QUESTION (Q): Where are you from?
KEFFIN MURRAY: I am from Portmore. I was born in the community of Naggo Head and came to Gregory Park some months afterward where I spent all my teenage years, and I was always on the track with my father’s connection — to be with the master himself and the doyen of the Sport of Kings.
Q: Which high school did you attend?
KM: I attended KC (Kingston College).
Q: How did you get into horse racing?
KM: My father Byron Murray, who is currently a groom working with Philip Feanny at his stables, has been carrying me to the track since the 1980s, and many of those years I have spent around Feanny learning. My father, however, went to Trinidad and Tobago for some years. He visited as the groom of Princess Popstar and stayed on. However, he has now rejoined Feanny once again, and for me, growing up with that level of exposure around the gentle master himself, learning the groundings of the sport to become a trainer started on an even keel from there on. I left off for a while as I was a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and spent some years in the profession, but horse racing is something that I always value. I am back here again to stay as I had always desired to become a trainer from a little boy — whether it was board horses or marbles or whatever — but my interest was always in horses. For that matter, I thought of becoming a jockey at one time. As a little boy, I used to be an apprentice but I got an injury. There is this horse Feanny had by the name of Pinchers. After Gilbert most of the horses were on the ring walking and Pinchers, he reared in the air and unfortunately fell to the ground on my knee. The incident kept me out of school for about six months as, after that mishap, my mother decided that she does not want me to go to the track, but that still did not keep me away.
Q: Which year did you get your trainer’s licence?
KM: I got my licence in 2018.
Q: Which horse was your first winner?
KM: I saddled my first winner in 2020 with the racehorse Moon and since then, the going has been tough as becoming a horse racing trainer is very challenging if you do not have the owners to support your activity. By not having owners to support your training activity your career is at a distinct disadvantage. But it is a sport that I dearly love as there are some good times and, like anything else, it has its ups and downs.
Q: Who is the best trainer for your training at Caymanas Park?
KM: Philip Feanny. There are other outstanding and gifted talents in the late Wayne DaCosta but Philip Feanny heads the lot. He was the one to who I worked with as an apprentice. He was my teacher, my mentor from a little boy. I was always around him and prepared some of the best horses to grace the track at Caymanas Park, including Eros, Wantin and Havin, Michelle Magic, and The Viceroy, naming a few.
Q: In your view, the best jockey?
KM: The best I have seen is Winston Griffiths. He is the best jockey I have seen on a horse while standing still, walking the ring, or in motion. Others get the job done while he has no equal.
