After many years in racing and over 300 winners, Harry Jaghai has seen both good and bad times.

Jaghai started his career as a lightweight jockey of 98 lb, but his adoption of the Rastafarian faith at a tender age strangled his riding career.

Not so as a trainer though; with his deep-seated love of horse racing, Jaghai switched at age 23 from riding to training.

Even though he rode only three winners – two as an apprentice and the third as a licensed rider – Jaghai picked up many of the finer points of preparing horses under then high-profile trainer Tewfic Ziadie while at 51 Red Hills Road in St Andrew where he spent just over five years.

“Ziadie was a master horseman, and if you were observant enough of what you were exposed to, it served very well in one’s development.”

Jaghai comes from a horse-loving family, starting with his father Abraham and his father’s two brothers, Ramjas and Chunmun.

Abraham Jaghai, like his father before him, also produced three children – Harry, Henry and Henrietta. While Harry concentrated on training horses, Henry focused his attention on breeding runners for the racing industry at his Bombay Stud Farm in St Catherine.

Harry Abraham Jaghai was born and raised at 58 ½ Spanish Town Road in the Tivoli Gardens area until age seven, and in 1945 he moved to Cassia Park Road where his grandfather had bought an acre of land and set up shop.

“Reggie ‘Daddy Mac’ McKenzie had a stable on Red Hills Road, and a youngster by the name of Wilbert Benjamin lived nearby; we both went to the same school – St Richard’s Primary. In those day Dapper ‘Dan’ Jackson had a stable on Kew Road, and Benjamin and myself were so enthusiastic about becoming jockeys that we inquired constantly at the Jackson stables about being taken on as apprentices, but that inquiry was met with rebuttals so we moved on,” Harry Jaghai revealed.

However, when he was 12 years old, one of his aunts took him to Knutsford Park, then the racing centre of Jamaica.

“On my first day at Knutsford Park I saw Frankie Fraser in action – a top jockey of the day. He was a major source of inspiration for me.

“Brimming with enthusiasm, my brother Henry encouraged me to become a jockey, and my mother took me to the Tewfic Ziadie Stables, now known as Ziadie Gardens,” he continued.

Harry was approaching his 13th birthday and was accepted. A horse by the name of Zackieldeen was placed in his care.

“To me it seemed as though Zackieldeen was a training ground for me as he was the first horse that I climbed aboard. I used to give him light workouts on a three-furlong ring at the stables, plus trots and canters.

“After my training for one year to become an apprentice, I began to ride as an apprentice in 1952, and my first ride as an official apprentice was aboard Zackieldeeen. It was a field of five and I came fourth. Although I did not win, it felt to me as if I had won, as I got great joy riding in my first race.”

In those early days races were run at two venues – Knutsford Park, managed by Bob Mayall, and Little Ascot in Old Harbour, managed by Altimond Armond and Joseph Armond, who controlled Turf Club Limited.

Following his first riding experience, Jaghai booted home his first winner, Quilt, trained by Ziadie at Old Harbour.

“The trainer had two runners in the race – the other being Zackieldeen – and my horse was expected to go to the front and then shorten, while Zackieldeen was to pick up from there and continue to the finish line, but Quilt continued on his merry way and won the race,” Jaghai said with a hearty laugh.

His second winner came atop Zackieldeen. This time it was at Knutsford Park. Both Quilt and Zackieldeen were again in the race, but it was Zackieldeen who came out on top.

“Those were the only races I won, and after serving my five-year apprenticeship with Ziadie, for some unknown reason I wanted a change of stables. I went to Owen Silvera at 3 Molynes Road around 1958.

“Though capable, I never got the winning rides to match my interest and skill. This was a major disappointment in building a successful career as a jockey, and I later discovered that it was one thing to have a great passion for the sport, but getting those winning rides to support that interest was another matter altogether.

“So, after seven years, I took a break and went into the cabinet-making business in 1958 and started out by polishing finished products,” Jaghai said.

By 1963 Harry Jaghai was ready again to become a jockey – this time all trimmed and shaven. He returned to Caymanas Park as a freelance jockey. However, it was not until Boxing Day of 1967 that he would post his third and final career win as a jockey when he rode Polyphemus – a one-eyed horse – to victory for trainer Ivan Fray.

“I should have won two races on that day – the other aboard Top Brass – but after interference in the straight, I could only manage third.”

Four and a half years later at the ageof 24, with no winning rides coming his way and with bills to pay, Harry Jaghai turned his attention to the demanding art of training race horses.

By the middle of 1972, five former riders – including Lorenzo Bloomfield, Alfred Dixon and Jaghai – were examined to become trainers. Jaghai was the only successful candidate to emerge from the lot at the time.

From that day he never wasted any time in demonstrating his virtuosity among thoroughbreds, and posted a winner with his first start, Conquistador, for owner Tony Wong in the Berger Paints Cup feature.

Since then Jaghai has gone on to post almost 340 winners, and at one stage in the 1990s he finished fourth in the trainers’ standings.

This, Jaghai pointed out, was when he had horses such as Marley Barley, Proceed and several others under his care.

“I had a Classic winner in Lady Bangalore, who won the Jamaica Oaks.” He has also trained two Governor’s Cup winners.

After so many years in racing Jaghai has seen it all, but says he is very upbeat and pleased with the work being done by new promoters, Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited.

“Their cash flow improvement policy is a major boost to the industry, as this will no doubt – and has [already]started to encourage owners and non-owners alike, who are lovers of the sport, to shake off the rust and return to the game,” Jaghai said.