Does Indian Racing understand that they have to think afresh?

As we reach the end of Indian Racing’s lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has effected the sport worldwide, one can’t but help look towards the future with a forced optimism. Our various race clubs are coming out with their fixture lists and on October 18th Bangalore Turf Club conducted 8 Mock races with full fields which hopefully was a dress rehearsal for the real thing scheduled in the garden city for the 1st of November.

While India gears up to start racing again, it’s pretty obvious that once again the Clubs are missing the forest for the trees. I have always maintained that it’s this antiquated 19th Century Club system that is the bane of our industry. The pro-am way that Indian racing bumbles along has ensured that the rest of the world has shot way past us. Corporatization of racing and more importantly betting has reaped great rewards for Japan, through JRA and Hong Kong through the HKJC. Each club is going with their own app since they have online permission. About time someone told the other clubs nobody really cares about the substandard product coming from Mysore, Calcutta, Madras and to a great extent Hyderabad. The prime Indian racing product which attracts punting is put out by Bangalore and RWITC, the other clubs have been piggybacking on their signal and racing and are almost parasitic in nature in the way that they behave. The time is ripe for a National tote and a better revenue sharing structure. The intervenue model as it stands is dead in the water, since it looks like we’re going to be racing behind closed doors well into the foreseeable future. The online betting model is something that’s way beyond the skillset of the octogenarian suits that de facto run the sport. Not one club has looked around for an expert consultant on gaming to help them setup something that they quite honestly know nothing about.

Online betting could well be the kick in the pants Indian racing needs but the way the clubs are treating it, we might be looking at it as a failed opportunity a decade down the line. A prime example is how RCTC has released a Winter fixture list that is going to clash pretty much everyday with Bangalore Turf Club. The Turf Authorities of India for once need to sit down and make sure that they don’t clash on even one day. Once your audience is coming from the internet it really doesn’t matter if you race on a Saturday or midnight on Thursday, it ought to be understood that since racing is being held behind closed doors with no on course audience it doesn’t matter when you have it. In under a month we’re going to start racing, so far there has been no information or promotion of an app by any of the clubs. To put it in perspective when a sporting event is going to take place, promotions start many months in advance.

The fallout for the second level clubs could be catastrophic because if they clash with Bangalore and Western India, nobody is going to punt on their product because frankly speaking it isn’t quite up to the mark. If there was a National and centralized app, first of all the betting pool will be much bigger. It is settled business theory that bigger pools attract more punters. The revenue sharing model will be easier and much fairer too. The host club should get 50% or maybe more of the commission and the other clubs should share the balance 50% amongst each other in equal shares. This would encourage each club to host more race-days as they would be getting a fat share from that day’s take. Further it will be in each club’s interest to improve their product and to increase betting handle on their live days since they would be getting the lion’s share. For once the host club could actually turn a profit on their live racing. Under the intervenue system currently in existence the club conducting live racing loses money because they have to pay out stakes and incur other raceday expenses.

The grainy pictures shot by antique cameras that we see online aren’t going to cut it either and neither is the white noise sound, interspersed with tinny sounding announcements that is the soundtrack of Indian racing. Each club needs to put together a small team which discuss horses and help the punters get a better idea of what’s going on because the more light you shine on your product the more confident your punter will be to bet. It doesn’t cost too much to improve the quality of telecast and since it’s all going to be online on computer or phone screens it should be understood that modernization is absolutely essential.

There are 4.57 Billion internet users in the world today, a number that is increasing exponentially on a daily basis. Even .01% of that is many multiples higher than the current audience of Indian racing. I’ve been watching the live feeds being put out by American tracks like Keeneland and the NYRA tracks. They have a small team of presenters who discuss the horses, this will help the layman punter, who is in effect the new target audience get hooked on to the sport. Better camerawork and HD quality pictures aren’t an option they’re an absolute must if you want online betting to succeed. The stakeholders in the sport, such as jockeys, trainers and owners whether they like it or not are going to have to be more forthcoming with information and interviews too. See how out there people like Bob Baffert, John Gosden, Frankie Dettori, Oisin Murphy, Aidan O’Brien and the likes are, they understand that the more they sell their sport, the more they will earn. People always want to hear what the stakeholders have to say.

It’s about time Indian racing embraces the change that they have been forced into. Unfortunately the evidence on hand suggests that they haven’t quite understood that the norm has changed and it’s going to be a whole new game. Online betting is the tool that could finally move our sport to the next level, something that clubs have failed in doing so in the past 30 years. What should be a sure-shot success unfortunately is looking more like a shot in the dark! It’s time to put egos aside and collaborate not compete!

Covid-19 the unintentional Game-Changer

After the havoc wreaked by Covid-19 on the world as a whole and on the sport of racing too, we’re starting to adjust to the new normal. Japan and Hong Kong once again showed how far ahead of the world they are, in that they hardly lost a fixture to the pandemic and their handles continued to soar at stratospheric levels. Both Europe and USA too have been able to continue racing behind closed doors since June in the former’s case and without a break Stateside. Meanwhile in what could be the most backward racing jurisdiction in the world; India, there’s a glimmer of hope that we could start racing sometime in October.

Sometimes the shit has to hit the fan for things to happen and it just might be that COVID-19 has inadvertently forced our sport into the 21st Century. India is one of the few racing nations where the concept of conducting racing is still about packing in the audience into the racecourse, something that isn’t going to work in the age of Social distancing. The advent of the internet and the smartphone has pretty much gone unnoticed by the people who run racing. The only beneficiaries of this has been the illegal bookmakers who sit and take online betting at Zero Tax from their customers’ mobile phones. Meanwhile our beleaguered clubs try and run their meagre and fast declining Totes under a back breaking 28% Tax deduction. Anyway that is an argument for another time.

The “Brahmastra” that has been handed to Indian racing is permission to Four Clubs so far to conduct online betting on their totes. Now the next problem we face is whether we have anyone in the sport who has the training and ability to use the weapon.

Bangalore, Mysore, Calcutta and Hyderabad have been granted in principle approval to conduct Online betting. One hopes the Governments of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu too follow suit. It’s imperative that we grab this opportunity with both hands and move forward. For the first time ever racing has an opportunity to look outward rather than inward to expand our audience. So far the signs look ominous as every Club as is their wont and innate ability to always miss the forest for the trees look as if they’re each planning to go it alone. The buzzword among the aged mandarins who run the sport being their own, “APP.” What they don’t quite understand is that for this to succeed as the weapon that it’s designed to be, everything must be based on a single national totalisator pool. Or else going it alone is going to give us Pea Shooters instead of something powerful.

Further to this all of us have to change. Going online means that your audience has to be delivered a well packaged product with a lot more information and quality presentation. In between races, shots of pigeons sitting and shitting on an asbestos roof isn’t going to cut it. Professionals and owners whether they like it or not are going to have to start talking to the intended audience and involving them in the entire process of what is a multi layered and cerebral sport. We have to reach an audience and excite them into getting involved.

In the absence of any racing here in India one has had to whet one’s racing appetite with mainly English racing. It’s always fascinating and informative to listen to people like John Gosden, Frankie Dettori, Oisin Murphy and the like, further you need people like Nick Luck, Matt Chapman, Francesca Cumani and Brough Scott to ask the right questions. Similarly you need race-callers like Simon Holt and Richard Hoiles to describe races as expertly as they do. You also need journalists who have an actual understanding of the many facets of the sport so that we get some proper information out there, our current mediocre lot spend more time trolling and pushing their own opinions and agendas rather than make a little bit of an effort to make their writing interesting. We still go on with our ancient production setups at each club using obsolete technology when our smartphones have better cameras in them. It’s about time the Turf Authorities sat down and conducted a technology audit. I’m dead certain that our production work can by done a lot cheaper and in High Definition. This has to be done alongside online betting or else we’ll just look like a low end product not worth watching since the pictures are so grainy. The look and feel of the entire experience has to be rich.

In the old days one needed TV and a presence in Print Dailies for the world to know you existed. This is something that has changed drastically in the last decade or so. The advent of platforms like YouTube have meant that you can show your product to a worldwide audience without needing to be on Television. Similarly Social Media platforms like Instagram and Twitter have changed the dynamic of getting your message out there effectively. Now the problem that exists is that our people who promote the sport have scant knowledge of how all this works or the ability to differentiate between a hash-tag and a hash-brown. Unfortunately the majority of their Social media exposure is flowery Good Morning messages, poor jokes and screenshots of my tweets on Whatsapp.

Unfortunately the raw fact is that despite not having any racing for nigh on Six Months, I greatly doubt any of the Clubs even the ones with online betting permission have done anything to prepare themselves for the way ahead. The quasi-governmental structure of the administration that runs racing in India and its ancient make-up keeps the sport in penury. A friend of mine joked the other day that in these COVID-19 affected times, when older people above the age of 60 are advised to sit at home, one doubts if we’d be able to make a quorum of Stewards on a race-day.

We have a great opportunity, our fingers are crossed that we don’t squander this too.

Covid-19 the unintentional Game-Changer

After the havoc wreaked by Covid-19 on the world as a whole and on the sport of racing too, we’re starting to adjust to the new normal. While Japan and Hong Kong once again showed how far ahead of the world they are, in the sense that they hardly lost a fixture to the pandemic and their handles continued to soar at stratospheric levels. Europe and USA have also been able to continue racing behind closed doors since June in the former’s case and without a break Stateside. Meanwhile in what could be the most backward racing jurisdiction in the world; India there’s a glimmer of hope that we could start racing sometime in October.

Sometimes the shit has to hit the fan for things to happen and it just might be that COVID-19 has inadvertently forced our sport into the 21st Century. India is one of the few racing nations where the concept of conducting racing is still about packing in the audience into the racecourse, something that isn’t going to work in the age of Social distancing. The advent of the internet and the smartphone has pretty much gone unnoticed by the people who run racing. The only beneficiary of this has been the illegal bookmakers who sit and take online betting at Zero Tax from their customers’ mobile phones. While our beleaguered clubs try and run their meagre and fast declining Totes under a back breaking 28% Tax deduction. Anyway that is an argument for another time.

The “Brahmastra” that has been handed to Indian racing is permission to Four Clubs so far to conduct online betting on their totes. Now the next problem we face is whether we have anyone in the sport who has the training to use the weapon.

Bangalore, Mysore, Calcutta and Hyderabad have been granted in principle approval to conduct Online betting. One hopes the Governments of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu too follow suit. It’s imperative that we grab this opportunity with both hands and move forward. For the first time ever racing has an opportunity to look outward rather than inward to expand our audience. So far the signs look ominous as every Club as is their wont and innate ability to always miss the forest for the trees look as if they’re each planning to go it alone. The buzzword among the aged mandarins who run the sport being their own, “APP.” What they don’t quite understand is that for this to succeed as the weapon that it’s designed to be, everything must be based on a single national totalisator pool. Or else going it alone is going to give us Pea Shooters instead of something powerful.

Further to this all of us have to change. Going online means that your audience has to be delivered a well packaged product with a lot more information and quality presentation. In between races, shots of pigeons sitting and shitting on an asbestos roof isn’t going to cut it. Professionals and owners whether they like it or not are going to have to start talking to the intended audience and involving them in the entire process of what is a multi layered and cerebral sport. We have to reach an audience and excite them into getting involved.

In the absence of any racing here in India one has had to whet one’s racing appetite with mainly English racing. It’s always fascinating and informative to listen to people like John Gosden, Frankie Dettori, Oisin Murphy and the like, further you need people like Nick Luck, Matt Chapman, Francesca Cumani and Brough Scott to ask the right questions. Similarly you need race-callers like Simon Holt and Richard Hoiles to describe races as expertly as they do. You also need journalists who have an actual understanding of the many facets of the sport so that we get some proper information out there, our current mediocre lot spend more time trolling and pushing their own opinions and agendas rather than make a little bit of an effort to make their writing interesting. We still go on with our ancient production setups at each club using obsolete technology when our smartphones have better cameras in them. It’s about time the Turf Authorities sat down and conducted a technology audit. I’m dead certain that our production work can by done a lot cheaper and in High Definition. This has to be done alongside online betting or else we’ll just look like a low end product not worth watching since the pictures are so grainy. The look and feel of the entire experience has to be rich.

In the old days one needed TV and a presence in Print Dailies for the world to know you existed. This is something that has changed drastically in the last decade or so. The advent of platforms like YouTube have meant that you can show your product to a worldwide audience without needing to be on Television. Similarly Social Media platforms like Instagram and Twitter have changed the dynamic of getting your message out there effectively. Now the problem that exists is that our people who promote the sport have scant knowledge of how all this works or the ability to differentiate between a hash-tag and a hash-brown. Unfortunately the majority of their Social media exposure is flowery Good Morning messages, poor jokes and screenshots of my tweets.

Unfortunately the raw fact is that despite not having any racing for nigh on Six Months, I greatly doubt any of the Clubs even the ones with online betting permission have done anything to prepare themselves for the way ahead. The quasi-governmental structure of the administration that runs racing in India and its ancient make-up keeps the sport in penury. A friend of mine joked the other day that in these COVID-19 affected times, when older people above the age of 60 are advised to sit at home, one doubts if we’d be able to make a quorum of Stewards on a race-day.

We have a great opportunity, our fingers are crossed that we don’t squander this too.

Covid 19: An Existential crisis for Indian racing & breeding

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc in every sphere of life both social and economic. The racing industry is no exception, the Kentucky Derby and the other Triple Crown races have been postponed from the summer to autumn. The English Classics have been postponed indefinitely. Amidst all this are jurisdictions which have shown the world how racing can be run in a Post-Corona world. Japan and Hong Kong which are the world standard in horse racing and the racing business have continued racing behind closed doors. As I pen this, Happy Valley in Hong Kong has started to allow spectators on tonight’s racing. Both jurisdictions have seen their betting handle more or less unaffected and the JRA has shown year on year increases on their big race cards. Both countries have top class online gaming infrastructure in place and have reaped the benefit of having no competition from other sports which too have seen their fixtures shut down due to the pandemic.

The United States of America too has seen racing seriously effected by Covid 19. The Kentucky Derby has been postponed from the first Saturday in May until the first Saturday in September. Many tracks though have continued to race, Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs in Florida, Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and the lower end tracks; Will Rogers Downs in Oklahoma and Fonner Park in Nebraska. Seizing this opportunity has seen their betting handle go up exponentially as there is no other product available for sports gaming as competition.

Australia too has continued to race behind closed doors and this week saw Germany and France start racing too. While the season usually starts winding down, down-under as their winter approaches, Europe on the other hand has seen their prime Spring/Summer racing fixtures badly effected. They are getting their act together now and starting to organize themselves and by the end of June most likely one will find a modicum of order restored in most of these jurisdictions.

Now we come to India. We are an industry that supports about 100,000 plus jobs and let’s face it there’s no plan of action in place whatsoever. The bane of our sport has forever been mediocre people in powerful positions. Our Turf Authorities still haven’t sat down together and even discussed what is now turning into an existential crisis for the sport. The first thing we need is a gag order on people who feel that, “Our sport is too minor for the government to bother.” You know who you are and since you’re unable to add anything of any value anyway, the biggest contribution you could make for our industry is to shut your pie hole, in actuality as well as on social media. When you don’t have faith in your product your opinion and attitude are detrimental to any efforts others might be making.

We need a plan, our sport has seen our betting handles on the Totalizators obliterated with an ill advised GST rate of 28%. Apparently an empowered group of the TAI had made good progress in getting a reduction, that unfortunately has not fructified into anything concrete so far. As the Covid 19 crisis has created a need for social distancing, a sport which has so far existed in India with a pre television mindset of packing their audience into racecourses is bound to take a hammering. Simply put, 50 years of poor medieval practices are now coming to bite us hard in the ass. Lots of people are saying that we need to start online betting, yes we do there is no doubt about it. The irony is we already have a very solid online betting industry in India, from your mobile phone to the illegal bookmaker on the other side of your phone who updates your, “Bhav.” This unfortunately nets the sport absolutely zilch, rather it’s a relationship that’s parasitic in nature with our sport being the unfortunate host. Without a substantial tax cut online betting will have illegal bookies eat into the business big time, thus making online betting a nonstarter at current rates.

So how do we work this out, here’s my wishlist as how it can be done. We need a holistic solution to the problem something that benefits all parties involved most of all the government which in the current scenario desperately needs more revenue to tide over the current financial crisis the pandemic has caused. Properly harnessed, racing has huge potential to give pots of revenue to our national exchequer. We must follow the model adopted by Japan and Hong Kong it’s a simple concept and aping something that already exists elsewhere isn’t that difficult to do in the age of algorithms and artificial intelligence.

Fundamental to any success is a centralized national totalizator as well as online betting through a single portal. To start with I propose a Zero tax on racing betting for three years. The effect of this will be to break the back of any illegal bookmakers who operate without giving anything to the clubs or government. A zero taxed national pool will inflate to huge levels. No standalone bookie will have the ability to compete with such a massive pool as it will be able to give much higher dividends than anyone else. The retail punter will as a result throng to the pool that gives him or her the best return. Clubs should be allowed a takeout of 10% from the total pool to run their affairs and pay out stakes to owners. The government should stipulate that whatever the takeout is 25% must compulsorily go into building a reserve for the club and whatever that amount computes to, the government can charge 30% income tax on the accumulated amount annually.

After three years of zero tax, the government can levy a tax on the commission that the club collects from the pool at source. In most successful jurisdictions this is usually a single digit percentage. A booming sport has a massive knock on effect, remunerative levels of prize money will make the entire business viable and owning a top class horse that rakes in huge prize money will be seen as a serious investment. This will benefit the breeding industry as well as if it is made more viable to breed horses more farms will open which create more job opportunities many of them in rural India. Horse racing is one of the few perfect examples of a trickledown economy. Healthy racing benefits everyone; owners, trainers, jockeys, breeders, syces, tourism, ancillary industry connected with horses, the government collects more revenue and so on and on. It’s a win win for everyone provided there’s a political will as well as a proper plan among our racing administrators. While a zero tax rate might sound like expecting too much, it’s a sop that’s required to clean up things in the short term and shore up finances at clubs. Currently racing isn’t giving the government enough money that could make the business stand up and be counted among other heavy contributors to the exchequer which fall in the so called sin category, ie excise heavyweights Liquor and Tobacco. Properly organized and legal betting on racing could easily contribute at least ten times the current figures and maybe a lot more to the state and central governments. Aforementioned Japan and Hong Kong are great examples of what the possibilities are. In yesterday’s address to the nation our Prime Minister said that we should be,”Vocal about local!” Here’s a great example of how we could be world class with the right type of structure if it were to be put in place and after a bit of initial help our sport could be truly, “Atmanirbhar!”

While this is just some thinking out of the top of my head, I’m sure there’s a lot more good ideas that could benefit racing and breeding. As of now we’re lacking any sort of leadership by the clubs who continue to follow a policy of silence. It’s about time we put a plan in place and start talking to the government or else there’s only dark days ahead as we keep our heads buried in the sand. It’s about time we became VOCAL!

The First Sunday of February….My Preview of the Indian Derby

The first Sunday of February beckons and all roads literally and figuratively lead to Mahalakshmi in Mumbai for The Indian Derby. While the purse on offer has nearly halved it has done nothing to dim the prestige of what is arguably India’s biggest race to win. Every regional Derby winner barring Ooty is there in the field which might just be the first time that has ever happened. Since most columnists will give you their opinions I may as well put out a preview and a description of every runner, since I spend a lot of time on long flights and road journeys at this time of the year. With 20 runners set to face the starter, one thing is certain, luck is going to play a big big part here and the draw is going to be very important. More so because the horses are going to be turning literally a hundred metres after jumping out and turning again at the Hornby Vellard Corner before the race settles down in the back stretch. At this point you could find the best horses sitting too far back or the ones in front finding themselves burning too much Octane to make position, further on into the straight as the dross which there’s plenty of in the race backs up you’ll find them messing up a few chances, I’ve basically written about the horses and their connections but not the draw which is going to be vital. So here goes, hope my synopsis helps you choose your pick or maybe I confuse you even further. The order that I’ve written in in no way signifies my order of preference. I just wrote as the runners came to mind.

1. War Hammer (Air Support-Soviet Lake by Bold Russian) Trained by Prasanna Kumar and to be ridden by Suraj Narredu: I’ve always felt he was India’s best in this crop, ever since he won on debut. He’s unbeaten in 7 starts. If he had taken a better planned route to the Derby, this race would’ve ceased to be a contest as he holds every horse in the race Stone Cold on form. I reckon if he’d have taken his chance in the Indian 2000, Trouvaille and Alexie would’ve seen his tail somewhere on the horizon but his connections decided to make it interesting by handicapping themselves. He comes into the biggest race in his career after running a hard Bangalore Derby a week earlier, where Anjeze made him work hard to earn his victory, further to that he’s run the fastest ever Bangalore Winter Derby which was a mere .15 of a Second off the track record which was set by Temerity in the Invitation in 2017, our tracks are much quicker in March during Invitation Weekend as it’s hot and the surface is baked and also compacted by pretty much a whole season of racing. On the flipside he’s been at homebase until now this season and makes his first journey out of Karnataka in his life. What really sets this horse apart is his beautiful temperament. He goes to sleep wherever you want him to in the field, he takes a bit of goading to wake up but once he’s in full flight there’s nothing that he won’t mow down. His sire who is a son of Smart Strike has had a cracking good year, oddly enough his sire and broodmare sire descend from sirelines best known for their prowess on dirt in USA. His dam line has a special place in my heart because my father and grandfather went about collecting as many descendants of The Maharaja Of Kashmir’s tap root mare Aurelie. One of those was a granddaughter called Ruby Dust a big coarse mare by Punjab who had won one B Class race. She produced with Ilheus a multiple Classic winner in Rashid Byramji trained Nine Carat whom we raced in partnership with Vijay Mallya. She should’ve won the Bangalore Summer Derby but for stumbling out of the gates and finding her nose on the turf, it was only her rider Vasant Shinde’s near perfect balance on the back of a horse that enabled him to stay on, she still got beaten only by a head. Nine Carat left behind a single Filly for breeding in Ace Venture who ended up at Vijay Mallya’s Kunigal Stud. Mated to Bold Russian she produced Soviet Lake the dam of War Hammer who has been a useful producer without being spectacular until her first mating with Air Support produced the beast we now know as War Hammer. For an industry obsessed with Got Abroads, it is noteworthy that the first seven dams of War Hammer were bred in India. He was born when his dam was 19 years old, something unbeknownst to most people isn’t a problem as long as the dam is in good health and can nurture her foal well by producing enough milk. War Hammer is owned by 4 partners and its been great to see them go on the ride that they’ve been on, they bought this colt and sent him to Irfan Ghatala for training. At some point they shifted the horse to rising Indian training star Prasanna Kumar, a hardworking young professional who has seen many downs in his training career and has come up the hard way. His persistence and skill have paid off. Today he’s a force in the training ranks at Bangalore and is the reigning champion trainer from the last Summer Season. War Hammer left for Mumbai on Monday night and one hopes he emerges on Derby Day in top hole fettle.

2. Juliette (Musketier-Gimmesumsugar by Orientate) trained by Karthik Ganapathy and ridden by Colm O Donoghue. The Little Engine That Could, this admirable Filly stamped her authority on the Fillies division with a thumping win in The Indian Oaks. Once her experienced jockey gave her the signal up the Mahalakshmi straight the race became a no contest as she whooshed past the competition. She runs in the famous Goldie Brown colours and she is one of the top contenders for the Derby. She enjoys a vital home field advantage and has been a revelation this winter ever since she sizzled past the much vaunted Sultan Suleiman in the Morvi Trophy, her disappointing third in the 1000 Guineas is now a distant memory as her dominant Oaks performance is etched in everyone’s mind. A Got Abroad whose dam Gimmesumsugar was a proverbial, “Pallet Filler” alongside Sohna Stud’s new stallion Planetaire in a deal done by Ajay Anne’s, New Approach Bloodstock. Her sire is the German bred Musketier a good stayer when he raced in North America. That said old Musketier isn’t exactly a thundering success back home as a sire in fact Juliette is his only Black Type winner. Apart from the similar names, she comes from Derby winner, Jacqueline’s breeder Sohna Stud who also bred last year’s runner up Adjudicate.

3. Well Connected (Arazan-Guest Connections) Trained by S Padmanabhan ridden by David Allan. The Bangalore Summer Derby winner comes into the Derby off a Four race losing streak. She’s run well in her last three starts finishing second behind Anjeze in the Bangalore 1000 Guineas, a well beat Fourth in the Indian 1000 Guineas followed by a thrashing at the hands of Juliette in the Indian Oaks, two weeks back. That said she did win the Bangalore Fillies and Bangalore Summer Derby in her second and third start respectively. It’s been apparent that much like a lot of her sire’s get she goes that much better with a bit of cut in the ground, she got soft ground in all her starts in the summer. She’s been campaigned through the Monsoon and beat Gift Of Grace in the Hyderabad Fillies’ which didn’t look to be great form but after the Indian 1000 Guineas, that looked a very fair effort. She gets India’s most prolific Classic trainer in Padmanabhan and you can rest assured that he’ll have her ready to fire on D Day. David Allan does duty on her and he has a pretty good record in the big race, having won three times. Another descendant of the redoubtable Schiaparelli family for Poonawalla Stud, Well Connected is as genuine as they come, the big question mark around her is whether she’s just a bit below the top contenders.

4. Trafalgar (Western Aristocrat-Bluegrass Phenom by Bluegrass Cat)Trained by James Mckeown and ridden by YS Srinath. This strapping bay son of Western Aristocrat is the Beast from the East after winning the Calcutta Derby despite not running in a competitive race for over 100 days. After a facile victory in the Monsoon Derby at Hastings, Trafalgar decided that he didn’t want to get into the gates for the 2000 Guineas. Hard work by his trainer and his team as well as some special equipment sorted that out. With David Allan up he won the Derby quite well though the timing of the race was very pedestrian. David felt he’d have won better if there had been a stronger pace that day. A horse with a very interesting pedigree, Trafalgar’s dam, Bluegrass Phenom a daughter of the beautifully bred though disappointing Storm Cat sire Bluegrass Cat is a half sister to the good stallion Rebuttal so in effect he’s very closely related to him as both Western Aristocrat and Rebuttal are both sons of Mr Greeley. He is bound to improve off his Calcutta run and runs with a solid chance. His enthusiastic group of owners led by Joydeep Datta Gupta and the effervescent lead singer of the rock band Strange Brew; Marthand Singh Mahindra who also bred him will surely light up the winner’s circle if he comes through.

5. Royal Crystal (Western Aristocrat-Sparkling Crystal by Danehill Dancer) trained by Arjun Mangalorkar ridden by S John. One of three runners for the affable Bald Eagle of Bangalore, Arjun Mangalorkar, Royal Crystal wore down Consigliori in a real battle of attrition in the Golconda Derby two weeks ago. Both of them joined the issue almost 5 Furlongs out and Royal Crystal doggedly went at it and got it by a comfortable neck at the wire. Royal Crystal is owned by Dr Suresh Chintamaneni who has tasted success at a higher level than any other current Indian Owner with his Filly Chaposa Springs who was a dual Grade One winner at hallowed Saratoga in Upstate New York and an Eclipse Award finalist. Royal Crystal is very interestingly bred, by Western Aristocrat he is out of the Danehill Dancer mare Sparkling Crystal, thus through Western Aristocrat’s sire Mr Greeley and his Broodmare sire, Royal Crystal carries a duplication of the mare Lianga. A first Classic winner for Himmat Singh Dhillon’s Track Supreme Stud and new breeding industry entrant Jagmohan Singh Kang, Royal Crystal will be looking to grind out a victory using his abundant stamina.

6. Sir Supremo (Speaking Of Which-Cool Mover by Razeen) trained by S Narredu and ridden by NS Parmar. Ambitiously campaigned early on in his career, the winner of the South India Derby at Guindy started the winter as a maiden but has improved immensely and looked good value for his win at Madras. That said the race was run at a farcical pace on a very firm track and not many came from behind to win on that entire raceday. A super ride by Suraj Narredu where he struck for home early helped him score a facile victory to book his ticket to Bombay. By Usha Stud’s first season sire Speaking Of Which, out of the Razeen mare Cool Mover Sir Supremo changed hands from his original ownership and the War Hammer boys now own three quarters of him along with Daulat Chhabria in whose colours he races. An interesting sidebar, Sir Supremo was sold at the 2018 RWITC Auction Sale. His trainer won the Indian Derby with unheralded Super Storm so he knows what it takes to win one of these.

7. Southern Ruler (Saammid-Farha by Nureyev) Trained by S Ganapathy ridden by CS Jodha. He won the Mysore Derby as a maiden in fine style but the form of that race has taken a solid hammering with everything that was behind him struggling ever since. His run in the South India Derby was very poor and he has a lot to find to win a race like this.

8. Impavid (Air Support-Polenta by Sunday Silence) Trained by Arjun Mangalorkar and ridden by David Egan. Impavid is the almost horse, he never runs a bad race but it seems that on the day something goes wrong and he finds a way to lose. He gutted it out with War Hammer and lost the Colts and then lost a heartbreaker on the last stride to Well Connected in the Bangalore Summer Derby where it looked like more than him his jockey A Sandesh ran out of puff and as his trainer said, “ David Allan beat him!” After a workmanlike win in the Hyderabad Colts’ he was the victim of brain dead tactics when beaten to third in the Deccan Derby as Consigliori stole the race in front as Impavid sat in last off a slow pace. He returned in the winter with David Egan up to ward off a fast finishing Lightning Bolt in the South India 2000 Guineas. In the South India Derby he ran a poor third off a slow pace up front where it seemed Sir Supremo beat him for toe. He arrives in Bombay looking to establish a reputation which seems to be that he falters on the big day, it’s happened three times and he hopes he can rectify it this time around.

9. Trouvaille (Surfrider-Highly Fashionable by Warrshan) Trained by Shiraz Sunderji and ridden by Nicky Mackay. The Pune Derby winner added to his reputation when he ran down Alexei in the Indian 2000 Guineas unfortunately a defeat at the hands of Victorious Sermon in the Ruia Cup took the sheen off him a bit. The Ruia Stud bred son of the Dansili horse Surfrider is a thoroughly genuine sort and always runs well. It was baffling that his connections chose to run the Ruia off an 18 day gap after a hard 2000 Guineas run, to be fair to him, he got buffeted around quite a bit in the straight but Victorious Sermon was good value for his win. Trouvaille is another horse who comes from an established Indian tail female line, that of Hari Hara Priya through Birthday Girl. Testament to how the late Nirmal Ruia went about collecting well bred Indian mares for his Stud Farm, today that effort has paid off as Trouvaille is an Indian Classic winner.

10. Consigliori (Air Support-Caprese by Burden Of Proof) Trained by LVR Deshmukh and ridden by P Trevor. Air Support’s third representative in this year’s Derby, Consigliori sprung a huge surprise as he beat Royal Crystal, Impavid and Well Connected in the Deccan Derby during the Monsoon under an inspired ride by P Ajeeth Kumar. His subsequent runs proved that his Deccan Derby win was no fluke with two fine runner up efforts under David Allan in the Golconda 2000 Guineas and Derby. He reportedly lost a shoe in the 2000 as he got swamped by Vijay’s Singham and he fought hard a long way out to just get done by Royal Crystal close home. He’s picked up P Trevor as his expected ride, Alexei had to give the Derby a skip due to a physical issue. Consigliori is yet another from a famous Indian tap root family descending from Fred and Sheelagh Fosters’ Byerly Stud mare Uma his Fourth Dam, Cordon Bleu is an Indian Derby winner.

11. Victorious Sermon (Whatsthescript-Crystal by Razeen) Trained by Vishal Gaikwad to be ridden by A Sandesh. After he showed great form over the Bangalore Summer Season, Victorious Sermon was disappointing in Pune. Apparently he had an issue when he popped a splint, he’s been playing catch up since. A poor run in the Pune Derby was followed by a fair run in the the Indian 2000 Guineas where he was 4 lengths adrift of Trouvaille. In the Ruia Cup over 2000 Metres he reversed that and then some as he thundered home an impressive winner. He seems a horse on the up and runs with a fair chance.

12. Wizard Of Stocks (Speaking Of Which-Margarita Rita by Thunder Gulch) Trained by Pesi Shroff and ridden by Leigh Roche. He was far adrift of War Hammer and Impavid in the Bangalore Colts over the summer and then was beaten fair and square by Trouvaille in the Pune Derby. What makes him an intriguing runner is his Fourth place finish in the Indian 2000 Guineas where he’s run like he was making pace for another horse, despite that it took them a bit of work to get past him in the straight. He’s well held on form but he represents Pesi’s powerful stable and gets a competent jockey in Leigh Roche snd he emerges as a dark horse.

13. Northern Alliance (Gusto-Allonia by Local Talent) Trained by Neil Devaney and ridden by Yash Narredu. This horse has got to be the Cinderella story of racing in this crop. He’s bred at Gurpreet Singh’s Bishan Stud in Nakodar, Punjab. He’s by the sensational son of Oasis Dream, Gusto and he’s from a nice stamina laden Indian family, that of Tosca, which has given us numerous classic horses. He’s a great looking horse and ran War Hammer close in the Bangalore 2000 Guineas where he had to make the running. Previously he won the Mysore 2000 Guineas on the wide outside after he dwelt at the start very comfortably. He was to run the Ruia Cup but came up lame as the farrier overdid his sole. He showed he was very well with a nice Mock Race. His trainer, Neil Devaney was Arjun Mangalorkar’s long time assistant and has impressed ever since he’s taken out his license at Bangalore. He definitely runs with a chance.

14. Thailand (Top Class-Immortal Story by Noverre) Trained by Arjun Mangalorkar and ridden by S Zervan. Thailand is a final entry and Arjun Mangalorkar’s third runner in the Derby. On form she’s definitely got a lot to find but she seems to be rounding out into good form and improved immensely to finish a decent third to Juliette and Well Connected in the Oaks. A few days ago her Full Brother; Shivansh ran a career best when chasing home Star Superior and Adjudicate in the Indian Champion Cup at Calcutta. Maybe little sister might surprise us as well. Her jockey knows his way around Bombay and she’s Royal Crystal’s owner Dr Suresh Chintamaneni’s second runner. Her dam Immortal Story is a Noverre half sister to the good Verglas horse Versaki. She’s bred at the Sandhu family’s Mukteshwar Stud and here’s wishing my nephew Angad Singh the very best.

15. Top Notch (Top Class-Elzaam by Tirol) Trained by Shafiq Khan and ridden by Imran Chisty. He’s the,”Mine That Bird” of this Derby. He’s ridden West from Calcutta in a lorry. Born at Mukteshwar Stud in the North, he’s based with ex Delhi trainer Shafiq Khan in the East, racing in Calcutta and now he ventures West. On the face of it he looks a no hoper but a closer look at his Calcutta Derby run shows he got a terrible ride that day and still ran well to get Fourth. His dam by Tirol was a useful sort when she raced for Laxman Singh in Hyderabad and ran a fair third in the Golconda 1000 Guineas.

16. Armaity (Multidimensional-Hills And Stars by Razeen) Trained by Pesi Shroff and ridden by Chris Hayes. Bombay is one centre which always has a lot of intrigue about it. Armaity is a very interesting runner, she has changed ownership and is now owned by Shyam Ruia and Berjis Desai in partnership, the same team with Pesi Shroff gave us Invitation Cup winner Temerity. That apart a final entry has been paid and Irishman Chris Hayes has been flown in to ride. This optimism seems to have caught on after her suggestive run in the Indian Oaks where she closed in from last to finish a running on Fourth. She has a beautiful pedigree and is bred on the hugely successful Multidimensional on a Razeen mare cross and despite her rating of 56 appears to be another dark un in here though she has to turnaround a lot of distance on Oaks winner Juliette.

17. Sultan Suleiman (Arazan-Saffron Dancer by Bin Ajwaad) Trained by Altaf Hussain and ridden by Neeraj Rawal. He was to run the Pune Derby as the favourite but was a last minute withdrawal as he came up lame before the race. Post that he was well beaten in the Morvi by Juliette and was a disappointing Ninth of Tenth in the 2000 Guineas. He ran third in the Ruia a length behind runner up Trouvaille with David Egan in the saddle. His trainer thinks very highly of him but his form looks a bit disappointing.

18. Lightning Bolt (Excellent Art-Shamaal by Razeen) Trained by LVR Deshmukh and ridden by Akshay Kumar. A distant third in the Colts’ at Bangalore Summer behind War Hammer and Impavid, he was given a long break before he resumed racing in the winter, he almost got up to Impavid in the South India 2000 Guineas finishing a head second and repeated the feat when a well beaten second in the South India Derby reversing his placing with Impavid by a whisker. If anything the slow pace ought to have suited him that day. He’s not exactly bred to stay the Derby trip, his dam is a Sprinters Cup winner but he’s a nice sort and has never run a bad race. His sire threw last year’s Derby winner in the same silks.

19. Daddy’s Pride (Oath-Cannon Jet by Royal Gladiator) Trained by Subhag Singh and ridden by TS Jodha. The only son of a winner of “THE” Derby in the field, the Pune Derby third place finisher is owned by a guy, Vivek Lalwani who has a huge X Factor which is racing luck, he bought a nice horse from us ages ago called Amazon Bronze who won him 9 races in Hyderabad. Vivek knows his horses and even worked at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky purely out of passion. Daddy’s Pride is well held here by most of the field but in racing one never knows. His trainer my good friend of many years, Subhag Singh if he wins the Derby will turn into his alter ego, SUBHASH! And Subhash is a wild guy and he can party! Daddy’s Pride is bred at Maharaja of Idar’s Pratap Stud, the first winner of the Indian Derby in 1943, Princess Beautiful was owned by her breeder’s grandfather.

20. Justified (Multidimensional-Secret Garden by Razeen) Trained by Imtiaz A Sait and ridden by A Imran Khan. Justified will carry the oldest colours in Indian racing in the Indian Derby, that of the Mehta family who have raced in the Rose and Black Cap for a hundred years. The horse himself is bred to stay but has been a bit disappointing so far in his career as his rating of 36 shows but then again wilder things have happened in racing and if Justified scores it’ll likely be the biggest upset in the history of the Indian Derby.

So here’s hoping for a good clean race and may the best horse win, good luck to everyone and we hope that everyone comes back safe. LET’s RACE!

Marketing, Social Media and the Bad Suits who don’t understand it!

It’s been a long time since I wrote, it might have been writer’s block or just generally being depressed at the current state of affairs in our sport. Didn’t know what to write about but thought the general disconnect the Clubs have with the public would be a good subject to touch upon.

One of the phenomenons of the past decade has been the rise of Social media. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and many more such apps where absolute nobodies have become,”influencers” from pretty much nothing to getting tickets to fight elections from major political parties as a result of their self created fame. Racing of course has missed the bus yet again despite having enough content to have been able to use this medium to grow their fan base. Racing as a sport is perceived to be a sport that is known as the, “Sport Of Kings” for a reason. It costs a lot to race, further it’s multifaceted and multilayered with so many different variables yet we have failed miserably to sell it to the 1.3 Billion we have among the masses in India.

We missed the Television bus because we lacked the know how as to what it took to get on TV. We missed the Satellite TV era too as sports like Kabaddi rode that made for TV boom to prosperity. Sports promotion is about promoting stars, sadly the only visible star our sport had, Vijay Mallya is no more part of racing as a result of his various financial problems. The real stars of our sport are the main protagonist ie the horse itself. The clubs yet again fail to utilize our equine stars to promote the sport.

Last year we had the good fortune to race a prodigious talent as good as Sir Cecil. Thanks to advice from my good friend Marthand Mahindra we got TCG Studios on board to follow his campaign, though sceptical at first I was surprised to see the response that we got from the racing fraternity. His Bangalore Derby win alone has over a Million hits on YouTube. I never thought racing would produce a so called viral video but TCG Studios racing content has over 5.3 Million views. Sir Cecil has more than a third of that alone. Mainly due to the slick production work by TCG and our star protagonist; Sir Cecil. The result of our campaign has been a large number of casual and even non racing fans who have got involved with racing. Many strangers have messaged me regarding the Grey and even now post his retirement, many enquire about his well being. We are a single organization in what is a sport with many personalities and similar or bigger set ups, the biggest of those setups being what I consider the bane of our sport, the, “Clubs.”

Our Clubs are pedantic, quasi governmental organizations run by people with little or no skin in the game in most cases. I’ve written about this earlier but let’s talk about their efforts or lack there-off in publicising the game. Most of our Clubs are absent on Social media completely the exceptions being RWITC and RCTC to some extent. Unfortunately both fail to engage fans of the sport, both do a perfunctory job of regurgitating results and pictures of races that are already run almost as if it’s a burden. Racing is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be about personalities and more importantly their horses. They need to bring in a bright mind who understands that and builds on it. Using a Club employee who in the first place has scant knowledge of how to use the medium isn’t just wrong it causes more damage without the poor guy even knowing. Before we start talking about budgets and the lack of funds, do consider that social media is a vehicle for free self publicity. So it’s a plain and simple case of apathy from our clubs!

Consider the fact that someone like Dan Bilzerian can rack up 28 Million followers on Instagram, despite pretty much being an unknown before the app was available should tell you how effective it is when you know how to use it. I’m very active on Twitter and love engaging with racing fans from around the world and more so from India. Every major jurisdiction in racing around the world put out content which promotes their big race days and the stars who turn out at these racedays. Take Enable for example, not only is she truly talented but because of the way she’s been promoted to the world every one of us feels like we own a piece of her. Her owners, Juddmonte Farms, her trainer John Gosden, her jockey the ebullient Frankie Dettori have all worked at engaging with us. Whichever track she races at, uses her presence to attract more people to come racing. Similarly The Breeders Cup in America has been running content across social media platforms to engage and get more people involved in the mega event across continents. Even the birthplace of racing England has embraced the concept of engaging with their fans. The Henry Cecil Open Weekend at Newmarket where racing fans are given unprecedented access to the training yards and facilities at Racing Headquarters has grown into a seriously well attended and big event. Sir Mark Prescott opened his historic Heath House Stables to the public and his tours of Newmarket on YouTube are fantastic. Sir Mark doesn’t know it yet but he’s building himself up a burgeoning worldwide fan following.

The internet has made our world a lot smaller unfortunately our clubs still look inwards within their little islands. Nowhere else in the world will you find Chairmen giving long speeches about their events rather than having the views of the winners’ connections or those of the participants instead. Unfortunately this happens across every Club in the country, the racing fan couldn’t care less about the politics of the sport. To put it in perspective I don’t know who runs Ascot, Churchill Downs, Flemington or Longchamp or Santa Anita. What I do know are the horses that run there, the owners and trainers who run their horses there and the jockeys that ride there. They are the stars of the sport, the officialdom are akin to the event management company that runs an event, the less visible they are the more successful their event has been. Everyone wants to see the actor not the director. That microphone is a dangerous piece of equipment in the wrong hands.

Clubs need to start promoting their product a lot better and production needs to be a whole lot slicker. Better pictures, better cameras and most importantly better presenters. Many of those who fancy themselves as racing presenters in India would be better doing an advertisement for Calmpose or rather would be competition as a natural alternative to Zolfresh. The product is there and believe me it’s good enough it’s about time the clubs start looking at how they package their product to enhance the fan’s racing experience. If done right it’ll bring them back again and again and might even encourage them to bring along some friends. Racing as a sport falls in the aspirational category make it look what it is, right now it’s made to look a bit like a Diwali fete, bring in some glamour, it’s the Clubs’ responsibility to run a proper campaign to make sure of that. See how Formula 1 has made going round and round in circles in machines, into a nuanced multifaceted sport with many layers with lots of glamour and glitter surrounding it. Closer home see how Indian Polo promotes themselves on a much smaller budget. Horse Racing has many more layers it’s incumbent on the exhibitors of the product to get their heads out of 1980 and use the tools available to them to peel off those layers.

Time for some fresh thinking…a little maybe?

As the racing season winds down for the year one thing is very apparent things aren’t going well for Indian racing at all. As the insane tax of 28% on betting cripples our already poorly run pro- amateur racing,”Clubs” the first casualty is always stake money that they pay out. I’m a big critic of this but in the current environment we all have to feel the pain, it’s simply put a manifestation of an uncaring and incompetent government and an incompetent administration as far as running racing goes.

That apart tough times sometimes mean that for the sake of survival change is the need of the hour. RWITC is a prime example, mention DERBY and the whole of Bombay wants to attend. They have a lot of other high class race-days like the Poonawalla Breeders Million day but attendance just isn’t what it is on Derby day. The Derby weekend is a great time for us as an industry to showcase the sport on a national level as well as internationally, Derby time one finds a lot of racing connected people visiting from abroad and let’s face it, it’s the one day in Indian racing that genuinely attracts the casual fan. As an owner I’ve had the luck to win one and boy it’s really an otherworldly feeling accentuated by a huge crowd, clicking cameras and all that! It’s a feeling that ought to exist for every owner and for every race. I’ve been owning horses for decades and that feeling when your horse passes the winning post is what ought to actually be used to sell our sport to newer people. The RUSH is something that can’t be replicated in any sport I’m biased but hell yeah I’m sure of that!

For too long despite the Derby being the ultimate race to win, we still have regional Derbies in Hyderabad and in Bangalore which fall too close to the big one; THE Indian Derby for them to be viable prep races. The best should turn up for The Indian Derby without horses having to miss out on winning their home centre Derby. What I feel is the need of the hour is to push the Derby weekend to the Second instead of the first in February. Currently the Indian Oaks winner has to turnaround in two weeks and run the Derby. Bangalore runs its Winter Derby on Republic Day and Hyderabad goes on the last Sunday of January. Madras runs the South India Derby on January 14th which is Pongal Day. Calcutta runs their Derby on the First Sunday or sometimes the second Sunday of January and as such it has become the definitive lead up to the Indian Derby. I think since they moved the date, every Calcutta Derby winner turns up at Mahalaxmi, inversely the best usually turn up at Hastings too. The Indian Derby should give us the best Four Year Old in India and that horse should then take on the very best older horses at the Invitation Cup Three weeks later, thus both races showcase the very best in our sport.

The Kentucky Derby is a couple of weeks away. The stage is set as all the preps are now in the books and it’s similar to what we have here in India. The various Derbies run on the West Coast, East Coast, Midwest and even Dubai are all in the books. The winners of the Florida, Santa Anita, Arkansas, Louisiana and UAE Derbies along with the winners of other traditional Derby preps, The Blue Grass at Keeneland and The Wood Memorial at Aqueduct as well as the winner of the Lexington Stakes will all turn up under the twin spires at Churchill Downs to decide who will be the victor of the most exciting two minutes in sport. To add to the fun a race was designated in Europe as well on the All Weather as a Kentucky Derby prep and it’s thrown up a very interesting challenger in a horse called, “Gronkowski” named after the NFL New England Patriots Tight End, Rob Gronkowski nicknamed “The Gronk.” He’s promptly bought a share in his namesake and that’s going to attract even more eyeballs for the showcase event.

In India the time is ripe for our Clubs to come together and market our Indian Derby day in the true spirit of competition as THE showcase day of Indian racing. A good supporting card can be showcased alongside dovetailing into the Invitation weekend card. A top end Sprint race, a mile race, a mile and three quarters Stayers Cup prep and a rich Juvenile event would add lustre to the most well attended day in Indian racing.

Meanwhile the hammering that Breeders have been taking since the 1990s has manifested itself in a drastically reduced foal crop. A steady decline in the last few years has seen this year’s Yearling crop become the smallest in recent memory and from what I can see there will be under a thousand viable yearlings to occupy a growing number of empty stables at our 7 racing jurisdictions, this will result in a lot more lost race days due to a paucity of runners. Not one club is addressing this and our fixture list needs to see a cut of 25% nationwide. Simply put there aren’t enough horses, period. This year’s Bombay winter season has been seriously hammered by small fields as a result of the drastic drop in horse population. This is also a good time to clean house and come up with stricter licensing norms for trainers as they do in Hong Kong. Here it seems licenses are held in perpetuity without any criterion as for performance and capability and it’s about time the clubs ask how trainers who earn less in commissions than the salary of a syce in a whole season are able to keep their kitchen fires burning? These guys are using the Clubs’ infrastructure without contributing anything to the sport whatsoever. Non performers in any field are a burden on the system and need to be weeded out for more efficient functioning. Bad jockeys don’t get rides, nobody buys a bad Stallion’s produce and similarly poorly brought up horses. So isn’t it about time that this anomaly in the trainer’s ranks is corrected?

The Invitation Cup Preview

A very intriguing and interesting race for the Invitation Cup will take place on Sunday the Fourth of March at Calcutta. A compact field of ten will face the starter, with no standout 4 year old emerging after all the regional Derbies or the Indian Derby this could well be the year for the elder generation to strike a blow after drawing a blank since the race was opened to older horses. The weight for age terms are far more balanced now instead of the farcical five kilo difference of previous years, now the difference stands at 2 kilos with Fillies enjoying a further kilo and a half sex allowance. Two previous winners will line up in the old warhorse and 2014 winner, Alaindair and the reigning champ Temerity. The winners of the Indian Derby, Oaks and 1000 Guineas line up here along with the winners of the Golconda and Bangalore Derbies run this winter. Here is a brief synopsis of each of the ten runners.

1. Alaindair (Multidimensional-Gods Grace by Razeen) Trained by Altamash A Ahmed, Ridden by YS Srinath. After the debacle aboard the Indian Derby Favourite Prevalent Force At Mahalakshmi where he finished a laboured fourth, saddle pro YS Srinath comes to the 2018 Invitation atop his old friend Alaindair both have combined for 9 victories together. Sparingly raced over the last season the 2014 Indian Derby and Invitation Cup winner bounced back to something close to his best when he took the Indian Champion Cup, a Grade 1 race that is run at Calcutta. His earnings are well over 6 Crores for his enthusiastic young owner Gaurav Sethi, whose colours he sports and his breeder Ameeta Mehra. Not many Indian horses have performed at Grade one level for this long and especially at the age of Eight but this is one gutsy and special horse who has been very well campaigned and handled by his connections. He’s been sitting in Calcutta and training here. The competition has to come East to face him, this has to be a huge advantage for him. The bare form of the Indian Champion was fair, without being spectacular but it was his first competitive race since Pune Monsoon in October and he is bound to improve off that effort. Handling him at this age has been difficult but well done by his trainer Altamash and Alaindair with his glittering CV and wins in his last two starts must be considered a serious contender.

2. Salazaar (Burden Of Proof-Saddle Star by Tejano) Trained by Irfan Ghatala and ridden by P Trevor. Salazaar is a good horse but definitely a notch below the very best, the thing with him is that when you don’t give him much of a chance, suddenly he’ll spring a surprise. He wasn’t able to give 80 rated Escala 7.5 kgs in the Stayers’ Trial Stakes at Madras and he’ll need to improve exponentially on that effort to figure in the reckoning here. A good winner of the South India Derby last year he ran a forward sort of race in the Indian Derby but was well beaten. If he were to win it would be a massive upset. He carries the colours of URBB and deserves his chance here, he needs to run a career best to figure over here and his last run was below par. Then again Escala who beat him last out was attempting a Mile and a Half for the first time in her career and the speed biased program on offer at Bangalore might mean that she was meant to run longer trips but never was made to.

3. Temerity (Intense Focus-Narmina by Alhaarth) Trained by Pesi Shroff and ridden by Neeraj Rawal. The defending champion comes into this year’s renewal blotting her copybook last time out when B Fifty Two beat her in a match race in the Eclipse Stakes over a Mile and a quarter. Clearly Neeraj Rawal doesn’t read too many books but in match races the leader after the first two furlongs usually wins them. Trevor got B Fifty Two in front and Neeraj let him have an uncontested lead, it’s obvious that her pilot was sleeping when Trevor slipped him on top of the straight and held off her rally in the closing stages. That apart it was a fair enough leadup for the Invitation for the Pesi Shroff trained Filly owned by Shyam Ruia and Berjis Desai. She sees out a Mile and a Half very well and has been trained this year with this very race in mind and is possibly the only runner in the race whom one can say that for. She shapes up as a serious contender here.

4. Rochester (Phoenix Tower-Krasnaya by Red Ransom) Trained by SK Sunderji and ridden by CS Jodha. The Indian Derby victor comes to Calcutta to confirm himself the best of what has been perceived to be an ordinary crop. It’s a pity many Western India trainers lack the ambition to travel their horses out from there despite the abysmal stakes on offer there. Raced exclusively in Bombay and Pune this brave colt who survived a colic surgery as a youngster has never run a bad race. He caught my eye in the paddock at Bombay on Derby day and he was the comprehensive winner of the Blue Riband. He’s good value for his Derby victory and if he maintains form from the first Sunday in February to the first Sunday of March he’ll take a lot of beating. He’s proven over the trip and can be ridden as the race develops, he can rate or come off the pace. His jockey gels well with him and understands him well, he needs to be driven along a bit but answers the urgings steadily to the wire. He’ll go off as one of the favourites and rightly so. His owners enjoyed the ultimate thrill of winning the Derby, it was great to see his breeder and part owner Shapoor Mistry and his son Pallon’s joyous reaction at Mahalakshmi. Sunderji should’ve won the Indian Derby in 1989 with Desert Warrior but took a sabbatical to look after his family business and handed over the horse to Altaf Hussain. It took him 28 years to reach that winners circle, racing is a crazy game and as the old saying goes especially for Shiraz in this case, better late than never!

5. Star Carnation ( Excellent Art-Attractress by Dilshaan) Trained by S Ganapathy and ridden by David Allan. The Goldie Brown colour bearer surprised many with a fast closing second behind Kangra in the Bangalore Derby which was run a week after the Indian Derby. A bit of an aberration as his sire has produced very precocious stock in India which are top horses up to a mile but Star Carnation shook that theory up quite a bit. He takes his chances here and might well be a horse that is improving late but improving fast. His trainer who in his heyday has not just carried all in India but even trained Mystical to win in Dubai has been on a bit of a cold streak after a cracking Mysore main season. He’ll be a long-shot but gets the magic-man in Classics, David Allan aboard, it’ll be interesting to see how he looks in the paddock as I’ve found the trainer overdoing his horses a bit in recent times.

6. Kangra (Western Aristocrat-Georgina by Polish Precedent) Trained by Sulaiman Attaollahi and ridden by A Sandesh. When this filly moved to Sulaiman Attaollahi for the Bangalore Summer Season from Hyderabad not many would’ve noticed or cared but what a great move it was, she’s won the Mysore and South India 1000 Guineas over a mile and then the Bangalore Oaks and Derby over a Mile & a Half two weeks after the Oaks. Many say Lady In Lace’s Cinderella story is one for the ages, I being privy to a lot more information than others will tell you that her owner Marthand Singh Mahindra and his wife Rina’s story is much better. Sheer belief and grit have got the fast talking “Mouth Of The South” Marty as he’s known to us to the top echelons as an owner. He got into racing 27 years ago in 1990 when his father Suresh Mahindra suddenly passed away. He gave up a corporate job in America and returned to live in Bangalore. He inherited his father’s Turquoise and Gold Silks which were dominant in the days that his father ran Greenacres Stud (Now a part of the Poonawalla Group as Greenfields Stud) near Pune. When Marty came back he set about sorting things out in an operation that had stagnated, everything takes time as they say and this year Marty has hit the heights in a big way. On Bangalore Derby weekend his colours were carried to victory in all three big races. Marty breeds his own and races them in his own silks, it’s easy to buy champions but to breed and own them deserves a lot more respect. A victory here will get us another speech with joyous tears and emotion. His partner Prabhakar Reddy has owned horses since the 80’s and after a hiatus due to political commitments he’s back enjoying his racing and at the very top. Kangra has done everything asked of her, the short straight at Calcutta will suit her and a victory for her is a distinct possibility. She too shapes as one of the serious contenders. Well, I’ll be rooting for her anyway as her dam Georgina is on her way to Dashmesh as you read this!

7. Lady In Lace (Chinese Whisper-Sea Spray by Burden Of Proof) Trained by Prasad Raju and ridden by Suraj Narredu. The story of the year no doubt. A little known of Filly at the end of 9 Juvenile starts at Hyderabad this Star Filly showed what she was really about when shifted to Rajesh Narredu for the Bangalore Summer Season. She gave weight and slaughtered the opposition in the Arshad Ali Khan Trophy one day before the Bangalore Derby, in retrospect she would’ve won the Bangalore Derby if her connections had gone there instead. A good horse is a good horse anywhere and the myth about Western India being the premier centre in India has taken quite a hammering in the past few years. Lady In Lace underlined that when she whupped the rest in the Pune Derby and later the Indian 1000 Guineas. After that she picked up a lung infection and went straight from the Indian 1000 Guineas to the Indian Derby. She ran a very brave race to be runner up but came up short against a spot on Rochester that day. Her trainer Prasad Raju told me that he wasn’t able to train her at full tilt and as a result he came up short, now she comes into the Invitation with no excuses and should’ve come on a lot from her Derby run. Not the greatest of lookers and bred at Tohana Stud Farm, she’s changed a lot of perceptions that people have regarding owning horses. Sold at a relatively cheap price as a youngster, Shapoor Mistry bought into her at a huge markup after the Pune Derby. That price looks cheap now, as the old saying goes a good horse is cheap at any price and a bad horse is expensive for free. This filly has put Chinese Whisper firmly on the map and her breeder, young Frankey Singh has got him a full book this year. They have bred Charon to win the Invitation when his Grandfather Sardar Harpal Singh was at the helm of affairs. He chose Chinese Whisper before he passed away on the advice of the late HS (Kaka) Dhillon of Track Supreme Stud, to stand at stud and in doing that he might have left his Grandson a gift of an Invitation Cup. Lady In Lace is the sort of horse that makes racing the fascinating sport that it is.

8. Mahateji (Multidimensional-Blue Sky by China Visit) Trained by M Srinivas Reddy and ridden by PS Chouhan. The Golconda Derby winner comes into the Invitation after running a tired looking third in the Bangalore Derby. The bare form of her Derby win looks poor as does her Golconda Oaks win, where she was disqualified for an Atenolol positive an unfortunate situation which isn’t properly addressed by our Turf Authorities. Now the poor trainer has to sit out and face a suspension and a genuine winner has to be disqualified in a Grade 2 race. Atenolol is in all likelihood a contaminant and is NOT a performance enhancing drug, it’s a blood pressure medicine. Anyway she’ll be facing stiffer opposition here, Lady In Lace smashed her in the Golconda 1000 Guineas and Kangra in the Bangalore Derby. I’m a bit puzzled by the change of jockey here as Fergus Sweeney rode her very well and understood her style. She needs to rest as she looked flat in the Bangalore Derby but then again it’s the Invitation Cup and she deserves to take her chance.

9. Manifold (Multidimensional-Dhaawiah by Elusive Quality) Trained by Pesi Shroff and ridden by David Probert. Last year Pesi came to the Invitation with the Indian Oaks winner and Indian Derby third Temerity and won it. This year he comes here with Manifold who has exactly the same credentials on her CV. The Bangalore Summer Derby winner is a live threat here as she got interfered with early on in the Indian Derby and got shuffled back in a race that was unsuitable for a horse coming from the rear. Further to that the two weeks gap between the Oaks and Derby isn’t ideal and the month gap that Manifold gets to the Invitation would mean she’ll benefit greatly from it. She gets the trip and was a genuine hard luck story in the Derby. I feel she’s sitting on a big performance here and is one of the genuine contenders. She runs in her breeder Ameeta Mehra’s Silks and is one of the three in which the astute Berjis Desai has a stake, Mahateji and Temerity being the other two. Look for her to be right there at the business end.

10. Sedulous (Tariq-Zellers by Efisio) Trained by Neil Devaney ridden by S John. Sedulous was the victim of the most asinine ride by a jockey in this calendar year when Arshad Alam sat a good ten lengths behind the last horse until 600 metres out in the Bangalore Oaks. The poor filly ran gamely to get third but would’ve needed a turbo charged nitro fueled jet engine to make up some thirty lengths on those ahead of her. Arjun Mangalorkar’s long time assistant Neil Devaney has done very well with the opportunities that have come his way and Sedulous is the sort who’ll pick up a terms race in time to come. Neil gets to saddle an Invitation runner in his first year as a trainer and that’s a creditable feat in itself. Her sporting owners Clinton and Sujay are top guys who play the game in the right spirit and it’s nice to see them duke it out with the big boys. One certainty is that S John will go overweight on her as he struggles to do 57 kg and she carries 55.5 kg. The young man’s penchant for Beer and Biryani seems to be getting the better of his riding career. That apart Sedulous isn’t exactly bred to see out a stiff mile and a half and is clearly overmatched here even if she were getting 5 Kilos off rather than 1.5 more but then again racing is about dreaming and there’s a reason the sport is called racing!

The rest of the Invitation races look to have standout contenders in my opinion and all being well should win, I think Azzurro will take a lot of beating in the Stayers. Ruffina looks a shoe in for the Sprinters and Castlebridge back home in Calcutta for the Super Mile looks outstanding in that set. It’s hot in Calcutta and the action on the track will make it even hotter! Good Luck for the weekend to all connections and may the best horses win!

It’s THE Derby…need I say more?

The first Sunday of February means Indian Derby Day as RWITC hosts the one race annually that actually brings in casual fans through the turnstiles. This year the prize money on offer has taken a real dip and the winner will take home over a Crore less than what Desert God earned in 2016. Whatever the reasons may be this is not a good development and one hopes to see the Derby purse go back to what it ought to be, exponentially higher than any other race run in India. That said, let’s face it we all race for glory, the money is good and all that but every owner dreams of winning THE Indian Derby, I achieved the dream last year with Hall Of Famer. This year the overall standard of the racing crop so far is perceived to be not the greatest but the Derby is the very race that makes the winner turn into great from good. I’m going to go number wise for each of the contenders as since I’m fortunate enough to have a runner my opinion ceases to be unbiased and as such will not make a choice but I hope my inputs help you to make the right choice. So let’s get on those designer duds and let’s go RACING!!!

Aggregated (Dean’s Kitten-Wonder Smile by Lend A Hand) Brazilian born English Champion jockey Silvestre De Sousa has been engaged to ride the Calcutta Derby winner. After a runner up finish on debut in Pune, this colt was taken by his connections to Calcutta and he paid their faith back in spades, on the second start of his life he surprised many by winning the Calcutta 2000 Guineas as a maiden, on the face of it the form of the race didn’t look great but then again horses make fools of us humans often. He went in to the Calcutta Derby with a lukewarm following but under what was one of the best rides of 2017 in India by Suraj Narredu, Aggregated won the Calcutta Derby quite decisively. As much as was made of Dasrath’s poor ride on Sana, many missed how Suraj pretty much twirled the Western India pro around his finger, chewed him up and spat him out. Apart from controlling the pace perfectly he kept showing and shutting a gap on the rails to Sana which pretty much led to all the indecisiveness that her jockey showed. A winner of two of his three starts, there is bound to be a lot of improvement in this Dean’s Kitten colt who despite being Western India based will make his Mahalakshmi debut in the Derby. The last two winners of the Indian Derby, Desert God and Hall Of Famer took the Calcutta Derby as their lead up to winning in Bombay. His owners Diwan Arun Nanda and family have owned horses for decades now and in Aggregated they have possibly their best runner in the Blue Riband ever. He ought to see out the trip based on his Hastings Derby win, the only fly in the ointment was a very poor timing on that day. He’s a pretty straightforward sort and that enables the jockey to position himself wherever he wants. His brother Colombiana is a very useful sort who is just a wee bit below the absolute best though a very high class terms horse who rarely ever runs a bad race. The dam Wonder Smile is a Bangalore Oaks winner though the race the year she won was a bit light on quality. Trainer Malesh Narredu has won the Indian Derby with the great Be Safe so he knows what it takes.

Big Sur (Win Legend-Validate by Valid Concept) Statutory Warning: “Read this one carefully as I’m biased.” That apart our horse comes to the Derby in great heart and our route to the race was to have 3 races, each 3 weeks apart and to progressively go up in trip, we started with a 9 Furlong which he won well under Trevor in November. In December he took a Mile and a quarter in a cracking timing under Dasrath Singh. Over a Mile and a Half under Trevor he battled hard all the way down the straight with the year older and more seasoned Vulcan giving him a Kilo and a half, to miss by a nose. That race should bring him on further and our trainer Sanjay Kolse was very happy with his final piece of work. He lacks the aura of some of the other contenders but he’s well seasoned and is based locally. He’s certain to see out the Derby distance and we feel he’s sitting on a career best race. Fergus Sweeney rides him and we hope can feed of his luck from what was a fine ride on Mahateji in last Sunday’s Golconda Derby at Malakpet. Big Sur has already shown he stays and we hope he’ll be there at the business end.

Grand Passage (Grandera-Vignelaure Rose by Danehill Dancer) This Karthik Ganapathy trainee is here as a pacemaker for his more heralded stablemate Perfect Star. Bhawani Singh rides him and if he wins it’ll be not just the mother of all upsets but rather a lot more than that. Last seen hassling Castlebridge in the Ruia Cup he walked past the post that day. He is also the lowest rated horse in the field and the only cheque he’s picked up was by running third of three in the Ruia Cup.

Perfect Star (Excellent Art-Free Radical by Diffident) Perfect Star represents the Goldie Brown silks of the late Dr. MAM Ramaswamy the winningmost owner in the history of the Indian Derby. Karthik Ganapathy’s ward gets David Allan in the saddle, David has won the last two Indian Derbies on Desert God and Hall Of Famer. David Allan rides mainly in the North of England in the English racing season, in the past few years the Scot Ace has had a killer impact on racing in our subcontinent. He recently surpassed Sandy Barclay’s record as the foreign jockey with the most classic wins in Bharat Mata. Perfect Star has been an almost there horse and has been in the shake up in the mile classics without being good enough to win any of them. I personally feel that he lacks the stamina to win a mile and a half classic though his form against the best at a mile is top drawer whether in Bangalore where he wad the runner up in the Colts’ Championship or his fair third in the Indian 2000 Guineas. So far the word on his sire Excellent Art is that his good horses don’t quite get a trip and as such Perfect Star’s chances in what is going to be a truly run mile snd a half look bleak. His dam Free Radical was brilliant but saw out the mile purely on her class. There is a fair amount of back stamina in the pedigree but with Diffident as a broodmare sire and Excellent Art as his sire, it’s very doubtful that Perfect Star will see out a gruelling mike and s half.

Prevalent Force (Multidimensional-Prevalence by Razeen). He will go off as the likely favourite. This handsome bay trained by Darius Byramji takes the South India Derby route pretty much patented by his father the legendary Rashid Byramji the winning-most trainer in Indian Derby history. He obliterated a poor field at Guindy in the South India Derby on Pongal Day at Madras. This horse has done little wrong and comes into the Derby off a 6 race winning streak. He was very impressive in the South India Derby three weeks ago. His track work in Bangalore is very impressive and he comes into the Derby as the likely favourite. He’s beaten Lady In Lace in the Deccan Derby which was run in atrocious conditions. His sire and broodmare sire both bring in lots of stamina though his dam line is predominantly full of sprinter-milers. His jockey YS Srinath has been aboard for all his six victories. His owners the Edwards from Sri Lanka have invested heavily in Indian racing and in Prevalent Force they have a great shot at winning the Derby. His trainer Darius Byramji has won the Derby with Psychic Flame who co incidentally had Pesi Shroff aboard. This year Pesi saddles Indian Oaks Winner, Manifold one of Prevalent Force’s main threats. He’s drawn 12 of 12 but his experienced jockey will know how to handle that. He’s your likely betting favourite.

Rochester (Phoenix Tower-Krasnaya by Red Ransom) Rochester is one of the most consistent horses in Western India. He ended Castlebridge’s Derby aspirations when he took the Ruia Cup a traditional Derby lead up over the 2000 Guineas victor. He ran a very brave second before that in the 2000 Guineas behind Castlebridge. He was the best of the beaten lot in the Pune Derby too. Rochester has been on the go from his juvenile days and is an owner’s dream. He turns up and runs his race on any given day. CS Jodha takes the ride on the Sunderji trained son of Phoenix Tower. Conventional thought says that he might struggle over the mile and a half but he’s beautifully bred and has the stamina influence Sadlers Wells as his 2nd broodmare sire. He comes into the Derby off a career best performance in the Ruia Cup and a little bit of improvement is all that is required to put him in the mix.

Zenon (Champs Elysees-Questa Nova by Rainbow Quest) This Pesi Shroff trainee has been brought along patiently by his trainer after he ran a good race to be Fifth in the Bangalore Summer Derby. A dead cert on his pedigree to stay the Derby distance Pesi has taken an easy route with him by running him over longer trips. Sandesh takes the ride on the Got Abroad. One gets the feeling that he might be a race short over here and still has plenty of improvement in him. Patiently handled by his connections, he definitely deserves to take his chance in the big one. Like I mentioned one feels the race is coming a wee bit soon for him.

Daffodil (China Visit-Hills And Stars by Razeen) Another Filly who was well handled by Pesi Shroff who did well to campaign her over longer trips, after winning two on the trot in Pune she ran second behind Sana in the Calcutta Monsoon Derby as the race favourite. That run in retrospect is a career best and the filly has disappointed since then. She was the Pacemaker for Manifold in the Oaks and will be the de facto rabbit here too once Grand Passage back pedals after 5 Furlongs. I can’t see her winning but she fits her pacesetter role very well, she’s the key to keeping the pace honest.

Lady In Lace (Chinese Whisper-Sea Spray by Burden Of Proof) The pride of Hyderabad and Tohana, what a machine this lovely filly has been. After a Nine race Juvenile campaign at Hyderabad which was good without being great, it was at Bangalore Summer India stood up and took notice of the queen. During a sabbatical with Rajesh Narredu at Bangalore she gave weight and a proper thrashing to the field in the rich Arshad Ali Cup a terms event on the Saturday of Bangalore Derby week. I reckon she would’ve taken the Derby itself if she had run there instead. Back with Prasad Raju she first beat Bangalore Derby winner Manifold in the Hyderabad Fillies Trial. She was beaten though not disgraced in a runner up finish in the Deccan Derby which was run in a slog. She came back in two weeks in the Pune Derby and thrashed Rochester and the rest decisively. Arguably the best Filly of this crop she took the Golconda 1000 Guineas before winning the Indian 1000 Guineas at Mahalakshmi in a hard fought race where the first four home ran cracking races. Reportedly she missed her intended lead up for the Derby; The Golconda Oaks due to a slight lung infection. She showed her well being in a 9 Furlong mock race on Indian Oaks day. Despite all the rumours flying around I feel a little bit of freshening up in what has been a long and hard campaign for her will do her a lot of good. She’ll be ridden by Suraj Narredu in the Manjri colours of Shapoor Mistry. This will be her biggest test till date as she attempts the Mile and a Half for the first time in her life. As a granddaughter of the stamina influence Montjeu one thinks she’ll get the trip. Her dam line on the other hand is chock a block full of speed influences. The consummate over achiever she’ll stamp herself as an all time great if she wins the Derby.

Manifold (Multidimensional-Dhaawiah by Elusive Quality) Normally a CV that boasts wins in the Bangalore Summer Derby and the Indian Oaks would go to post as Favourite but this has been an interesting classic year. A steady improver Manifold announced her real arrival when she won the Bangalore Fillies and Derby double the latter in a hard fought battle where her stamina got Castlebridge on the post. After a respectable second behind Lady In Lace she was rested with a winter campaign in mind. After an easy win in her lead-up, she was very aggressively ridden when a good fourth in the Indian 1000 Guineas. She next appeared in the Indian Oaks two weeks ago and won decisively when ridden in check. The field for the Oaks was poor this year but she can only beat what ran against her. David Probert replaced her regular pilot Neeraj Rawal in the Ladies Derby and will again ride the Pesi Shroff trained filly. Her dam line doesn’t quite shout stamina but she gets the trip alright as she demonstrated in the Oaks. A two week turnaround isn’t ideal but Pesi has done it a few years ago with Jacqueline. She’ll be there in the mix again no doubt.

Sana (Multidimensional-Yana by Razeen) The Calcutta Filly came a cropper in her home Derby under an atrocious ride behind Aggregated. Indian champ P Trevor picks up the ride replacing her regular pilot Dasrath Singh and a better pace scenario in the Indian Derby will suit the Bharath Singh trainee a lot more. She’s guaranteed to stay and is yet another star bred on the Multidimensional-Razeen cross. If she’d laid down a marker as an odds on Favourite in the Calcutta Derby she’d be running as one of the favourites here. There were genuine excuses that day and one can see her running a lot better over here. She’s needs things in the race to pan out correctly for her in the race as she isn’t the easiest to settle but she’s a very genuine contender in here. Her sporting owners deserve a big one and she might just deliver today.

Themis (Lord Shanakill-Soul Society by Inchinor) The Oaks Runner up is definitely a notch below the best Fillies of this generation. Her veteran trainer will be a popular winner if she wins here. After she beat Manifold in the Shapoorji Million for Fillies in Bombay last March, Manifold has steadily increased the gap over her decisively since. A career best over here mayn’t be quite good enough to see her win. Neeraj Rawal picks up the ride on the Shirke and Dhunjibhoy colour bearer. She might not be good enough but yes she’s good enough to be in the field. If she were mine I’d definitely have her running here. The Oaks form looks very soft Manifold apart and a win by Themis will be a big surprise.

A lot will depend on the luck and running of the race as always. Favourites have a poor track record in the Indian Derby. Will Prevalent Force carry that burden and break the jinx? Let’s see what happens in yet another fascinating renewal of India’s biggest race.

Back To The Future: The Auction Sales return in earnest to RWITC!

Indian racing goes through a torrid period under the new GST regime, from an average tax of 8% on turnover our learned government has slammed us with an exponential increase to take it up to a crazy 28%. Further to that they’ve decided to tax the sale of horses at 12% something that ought to net the Indian Government a princely Rs. 5 Crores or so annually in a country where revenue collection runs to over Rs. 8500 Billion per month. The GST regime which was supposed to simplify life has further complicated matters. My home state of Punjab has seen a drastic decrease in revenues and hopefully our Finance Minister’s pleas in the GST Council are addressed. Meanwhile Halwais are scratching their heads as their Kaju, Pista, Badam, Chocolate and Khoya Burfis each attract a different GST rate, when this gets sorted maybe the Government will consider the damage a crazy 28% GST on betting will cause the industry and fix a more sensible rate which will cause the punter to bet legally on the tote rather than with illegal bookies who’re the largest beneficiaries of a 28% rate, if the rate was 150% they couldn’t care less since they’re going to pay the Government a big fat ZERO in any case.

Bangalore has finally been able to get their Winter Season going in the New Year after their standoff with the Karnataka Government and more specifically the Chief Minister of the Southern state. One wishes our industry understood that they provide a significant 35,000 jobs and the Turf Authorities of India must understand the responsibility of that and behaved as such. BTC lost over Rs. 20 Crores in revenue from inter-venue betting as a result of the problem and this is definitely going to manifest itself down the line in reduced stakes for owners and redundancies as a result. BTC has acted swiftly and the curtailed season has an action feeling about it, since there is a graded race pretty much every week.

The Annual Auction Sale conducted by RWITC in February this year finally ceases to be a misnomer and February 12th and 13th will see a proper auction after over Three Decades of the “Annual lets walk around in circles” that the sales had actually become. Last year Madras Race Club took the lead by conducting a sale where once a horse arrived on the premises it had to go through the ring. They conducted a sale this year too but the quality on offer was not as good as the previous year, neither was the sale promoted properly. My takeaway from that sale was that farms which brought decent stock to the sale, saw them sell pretty well. Breeders have had it difficult for a very long time but at the same time they’re protected from market exposure as when they sell privately, they are able to build their brand equity on perception and personal relationships rather than results and market forces. I saw a large number of horses go through the ring at Chennai with no bid, I’m glad that it was the case as a few of my colleagues ought to be ashamed of what they brought to sell to the buyers, these horses were stunted as a result of being poorly nourished and cared for by their breeders. On the other end of the spectrum is Nanoli Stud who entered just one in the Madras Sale. A nice Chestnut Colt who looked the part of being a half brother to a classic winner and from a top class dam line. Two trainers locked horns for the offering, the result was an all India Auction record as the colt was knocked down to Chennai based trainer Craig Marshall for Rs. 2.05 Million plus another 12% to be paid as GST. That apart those who turned out good stock such as my boss in the NHBSI, went back with 100% clearance and satisfaction. The sale wasn’t promoted in the right way and despite that 38 horses found buyers at a fair average of Rs. 6 Lakhs.

Selling horses by auction is the norm the world over as it’s a transparent and fair system by which the true market value of stock is reflected in the sale price. It’s very fair to the buyer as it gives everyone an equal chance of buying horses irrespective of their connection with any breeder or stud farm. Similarly it does away with any cloak and dagger system of a private sale where unscrupulous breeders can be in cahoots with unscrupulous trainers in duping an owner.

Not many are aware that the foal crop this year is one of the smallest in almost three decades. Race Clubs mayn’t be facing the problem right now but it’s just a matter of time before they find it difficult to fill fields. This can be seen with the large number of 8 and 9 and even 10 year olds racing at all centres. There was a time when these were shunted out of racecourses with disdain.

Coming back to the sales, one sees the RWITC and the Stud Book Authority working hard to promote it. This is refreshing and I as a breeder am cautiously optimistic of the outcome of the sale. All our stock comes to the sale with a clean scope and vet certificate, I feel a clear tracheal endoscopy (scope) certificate ought to have been mandatory for sale entry along with a clean vet certificate as a further protection for buyers. India’s leading stud farm Usha Stud and a majority of breeders are bringing horses to the sale with clear scope certificates. The sale has been supported across the spectrum of breeders and a big advantage is going to be immediate settlement for them rather than chase owners for payments over 12 months which is at least for me a truly demeaning experience. The auction process will hopefully keep people who can’t afford horses but buy on the never never, out.

The transparency that the auction process provides will also encourage new owners to buy a horse with confidence at what is fair market value at the time. Many years ago when Saddle Up raced well in Malaysia and Singapore there was a genuine interest in buying Indian horses from Malaysia. The problem the buyers from there had was that they were uncomfortable buying horses in private deals as they felt they might get ripped off. I know it’s an outside chance but if we keep faith in the process, buyers from South East Asia might find that Indian horses are a viable option for them as our prices compared to Europe, Australia and USA are a small fraction. Further the few we’ve had travel to foreign countries have represented us well. Saddle Up was at one time the best horse stabled in Singapore, Polar Falcon won in Singapore at a high level. Mystical won two races in the highly competitive Dubai Racing Carnival. Beat It Dude at one time stood Seventh in the handicap ratings in Seoul, South Korea in a population of over a Thousand horses based there and drew in to run their biggest race, the Grand Prix which is open only to the best Fifteen horses based in South Korea. Southern Regent won a decent handicap on the all weather in England when he was well past his prime at the age of 9. Adler won a high level allowance at Ellis Park for Bill Mott, Ellis Park used to have a short and competitive season on the Kentucky circuit, in between Churchill Downs and Keeneland’s fall meet. Many years ago Astonish won a Class One race in the very competitive environs of Hong Kong. We all await our champion miler, Serjeant At Arms’s American career in the hands of Kentucky Derby winning trainer H Graham Motion. I went to see him at Far Hills Training Centre recently and he was settling in well. So maybe not this year but after a few years we might find some foreign buyers coming to buy at our Auction sales.

As a vendor I’m very encouraged by the way the RWITC Management has gone about promoting the sales this year. They’ve been running slickly made promotional videos during their race meetings which go out on their live video feed. The concept of a select session and the blue pages is a good idea too and one hopes it’s a success. The entire concept of an auction is new to the current generation of owners, breeders and even the management of RWITC. Old timers tell me that this was once the norm and many champions sold in the Auction ring. I’m of the opinion that the entire process is a step in the right direction and it might not be a resounding success from the get go but we must stick with it, as in a few years I guarantee it will succeed. The practice of selling horses privately at farms will continue but I see no reason why RWITC should allow us to use their facility to conduct private sales. Due to a smaller foal crop the timing for this experiment is perfect. The Catalogue looks nice and tight and from the looks of it there’ll be about 150 or so coming for the sale. Thats a good number, many of the country’s top stallions will be represented as will many top breeders. Craig Marshall doesn’t know it yet but at Guindy the other night he might have provided that little spark to ignite the sales in Bombay. So here we go into the unknown and start a process which funnily is the norm the world over. I for one am optimistic and look at the glass half full and maybe just maybe that glass is going to overflow!