Thoroughbred racing is a popular pastime in Jamaica and one of the most decorated participants is jockey Winston “Fanna” Griffiths.
Still, the winningest rider in the history of race-riding in Jamaica, as well as the English-speaking Caribbean, Griffiths top the charts with 1,615 wins dating back to his first aboard Utter Bliss in 1975, the same year he started horserace riding.
Griffiths won the first of five Jockeys Championships three years later, with the last being achieved in 1995. Griffiths won Champion Jockey of the year four straight year, from 1978 -1981 and his fifth in 1995.
The Classics and major races are where he was at his best and he rode his first Derby winner, Royal Dad, in 1981, and the horse that eventually became the first Triple Crown winner at Caymanas Park.
In 1992 Griffiths and many-time champion trainer Philip Feanny teamed up to win an unprecedented five Classic races (all) in a Calendar year with Classique and Milligram, that year’s Triple Crown winner. It was later recognized as a world record which was extended the following year when the jockey/trainer combination continued where they had left off in 1992 by winning four of five Classic races with Vestia and Tai Fu Chie.
That special feat landed the pair in the Guinness Book of Records.
He has ridden 44 Classic winners, the world’s best, beating the 29 achieved by England great Lester Piggott.
In 1993 Griffiths, more popularly known as “Fanna”, became the first racing personality in Jamaica to achieve 1,000 winners at Caymanas Park.
In 2013 Winston Griffiths won the Gladiator Trophy at Caymanas Park for his win in a seven furlong race
The Grange Hill, Westmoreland native was honored with the Order of Distinction and is a recipient of the Chairman’s Award at the 2014 RJR Sports Foundation National Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Gala awards.
