There has been such a dominance of foreign jockeys that one was delighted to see the Indians take up the fight this Sunday. With the champions Rajendra and Malesh winning 3 out of nine, the outlook was auspicious.

There were three races worth noting and they produced winners of 3 yrs, 4yrs and 5yrs. While Versaki looked elegantly prepared; even the books suggested so; and gave a display that fashions out more wins for him this season; Set alight and Diego Rivera showed complete command.

Set Alight entailed one thing that the horse that may beat him has to come from Mumbai. When it came abreast Aurora Aurealis and Icebreaker; the latter horses were greatly ruffled. It was almost as if the inevitable had arrived. One has to congratulate Hayes though that he never once opted for the whip and still clocked within a second of Mystical’s record.

Malesh has been known to have many connections. The latest is his nephew Neeraj. There was some doubt that he may give in to the next generation. But then there was a reverse theory of him throwing some fire after Set alight has been taken off his hands. He was merciless and an absolute picture of confidence on Diego Rivera as he broke the record. The record would be hard to beat.

They were so brilliant that one could note any other notable runner.

The disappointment of the day was Kiara and one is tempted to feel that the horse has lived his best time. At this handicap and with really fast horses he was not beaten, he was vanquished. Spica won it from a dazzling Shyboy. Dashrath is a good sprint jockey.

There was old rivalry at work in the second race with Rajendra and Malesh giving each other some anxious moments. In the end, Rajendra triumphed on Mr Greedy, earlier having ridden to victory by Malesh.

The day started with an upset and carried the trend till the jackpot legs started. Falcon Crest was an impressive winner in the hands of the promising apprentice Zervan. One has begun to feel that Prakash is not interested in riding anymore. He looked raw and only his superior riding skills let him place on the three mounts in his first visit to Mumbai. He had skipped the Pune season totally.

The most convincing winner though was Chevron with Hayes celebrating in style. He opened up a yawning gap at 200 meters and then sat as if to surmise on a glorious day. He has won the 1000 guineas and the derby lies at his mercy.

Dr. Ramaswamy has a penchant for the Poonawalla races, and that may be because of their close connections. Anyway, Forest flair was running in a mediocre group, with only Sans Pareil looking a picture of confidence. The manner in which Flair went down in its last outing, the result was a foregone conclusion. The timing was cute.

The Dr., in the final analysis, would be very agonized with the day’s proceedings. His best apparent roads to fame in the biggies – have been destroyed in the scope of last two big days. Earlier, it was Flaming Ace who came in the blazed path of Set Alight, and now, Angel’s Glory came a cropper. Yes, the start was not very encouraging but to lose to a horse 2 years your senior is not classic stuff. River dancer has been Mr. Consistent and was yet again helped in his conquest, this time by N G McCullagh.

The brilliant last run in the last Bangalore race had goldplated Rhapsidion Snow, and it won like a champion. Shroff’s tactic to go with Running Bull and not Diego Rivera was surprising, considering that Running Bull was previously a Paddy horse. The others were either outclassed or saved the best for other days.

The match race advertised between Autonomy and Dancing Dynamite was that only – a match race. There were goose bumps for both the connections and perhaps, the experience of the Mumbai Darling Richard Hughes did the trick for Autonomy. The latter was not disgraced in defeat and seems to be a candidate for the long distance races. Mumbai appears to have taken great care of the horses in the Pyrexia days.

The first four races were alternate as favorites and upsets obliged in unison. One feels for Polarizer and thinks that it has to deliver in the coming races. The handicappers are confused.
Todywalla killed the rabbit in the starting race as has been his habit in the earlier part of seasons. It was mentioned in these columns that it would pay to play every Rajendra favorite. Royal Crown accentuated that. Rajendra almost doubled that with Needforspeed, but for the steward’s analysis, who gifted the race to Kai and Allan.

Sepia Tone, Matata Pride and Classic Star were the other winners. Narendra Lagad was a notable absentee in the winner’s enclosure.

Arjun Mangalorkar has made his intentions clear this season by bagging horses from the main stables. He started his count at the count of Count This, the favorite that was pipped in the post by his money mint-Hawaiian Sunrise. The mare has been keeping the bank accounts happy for the master over the last three years with two wins each season.

Then came the time for a nice coup! His retained jockey S John on One looked all cornered for glory with a systematic victory, but was given a run by Raptor Force. It was then that Sarmaidar came with brute force to knock a punch and make a heady trainer’s quinella. It was a surprise why the horse was in no one’s charts even after winning 1 month ago against a hard tried Prakash horse. It is reflective knowledge that Arjun rarely repeats.

Arjun tasted the cherry with a hallowing victory of Aboline in the million. The 3 year old won with such resounding brilliance and in great timing of 1:13.47 that it looks to have just started, and the next year beckons for him.

Mark of Gibraltar showed he is quite fit, and the rest of the races were laced with favorites, with nothing much that was out of the rack. One is sceptive though of the runs that Greens is giving. The horse is easing in the last 200 meters when it is apparent that its cylinders are full. Follow the horse to death.

Friday’s races were supportive of the next day’s features. Padmanabhan has been very busy in the paddocks these days, getting good support from David Allan. The foreigner has been in the thick of things because he has understood very fast that Bangalore track is meant to be in the middle. Not inside, not outside.

The day also made two trainers open their account after sitting idle in Mysore main. Sharat Kumar and Prasanna Kumar got success at last, with Voice of India and Spark of Gold filling their gaps. The memory of the latter showing steady heels on the concluding day of Bangalore Summer has not quite wiped off from the alert minds.

The rest was routine stuff with a fresh breeze coming in Super Speed’s foot. The horse may win in age category.

 The Poonawalla Derby was somewhere between a sensation and a damp squib. The Mumbai horses were not allowed to be in the fray and Fleeting Arrow, previously unbeaten in the local turf, never seemed interested. Somehow, the feeling of overlapping interests for different connections is pretty strong and overflowing.

How else does one elaborate on the spineless Fargeat on Fleeting Arrow in the major race and coming up with a workmanlike effort on Equidae in the next! The catch was that the winners in both races were trained by the smart schooler Padmanabhan. Anyway, Icebreaker was always in the wings and showed sustained turn of foot in the final 300 meters to keep the surprisingly refreshed Abs Fabs and the strongly urged Fantastic Quest at bay.

Padmanabhan enclosed two more winners in Classerville and River Island and one was especially happy to see the later emerge victorious. Ever since she came flying second to Woman on Top, expectations were bound to be there and it had been belying it for close to a year now. Hope it retains the winning foot.

B Prakash started the day on Queen’s Collection which had a fair measure of other kids but one does feel for the jockey who seems to have lost that vitality that is his forte. He should munch on getting tips from the European legends much like Rajendra got from Chris Lemaire in 2003. That proved very beneficial for the latter.

Krishnan has come of age and even in this age has the zest for the competition. He breezed past Kandiate, a pretty resolute customer and gave Putanna one more long-armed winner. The readers are tipped to follow Maahi Ve in the next races, where it would surely return great favors.

Just when Warren Singh seemed set to go to the bank on Buck passer Junior, the veteran trainer R Byramji came up with the thought and the filly of his own. Girl Next Door vanquished the much jinxed Singh yet again.

Harish has the habit of conceiving magic every once in a while and he did that twice today. Quite Achiever left the field cold with a distance victory and the way the promising jockey was rapturous on the gelding was special. Dante’s Peak helped by David Allan was a remote second in what was a prescience of the day that was going to be. You do not always lead in four winners in a classy center like Bangalore. 

The peach of a race was the assistant handicap race to the Derby that provided a locking finish between four horses after the sudden withdrawal of Mark of Gibraltar. It was enterprising to notice three foreign riders given some lessons by an Indian youngster and S A Desousa and Cart Wheel showed good sense in throwing his mount in the last stride to cross Gnaneshwar’s Mighty Heart. The other pair within half the neck’s length was Calming Influence and the favorite Sugar Ray. The last mentioned would be hard to crack in a 1400 meter race.

In 1833, with a pack of 4 foals, when an adventurous field colonel came out in full glory, little did he realize that he was writing the sheets of history! Horseracing as an enterprising game was born and the four-legged animals had a bunch of genuine followers.
In those days of neo-modernism and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, things were looking up and numerous cantonments took pleasure in ramming their own horse-ridden games like polo and equestrian. There was an earnest desire of seeing the horses in full flight and contending for relative supremacy and so the same cantonments came up with unanimous theories of starting horse races in India too.

Time went on and Calcutta, then the British capital, became a beacon of racing and for 70 years till the 1930’s ruled the roost.

In the mentioned decade, the classics came into existence and three in number – The Derby, the 1000 Guineas and St. Leger (then known as Governor General Trophy). The 2nd World War and the general involvement of army men had a pretty adverse effect on the game and the impending independence seemed to all but the curtains down on the racing circuits. The boisterous revolutionists were up in arms against the gambling game having a peak of place on Indian soils. The race courses in many places had to be shut as a result.

But the patronizing from the Maharajas of princely states and the very accommodating stance of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru kept the daylights on for the racing observers. The sinking business took on the straw and sailed through, strengthening the positions in the next two decades.
Meanwhile, the classics gained in number and the Invitation weekends took on racing to a different level. The Sprinters Classic, Super Mile Trophy, the Stayers Classic and Invitation Cup were etched in the annals and have been the glazing torchbearers from then on. 
        
The 1980s, 86 to be precise, The Managing Committee in the west arrived on the wisdom of proliferating over the Graded races. The handicapping had reached its peak till then and there was an acute shortage of ever-winning horses which were sooner or later burdened with back-breaking weights. To keep the myth of the wonder-horse going, Graded races were essential and the Terms of specific races too were shoved through quality measures.

This step was instrumental in lending credence to the game of horse racing and thus, it won a long standing debate in the Supreme Court in the mid-nineties that it was not a precept for gambling, but a game of skill.

But it is only in the last 10 years or so that the corporate sponsors are coming in a big way to add the green edge, as it were. The classic and graded races aside, even the day’s feature events were getting major sponsorship deals and money ever since has been pouring down into the pot.

One waits with earnest hope that to see racing in full storm, we do not have to look back into the future. The turfs await us and the grandeur of the grasses is in getting trampled.

The Lagad family is at it again. The regularity with which he (now joined in the profession by his son Vinay) turns out upset winners have been a sidekick of many a Mumbai season inception. Incredible Beauty on record took over the express charger Polar Glow and the father held his own. Either is he a master handicapper or else there has to be an ulterior connection with the internal handicappers. That the son started the day and his career with a win in the curtain raiser was already a bitter pill to swallow.

All in all, though the racing came by as expected to the delight of the punters. The Mumbai season generally starts with the fancy winners confirming their strength to contend for the classics, but as this season has been marred by diseases, the punters feared some ghosts might crop up. That was not to be.

Three classic contenders took on fields in different classes and were the boasted winners barring an accident. Set Alight, Antonios and Red Romeo all returned winners on the seven furlong trips. What was especially enticing were the similar timings they clocked; their range falling within ¾ of a second and Red Romeo doing it marginally better than the wonder filly Set Alight. Though the point to be kept in mind was that Red Romeo was stretched by a hard colt a year older and Set Alight won the way it liked.

Rajendra has been left off by Mr. Shroff and so it is sheer common sense to follow him on all the favorites that he rides in the next few days. You cannot go wrong with that. And wonder what must be going in Narredu’s mind, having been left cold in his last year (he has applied for a trainer’s license in the Pune season) without the promised assistance of Set Alight.

The foreign jockeys have been making hay all the while this winter and D. Grant stamped on the fact with three irrepressible winners. The Irish jockey seems to continue from where he left last season when he was the only one to give Colm O’Donough a run for his money.

C D Hayes, F. Norton and S.A. Desousa (partnering the Vinay horse) were the other outsiders to keep the foreign tale running.

The peach of the race was however the fight between Ikaria and Flashing Flame and Narredu used all the ounce of his Western India experience to hold on to the slender lead he fashioned in the last 100 meters. The frequency with which the leading saddle artist wins close races is awesome. Something that even age has not taken from him.

There were two times the stewards came to light; once to tarnish Red Romeo’s effort by disqualifying stable mate Sea Storm and the other time to overrule the seemingly flimsy objection from Flashing Flame.

Flaming Ace’s run was too deceiving to be real coming after the public acceptance that it is the only horse in the Ramaswamy batch that is fully fit. Perhaps it will run on propellers while sprinting. Astral was another runner to impress and will saddle a winner pretty soon.

No individual is bigger than the institution he is working for and no sportsman can be bigger than the sport itself. However, in the same vein, it may be added that it is only because of the legends that the particular game gets a mythical overtone. Too much of mediocrity spoils the effects to no mean degree.

Horse racing has been pegged at intervals by such legends that the die-hard racing enthusiast often wishes for a time machine to be able to personally make a reconnaissance of the masters at their game; jockeyship or training or even the horses.That Rashid Byramji would tower them all if a single scale were calibrated is a unanimous call. The astute trainer whose life has been a study in Equus nature has won the Invitation 12 times, with three times three in a row. The cleverness with which he would choose the diamonds from the (foal) stock is a lesson in training. His is distinctive passion.

Of the jockeys, there would be fights open on all cylinders on who was the second-best ever, but no one would even dare tread the zone that Vasant Shinde would easily traverse. His silken touches and the stark ability to know when and on whom to use the whip are still regarded with awe.  

His antics on Tiberio is the stuff of folklore as the ace jockey, fearing the weights would slip off, clung to the saddle weights and led in the winner with the other hand as the raging crowd was witness to sheer wizardry on that afternoon. These very feats keep the faith still glowing in the old-timers!

And then the two jockeys who came on the scene at the same time and gave the art of racing different entities – Natural poise and Methodism. Something the current Bollywood heartthrobs Shah Rukh and Aamir may be identified with. While Aslam was all ‘intuitions’, Pesi excelled in playing chess on the saddle and such was his mechanical accuracy that he booted home 8 MacDowell Indian Derby winners in 24 years, an oh so unbelievable record.

Malesh Narredu and Chandrakant Rajendra have etched their names, albeit to a lesser extent, in the minds of the punters and kept up the good work of their predecessors. Every generation needs a mascot to steer the game clear of the ruminating controversies and these two have done the same successfully in the current generation.

It’s the horses who race after all, and the whole dissertation would be incomplete without a word on them. The Elusive Pimpernel was a scorcher of records and ideas as he would carry lead and lead all the way through to resounding successes. 22 wins in 23 races, with the lone loss coming by a short head has haloed this horse as the greatest ever in Indian circles. Mystical also has had similar credential, the only void being the Indian Derby. The Ferrari more than made up for it in winning a brace of races in Dubai.

May the torch of racing ever shine under the tutelage and scope of these giants of racing!

Mumbai season has made a start; thanks to the diligence of the officials and the prayers of the countless fans. And if the initial trends are anything to go by, all the top horses from the contending stables have come out well from their cramping sickness and are producing timings of merit.

Mumbai, the Mecca of Indian racing where top jockeys from inside and outside India formulate Plans A, B, C and so on to counter others and bag the Indian Derby, is replenished with an array of promises this season. Set Alight has had its preparatory run and so have Antonios and Red Romeo. The alacrity that they showed brought a glowing twinkle in the eyes of their owners. But by the looks of it, the promise is only good for the minor places.

Set Alight has been jumping up the charts in incredible fashion, and had the Derby been a handicap race, the horse may just have carried a donkey’s load and still come up trumps. The effortless ease with which he takes his rivals make the punters feel as if a mockery of horse racing is unfolding in front. Almost as if the champion takes as much breath while going to the starting saddle as she does while crossing the winning post.

But then, history, ever since the genius – Elusive Pimpernel that provided Aslam Kader his last virtual Mumbai glory and Smart Chieftain closer home– has seen 11 upsets in the last 13 years and  two specially horrendous losses in 2006 and 2007 – Mystical and Southern Empire. Even Ansbach, a relatively low profile horse, was sure to take the baton home as a favorite till Starsky batted an eyelid at him from the inside. History has it that the race brought down one legend in Aslam and shaped up another in the making – Prakash.

So much so for the historical impact on the richest race in the Indian racing calendar. That may be of little consequence with the brilliance of Set Alight.

The there is Autonomy who has had the pleasure of beating Set Alight on the post, although only till the stewards came in action. It is blazing the tracks and may bag a classic or two to gain confidence for the big one.

The run on the concluding day of the last year’s Mumbai season also puts Double Dynamite in contention. One just has to consider that it has lost narrowly to a Derby winner, Phenomenale and beaten two future Derby champions last season in Ascriptive (Kolkata Monsoon) and  Icebreaker (Bangalore winter).

Phenomenale, another horse from Pesi’s yard may also upset the apple carts. That he won the Poona leg on a start to finish mission and with a degree of comfort cannot be totally ignored.

Dr. Ramaswamy too must be having a horse purely prepared for the Derby. The Baron has won the last 4 Invitations and 2 of the last four Indian Derbies: no mean feat by the heavy-weight owner.

In all, the race promises to bring the crowds on their feet; one has to agree. 

Bangalore is one of only two racing cities (the other being Hyderabad) that has emerged almost unscathed from the dreaded jaws of Pyrexia, a horse epidemic that threatened to take racing to the dumps for the promising season elsewhere. Bangalore is also very untouched by the harsher effects of duplicity in big races, if the results in recent years are anything to go by. Yes, the growing money levels make small owners go green. But that is only an aberration rather than the rule.

The critical condition in premier stables of Mumbai and stringent measures of the Bangalore stewards gave a sour taste to the racing fanatics initially by barring any foreign horse to contend in the Poonawalla Bangalore Derby.  The race was scheduled to be a topical money spinner and many doyens from Mumbai had their eyes on the trophy but that was not to be.

The Don – Set Alight and his flaming fellows Red Romeo, Phenomenale, Double Dynamite and Autonomy were left cooling their heels in Mumbai and some sheen was definitely taken away from the royal fare the Bangalore Winter Derby normally promises.

In the expected scenario, the Derby was always thought to be a three-horse affair. While Fleeting Arrow has had the best credentials and went along the line to be a favorite, the Poonawalla concern and Jamshed Appu’s Ice breaker was not behind in paddock looks and bookie rings. The necessary gap was filled by Abs Fabs. You could fill your own cards for the rest of the horses that were only there to make the numbers, as one felt.

However, no racing pundit may leave the Baron off, and there was hidden support even for the friendless Fantastic Quest. Such was the initial build up and the clement weather made it all the more charming.

Abs Fabs, in his customary start to finish antics took on the crowd for the first time they crossed the perennial line and was immediately followed by the gold and brown hope Fantastic Quest with Prakash astride. Ice Breaker took the middle position and the ‘Arrow’ was content trundling in the last. Surprisingly, stable mate settled along with the favorite rather than provide pace making. The positions were unchanged till five furlongs where the traffic on the flyover usually comes to a halt.

It was then that Abs Fabs took a breather and regained winds but what came as a visionary eventuality was the relative run of Icebreaker, given a tap or two from David Allan. Samuel Fargeat was still not alerted for an effort and took a privileged nap.

Once Ice Breaker came up across Abs Fabs, the race seemed to be in his firm grip. He cut out all thoughts of a contest in a couple of strides there on. And the only positive sight was the regaling canter of Fantastic Quest. The horse looks a live force for the St. Leger later this year.

One wonders whether Fleeting Arrow was pocketed or rested like the proverbial hare not thinking much of the turtles, so analytically, one should ignore its run.

One has to concede that the best worked horse in the hands of David Allan won in the end.