With the Trinidad Der­by Stakes set to be run off in some two weeks at San­ta Rosa Park in Ari­ma, the John O’Brien-trained Head­lin­er will be ex­pect­ed to win his sev­enth straight race and be­come the Triple Crown cham­pi­on of 2025.

With­out a shad­ow of a doubt, Head­lin­er, which has been rid­den in the main by Dil­lon Khelawan, has been the stand­out among the three-year-olds and it will take a su­per per­for­mance from one of them to low­er his colours. The Di­ane E Scott-owned colt has won the first two legs of lo­cal rac­ing’s Triple Crown with con­temp­tu­ous ease and should give O’Brien an­oth­er suc­cess. Cham­pi­on train­er O’Brien will be seek­ing to en­sure that he lands his 13th suc­cess in rac­ing’s biggest event.

The Trinidad Der­by is set for Sep­tem­ber 24, Re­pub­lic Day, when the three-year-olds will gal­lop over 2,000 me­tres on the main track.

With­out a doubt, the Trinidad Der­by Stakes holds no equal as the most pres­ti­gious rac­ing event run off in this coun­try, and one with a long and very colour­ful his­to­ry.

This race has at­tract­ed spon­sors like the House of An­gos­tu­ra from 1988, and was re­ferred to as the Roy­al Oak Der­by Stakes; this Grade I event for the Caribbean’s best three-year-olds, was ac­tu­al­ly first run off in 1902 when Mr L De­venish’s ‘Fox’ with Lynch up, de­feat­ed three oth­er ri­vals over eight fur­longs at the ‘Big Yard’, the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, which was the home of the Der­by un­til 1993, af­ter which rac­ing was cen­tralised at San­ta Rosa Park, in Ari­ma.

The Ja­maican in­flu­ence on the Der­by man­i­fest­ed at the start of the 50s. Frank Wat­son’s Foot­mark (clas­si­fied B2), trained by Leo V Williams with Lester New­man as pi­lot, won the 1950 edi­tion over Top Flight, and al­so took the Stew­ards Cup at the same meet­ing for a no­table dou­ble. Mr. Lover Lover with Si­mon Hus­bands aboard rekin­dled the old­en days with an im­pres­sive vic­to­ry in 1997; while Ter­re­mo­to and Charles Hussey fol­lowed up in 1998.

His name, which has be­come a leg­end in Caribbean rac­ing cir­cles, was Er­ic “Colt” Du­rant, the Mae­stro of Mara­bel­la, cham­pi­on train­er in T&T on “umpteen” oc­ca­sions.

De­ceased Du­rant, who was grant­ed a train­er’s li­cence in 1959, and had his first win­ner with Mer­lin Sam­lals­ingh’s Cast­away that same year, has won a record eight Der­bies with a galaxy of stars such as Deco­rum (1964), Pe­ga­sus Plus (1966), Roy­al Colours (1982), Roy­al Salute (1983), Con­quest (1985), Buck’s Nugget (1987), Flag Woman (1991), and Rene­gade (1993). Since rac­ing has been cen­tralised at San­ta Rosa, la­dy luck has not smiled on the Mae­stro, who re­tired in 1999.

De­ceased, Al­win Poon Tip, is on record as the lead­ing lo­cal own­er and one who is still very ac­tive­ly in­volved in rac­ing, with four suc­cess­es in the Der­by, Pe­ga­sus Plus (1966), Roy­al Colours (1982), Ador­ing Groom (1996), and Grooms­man (1999) have donned his cher­ry and black silks to vic­to­ry.

Al­win Poon Tip’s in­flu­ence on the Der­by is far more pro­found than his four per­son­al suc­cess­es, for hors­es bred at his San­ta Cruz Stud farm, ei­ther per­son­al­ly or from mares board­ed there, won five straight Der­bies from 1981-1985 with Monar­chy, Roy­al Colours, Roy­al Salute, Valeroso and Con­quest; in 1996 with Ador­ing Groom, 1999 with Grooms­man and New Mil­len­ni­um in 2000.

The Eng­lish­men have al­so had a field day in the Der­by, with Cross­ley (Belle­dune - 1943) Bob­by Hard­widge (Atom­ic 11 - 1947), Frank Quest­ed (Em­bers - 1951; and Au­re­lian - 1963), and Frank O’Neil (Dar­jeel­ing and Fair Chance), all res­i­dent in the Caribbean, while sea­son­al vis­i­tors John Hig­gins (Aquar­ius - 1972, Va­len­cia Boy - 1974, Sky Glo­ry - 1975) Tony Kim­ber­ley (Can­tu­ar - 1976), De­nis Mc Kay (High Court 11 - 1973), and Ge­off Bax­ter (Page of Glo­ry - 1977), as well as in­ter­na­tion­al­ly renowned Eng­lish rid­ers Lester Pig­gott (4th on High Noon in 1972); and Willie Car­son (un­placed an Mer­rylegs in 1980), have all rid­den in the big one at the Big Yard. Of the cur­rent-day rid­ers like­ly to threat­en Jones’ record are Ra­j­paul Ra­jku­mar with four (Con­quest, Buck’s Nugget, Ca­chi­to Mio, and Phardance), Bri­an Hard­ing’s two (Flag Woman, Rene­gade), and Dale Whit­tak­er’s two (Lash Dem Lara, Ador­ing Groom), both at San­ta Rosa. It was there­fore be­fit­ting that his­to­ry should record the first win­ner of the ‘new’ Der­by in Roger Hadeed’s Lash Dem Lara rid­den by Dale Whit­tak­er, trained by Joseph Hadeed.

Though O’Brien re­ceived his li­cence in 1991, he has bro­ken all records and has now won as much or more than any train­er alive. On Sep­tem­ber 24, he will most cer­tain­ly be the train­er with the high­est win­ning score in the Der­by–13, with Head­lin­er.