he has brought his gifts of assessment and his desire for excellence into the breeders’ sphere, and the HAM Stables (formerly Grange Farms, jointly owned by Howard Hamilton, Clovis Metcalfe, and Feanny) has had a virtual lock on the Breeder’s championship – the top stud farm for the last 14 years.

Ahead of yet another Emancipation Race Day, and with nothing left to prove as a trainer, ‘The Maestro’ will no doubt look to further extend the proven dominance of both training and breeding, reaffirming his already-indelible mark on the annals of Jamaican horse racing.