The grey RENEIKA (Leo Miller) powers home in the mud to win the four-year-old and up maiden special over 1100 metres in post-to-post fashion at Caymanas Park on October 5, 2005. Trained by Lawrence Freemantle, RENEIKA won easily as the 6-5 favourite. - FILE

Lawrence Freemantle is a fighter in more ways than one. So, after he landed in trouble in all-age school, and got suspended, the self-proclaimed brilliant boy decided to say good-bye to a formal education. An older friend of his got him fascinated with the whole idea of being a racehorse jockey. At 13, he and the friend left Hayes in Clarendon to seek their fortune in the horse-racing industry. The die was cast and Caymanas Park beckoned.

"There's a big gate up here, that's the gate that we walk through, and when mi walk through, down the straight, mi can't forget, a jockey went on a horse, the horse went round the track, mi come in and fall in love ... Then mi go back down mi yard. All of this was unknown to my parents," Freemantle recalled.

He and the friend, whom he described as a racehorse lover, secretly decided to return to Caymanas Park and, two weeks after the first visit, they were back. They went to Ivan Smith's stable at Christian Pen, St Catherine. There they ate, drank and slept, and were excited about the prospects of becoming jockeys. After a few days his mother, who had missed him by then, investigated and found where he was. She went for him and brought him home.

Ran away again

"Mi go home and go school but within a month mi leave again. Something was biting me, something was biting me, so mi come back at Caymanas, find a different stable, was there as an apprentice jockey, and learn fi ride, but a do everything, like pick out the stall, learn fi hold horse, and everything" he said.

However, the teenage Lawrence started to grow rapidly. His dream of becoming a jockey was being dissipated as fast as his legs were growing. The man, who is now quite strapping with a paunch, was getting too big for his apprentice saddles. Having realised that he was not going to be a jockey, he figured he could become a groom, and started to align himself with experienced grooms.

Moving from stable to stable, he learned the basics of grooming horses and, about age 15, he got his apprentice-groom licence. He continued to be tutored by the experts while making his own observations. At 17, he received his groom licence, making him a registered groomer of horses.

He then associated himself with an ex-jockey, in the Christian Pen area, who taught him the dynamics of good horsemanship. He eventually became responsible for grooming a particular horse, which started to win races. During that time, he had returned home several times, but not to stay for, he said, "A lick out school out of mi head, everything, a jus have racing on my mind." Moreover, he was being paid for doing something he enjoyed.

Not satisfied with just being a groom, a trainer took Lawrence under his wing, seeing that he was a good horseman. He was now foraying into training horses, for which he got an assistant trainer's licence in 1994. Yet, his progress was stymied by his fighting spirit. In 1996, he was involved in a brawl with a security officer and, after a trial by a tribunal, he was suspended for 12 months. Actually, for one and a half years, he was barred from the tracks. This period he said was "very hard". However, he stuck around the stables at Christian Pen, and eked out a living, and in 1998, he reapplied for his licence.

In 2000, he was selected for a training course in horse training. He was back at school, after all those years, studying the practical and theoretical aspects of horse training, being given assignments. At the end of the training, he got excellent grades, of which he said "to me it was very good after not going to school for nearly 20 years".

The college of life

He reasoned: "Even though mi left school at a tender age, what mi always do is keep on buying the newspaper, rap with people who have sense, mi still continue learning. Am not really at school, am at college then, the college of life. I know without certain knowledge you can't be a successful person."

And successful he was to become. In 2001, he became a certified professional horse trainer.

From being a boy who came to St Catherine with only two pants in his bag and having to scrounge around stables doing odd tasks to survive, Freemantle now manages his own stable, the top-flight trainer he is. He is an employer of grooms, et al, and has over 135 winners coming from his stalls. As such, it's a good life that he leads, and life has taught him many lessons.

Though wasting some money in the early goings, this 40-year-old horse whisperer is quite content with his achievements and the success they have brought him. Lawrence has acquired all of the things that people work towards, and has trappings that many university graduates cannot afford. He is married to his childhood girlfriend and is the father of six, including a 16-year-old young man, whom he's teaching the rudiments and intricacies of horse racing.

No regrets

In retrospect, he has no regrets about running away from Hayes. For, apart from the personal gains that horse racing has brought him, he's now the sole breadwinner for his mother. He's travelled the world, and has done things that he had always wanted to do, but there is something that he is yet to do, and that is to fulfil his mother's wish for him.

"She say she regret the day (when Lawrence ran away), but she can't regret it (his involvement in the racing industry). All she asking me to do is to give my life to God ... that is the only part which I haven't given her as yet, but I will give her in due course," he promised.

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com

Horse racing at Caymanas Park in March. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer