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?