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It's a multicrore industry in which fortunes are made
or lost at the toss of the genetic dice. Owning a
racehorse appeals to vanity and there is glamour
surrounding the sport, but it all boils down to a
question of breeding. Well-known horse-racing commentator
Cyrus Madan offers some expert
advice for those with an eye for the fillies.
Les Carleon, one of Australia's leading journalists, has
defined horse racing with typical Aussie common sense:
``If you insist that two and two must always make four,
if you cannot dream a little, forget about the turf and
horse racing. Put on a white coat with a beeper in the
pocket and go find a laboratory somewhere. To enjoy the
turf and horses you have to accept that two plus two is
often five or nine or, more commonly, nought.''
Horse racing is all about drama rather than
probabilities. It's about risks--physical, financial and
moral. It's about man with all his vanity, his
commonplace greed and his occasional nobility and an
animal called the thoroughbred which can be exquisitely
beautiful but is born with a congenital tendency to
self-destruct. The thoroughbred is one of the most regal
and magnificent creatures in the world with an
exclusivity that makes him truly blue-blooded and a breed
apart. To be labelled a thoroughbred, a horse has to
trace back his ancestry to one of three founding
sires--The Byerly Turk, The Darley Arabian and The
Godolphin Barb. These are the three stallions from which
every thoroughbred in the world descends. And if a
horse's bloodlines do not go back to that trio, he is
simply not a thoroughbred.
The sport itself, however, is nowhere near as cut and
dried and that age-old axiom which said that horses were
born to make fools out of men, still applies. It is the
only sport in the world where lords and ladies, sheikhs
and queens, celebrities and tycoons rub shoulders with
the common man in an endeavour to prove who is truly the
shrewdest judge of horseflesh and who truly understands
the horse.
So, who are the players in this enigmatic game? What is
the fascination and mystique attached to the sport, and
how does one go about buying a racehorse--or even part of
one? For that, there is one crucial requirement: hope.
Hope that when the sun dawns, the next day he will have
bred or owned or bought or trained or ridden or backed a
potential champion. But before that, the basics, or the
beginning.
The starting point in the horse-racing game is the place
where the thoroughbred is born and nurtured--the stud
farm. Horse breeding is in itself a science and it's not
a simple case of hit and miss. It's an intricate and
difficult process. In fact, there is probably no other
sport in the world where the approach to produce an
athlete begins even before the athlete is actually
conceived which makes it one of the most advanced of its
kind. In India, horse racing is gradually coming of age
and the day when it can be compared to international
levels is no longer a mere pipe dream. An Indian champion
like Astonish which was owned by J.P. Goenka, Deepak
Khaitan and Ross Deas, became the first Indian
thoroughbred to ever win a race outside India. He stormed
home at the Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong on his debut,
taking on horses of the highest class based there to show
that an Indian bred one could hold its own. A little
later the Vijay Mallya-owned Adler won a race in the USA
to bring even further laurels. Both the horses were well
past their prime when they travelled abroad and the
stringent, antiquated and uncompromising quarantine laws
that are there from the days of Queen Victoria made their
task even more difficult. Astonish, for instance, first
had to travel all the way to the West Coast of the USA,
spend six months there in quarantine before being allowed
to ``step hoof'' into Hong Kong!
Thanks to this sort of red tapism and constraints, the
Indian racehorse finds it virtually impossible to compete
in the major invitational races of the world despite
being nominated for them. Thus, a horse like Elusive
Pimpernel, arguably the greatest champion the Indian Turf
has seen in recent times, had a chance to participate in
the richest race ever run in the world, namely the Dubai
World Cup. However, thanks to the quarantine laws, he
could not leave Indian shores. A similar scenario
repeated itself when, despite being eligible to
participate in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, an
invitational event in Hong Kong, Elusive Pimpernel was
once again denied an entry. He had to stay on in India,
where the only opposition was records in stake money. In
his last few races it became a straight case of Elusive
Pimpernel first--the rest nowhere. For such a champion to
have been denied a chance to compete at an international
level was nothing short of criminal.
Despite such setbacks, the Indian thoroughbred industry
is flourishing. In 1969, Indian stud farms produced 391
foals which would eventually come up for sale two years
later at the annual auction sales. In 1996, a total of
1,807 foals were registered. Moreover, studs are
importing a host of stallions and mares each year and,
this has, over a period of time, bettered the quality of
stock that comes up for sale. Descendants of some of the
most illustrious equine families in the world of breeding
are now represented here in India. Thus, you find sons of
the legendary Northern Dancer, one of the greatest
progenitors in the world, standing at farms in India. So,
too, are sons of Saddler's Wells, Mr Prospector, Danzig,
Sir Ivor, Blushing Groom and Busted, to mention a few.
Their offspring sell at well beyond the million-dollar
mark in the USA.Owning
A Racehorse
The breeding industry is faced with one
serious problem--there are not enough buyers for the
total number of horses produced. If you want to own a
racehorse you have to be registered and accepted as an
owner by any of the five turf authorities. The first step
is to decide on your budget. Horses are available for
anything between Rs 25,000 and 25 lakh, quite like
paintings. The only difference is that while paintings
are a somewhat sound investment, there is no guarantee
whatsoever that the thoroughbred for which you have
coughed up a million will turn out to be a champion. Few
horses ever recover their cost price and, remember, there
is a monthly expense of at least Rs 7,000 by way of a
basic training fee which keeps adding up on your meter
once the horse has been purchased.
So, if it's not a viable proposition, why do people own
horses? Well, that's a difficult one to answer, but let
us face it, you can't own a racehorse unless you have the
bucks. At least you can't own one yourself. What you can
do is form a partnership, or a syndicate, or a private
limited company or a racing club which are all recognised
forms of ownership worldwide. Thus, instead of being an
individual owner you can be part of any of the above and
that would not only cut down on your investment and your
expenses but it could also allow you to own more than
just a few reasonably priced horses with whom you have
some chance of making a go of it (see box). Remember,
depending on how you handle them, a racehorse can race
from the age of two years until the age of seven or
eight. This is on an average. There have been quite a few
who have continued to race at the highest level until
well past the age of eight but they are at their prime
between the time they are four and six.
The Best of the
Breeders
Stud farms have mushroomed all over the
country but only a handful hold centrestage. The current
racing year, for instance, appears to belong to Major
Pradeep Mehra's Usha Stud and Mehra Farms. The latest
chapter in their success story revolves around the farm's
resident stallion, Razeen, a recent import. Razeen is a
son of the great Northern Dancer and in his first crop of
horses he has already produced a host of champions
including the winner and runner-up of the McDowell Indian
Derby and the Kingfisher Indian Oaks, two of the most
important classics run in India.
The Usha Stud and the Mehra Stud which are located next
to each other are not far from Delhi, in Haryana. Here,
Major Pradeep Mehra and his daughter Ameeta have produced
remarkable results from a small beginning and the Usha
and Mehra studs are today considered to be one of the
best in the land. They enjoyed their most heady moments
in the late '70s and early '80s and now those glorious
days of the past seem to have returned with Razeen's
horses in full cry. In fact, it's amusing to note that in
the McDowell Indian Derby this year, Pradeep was in that
enviable position where he could not lose since he had a
share in both the horses that were fighting it out at the
finish, namely Indictment owned by Khushroo Dhunjibhoy
and Arabian Rose owned by Vijay Mallya. When Indictment
got the verdict by a narrow margin, Mehra was asked:
``Whom were you rooting for in the finish?'' Mehra smiled
and replied: ``Neither. I was yelling for the horse who
sired both of them--Razeen. What mattered most was that
one of his offspring win the Derby from his very first
crop.''
In the cantonment town of Pune is the Poonawalla Group of
Farms, the home of a conglomerate of champions. Astonish
and Adler, for example, were both bred at this very farm
which is managed by the Poonawalla brothers, Cyrus and
Zavaray, and together they have taken the Poonawalla
Group of Farms to the very pinnacle of success in recent
years. Horses bred by them won the McDowell Indian Derby
five years in a row from 1988 to 1992 and they were
denied a record sixth successive victory by a whisker
when Astronomic just edged out Summer Dust in a pulsating
finish. The Poonawalla Group of Farms is home to Malvado,
a champion sire in his own right here in India and to the
late Riyahi, a son of Red God. Riyahi, like Malvado, has
been a champion sire in India. So is Placerville, the
winner of The Prince Of Wales Stakes and himself a son of
the top international stallion Prospector. Al Nassr
Alwasheik, the most recent import, is also bred in the
blue and has quite a record and finally there is
Exhilaration--son of Malvado--a champion racehorse who
was unbeaten in all his nine starts. Together, they
represent awesome potential and with the track record
that the farm has built up, it appears that they will
continue to be at the top.
The former Punjab chief minister H.S. Brar and his family
are yet another set of high-profile individuals who have
established a successful operation when it comes to
breeding horses. Their Dashmesh Stud in the Muktsar
district of Punjab has had its fair share of champions
and Elusive Pimpernel, arguably the greatest racehorse
seen in recent times, was born and raised there. Did they
know that he was destined to become a legend? Well, that
is like asking Pete Sampras' parents whether they knew
their son would be the world champion before he began
playing tennis. Elusive Pimpernel had the breeding and as
he grew he acquired the build but after him none of his
brothers and sisters came even remotely close in
comparison.
Where to Buy
All thoroughbreds in the northern
hemisphere share a common birthday--the 1st of January.
Hence, on New Year's Day they all turn one year older
irrespective of when they were actually born. As a
result, most of them are foaled prior to March. They are
up for sale just after they have turned two, at which
juncture they have not even stepped onto the racetrack.
Of course, a lot of them are sold from the stud farms
even before they have completed 18 months, but the
majority come to Mumbai where the Royal Western India
Turf Club conducts the major auction sale of the year.
You can buy either prior to the sale by what is called a
private sale or you can buy in the auction ring itself
and after that all you can do is hope that your newest
equine acquisition turns out to be a champion or at least
wins you a couple of races when he starts racing
approximately nine months later. After the horse has been
purchased you have to entrust him to a trainer who is
licensed by the turf clubs to look after your horse and
train him to race. Your selection of the trainer is
almost as vital as your selection of the horse, but if
you are a relative newcomer to the game then it would be
better to opt for one of the two options. Approach an
acquaintance who is already involved in the game to a
large extent and ask him for his advice and to introduce
you to a few trainers or else go to the turf club and
seek the advice of one of their racing executives. Ask
them to provide you with their performance statistics and
then you can decide.
Earning Against
the Odds
What would the average racehorse earn in
a year for his connections? Well, if you have that Midas
touch and owned a horse like Elusive Pimpernel, he would
have earned you over Rs 1 crore in a span of a little
over two years. But he was no average racehorse. His full
sister and his brothers put together did not earn what
Elusive Pimpernel won in his first four months of racing,
and they must have been purchased for mind-boggling
prices since they were so closely related. On an average,
however, horses could win a race a season or two a year.
Of course, stake money has risen dramatically, thanks to
corporate involvement in the sport by way of sponsorship.
Back in 1977, Squanderer won the Invitation Cup in
Bangalore and earned about Rs 1,40,000 for his efforts.
In March this year, when the ITC-sponsored Classic Indian
Turf Invitation Cup is run at the same venue, the winner
would have earned over Rs 24 lakh for his pains. An
increase of over 1,614 per cent in 20 years. Similarly,
when Squanderer won the Indian Derby that year in Mumbai,
he earned Rs 1,50,000. In 1977, Indictment won the
McDowell-sponsored McDowell Indian Derby and earned his
connections Rs 20.5 lakh.
Major stud farms have introduced races of their own where
the guaranteed stakes are well over the million rupee
mark not to mention a host of other corporate concerns
like Eveready Industries, the UB Group, Castrol India
Ltd--all of whom have joined the corporate sponsorship
bandwagon having found horse racing the ideal platform
and medium to be associated with. A race like the
Poonawalla Breeders Million sponsored by the Poonawalla
Group of Farms has become the richest race on the Indian
racing calendar and it attracts the crowds as well with
marketing gimmicks such as contests where the first prize
is a Maruti 800 car. With these sort of attractions the
chance that you might recover something of the cost price
of your horse is always there, but you have to remember
that in every race there are only five or six horses
which bring in the money or earn stakes. The other 20
have given it their all but returned penniless. That's
the way the cookie crumbles, but of late even the crumbs
of that cookie are incentive enough to own a racehorse.
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