It was quite a year for trainer Jason DaCosta in 2021, and this year just got a lot sweeter as the in-form conditioner sits proudly atop the trainer’s championship race with just 19 race days left in the season and he is hopeful of staying there to the end of December.

“I am taking it a day at a time and hoping for the best. [I am] just keep plugging and hoping for the best,” DaCosta told the Jamaica Observer.

Last year, DaCosta, who took over the stables from his late father, Wayne, who passed away in March of 2021, was engaged in a ding-dong battle with champion trainer Anthony “Baba” Nunes.

The battle for the top honours was initially expected to be a straight fight between Nunes and Gary Subratie before DaCosta announced himself as a contender and shifted the action into a nail-biting duel with Nunes all the way up until the final race day on Monday, December 27, 2021.

DaCosta, who started training in April 2021 and was some $9 million in stakes behind Nunes, found himself in the driver’s seat in the latter part of the year with the lead in the trainers’ championship. Nunes eventually regained his title for the third-consecutive time with a tally of $63,770,610, approximately $2,791,755 ahead of DaCosta, who ended with $60,978,855.

This year, however, is a different situation as DaCosta is in his first full year of training thoroughbreds for racing and the emerging star conditioner has opened up what at the moment looks like a good enough lead that could take him home and dry.

However, with the money races to come, such as the Gold Cup, the Jamaica Cup, the Ian Levy Cup, the Christopher Armond Sprint, the ultra-rich Two-Year-Old Triple Series and the US$125,000 Mouttet Mile, an exciting finish could be on show for the championship.

At present, DaCosta has garnered $52,520,770 in stakes earnings from his 70 winners, some $4,973,315 more than Nunes, who has earned $47,547,455 from 55 winners this season.

“To tell you the truth, I am really not even focusing on that [championship]… it is going to be an uphill task. Yes, we are going to try, we are always going to try and win the championship, but it is going to be difficult for us to beat Jason, but you never say never,” Nunes said.

Gary Subratie, who is third with $41, 430,905, can get into the mix if he is successful in all the money-spinning races as he currently has two of the top-rated horses in training at present in Calculus and Atomica. The winner of the Mouttet Mile is guaranteed $10 million.

— Ruddy Allen