Baba still hungry for trainers’ titles

Former champion trainer Anthony ‘Baba’ Nunes says the burning desire to reclaim the trainers’ championship remains strong, and he is determined to wrestle the title back from long-time rival Jason DaCosta.

Nunes captured three consecutive trainers’ championships from 2019 to 2021 before losing the last four to DaCosta, the son of legendary 18-time champion trainer Wayne DaCosta, who passed away in March 2021.

According to Nunes, there is no denying his ambition to return to the top.

“Of course I want to win it, and so I would be lying if I told you I didn’t,” Nunes said.

While admitting that his outlook has changed over the years, Nunes noted his competitive spirit remains very much alive.

“We have won three straight and then we lost four straight; so obviously, my competitor in me wants to do it again,” he said.

“But again, it is different. It is not like when we had never won one, and that was that driving force and the end-all of my life. It is not any more.

“A lot has happened over the years and I have gotten older and wiser, and there are more important things in life than winning a championship, but the competitive drive and the burning desire to win a championship is most certainly within me,” Nunes stated.

He noted that his stable currently houses around 75 horses, although that number is expected to decrease slightly as some retire to the breeding shed.

“We have about 75 horses right now, but some are going to go and retire to the breeding shed, and we might end with about 65 to 70 horses throughout the year,” said Nunes.

“If our top horses continue to stay healthy and sound, then we feel that we have a good shot at it, along with the other two trainers that I discussed earlier, but the health is the key with these horses,” he said.

The veteran trainer pointed out that the new racing year did not get off to the start he had hoped for.

“We didn’t start the way we wanted to start on the first race day of the year. It was a disappointing day, running three seconds, because I felt we had the opportunities and the horses to win the races, but things just didn’t work out right,” Nunes noted.

Despite the slow start, Nunes expects a highly competitive season, with familiar and emerging challengers pushing for top honours.

“It is a long year and we expect to compete against Jason DaCosta and young Peter-John Parsard, whose barn is getting bigger and stronger every year because he is a nice young trainer with a lot of good clients and good horses,” Nunes said.

“It is good for racing to have more than one person competing for the championship every year, and so it is good to see Peter-John come forward. This is a great thing for racing.”