A single sweeping glance will let you in on the following: money,fame and a
snob value of making the best style statement possible. Thedesigner wears are
out, the extravagant hats are in place and thegalloping horses get the
celebrity quotient soaring at the MahalaxmiRace Course. First the Derby,
followed by the ARC Polo tournament, andnow with the upcoming Gool S Poonawala
Million Race, one has seen asmuch action on the stands as the racetrack. But
for some, the genuinefeat still lies amidst the thoroughbreds. Horse racing and
otherrelated sport may be reminiscent of the British Raj but for some it isa
way of life.
K N Dhunjibhoy is one. Owner of a shippingcompany and also the 300-acre Nanoli
Stud Farm in Pune, Dhunjibhoy’soldest memory of a horse is of riding one at the
age of six. “Both myparents were avid race-goers and loved horses,” says
Dhunjibhoy whorealised his dream of owning a stud farm in 1994. What started as
a 25acre plot with 15 mares and an imported stallion from the US is now a300
acre farm with almost 115 mares and three stallions. All of this,he says, is
for the kick of creating champions for the racecourse.“Buying a stallion or a
mare from auctions abroad and breeding theminvolves an intensive research
process of the bloodline, a complex gameof genetics. The foal is born and in a
few years you might see him as achampion on the racing circuit. That feeling of
watching your dreamfinally materialise, is priceless,” smiles Dhunjibhoy who
unlike manyother stud farms owners, retains almost 90 per cent of his stock
anduses them for racing
events.
Lorraine More with her son
Rohan at Japlaouppe K N
Dhunjibhoy of Nanoli Stud Farm The audience turn-out at these
racing events may have remained stagnantover many years but Dhunjibhoy is
unperturbed. “Mumbai was the city ofmills during the ’50s and ’60s and for them
horse racing was the onlysource of entertainment. Every Sunday, they would
flock the racecourseand bet on their favourite horse. But now, we have malls,
multiplexes,etc. My son prefers a fancy restaurant over the racecourse where
hewill be roasting under the sun and get nothing to eat but a sadsandwich,”
explains Dhunjibhoy. A fair estimate can be gauged from thefact that when at
one point Mumbai and Pune Racecourse saw a jointturnout of almost 25,000; today
it’s no more than 6,000.
Also,there are other factors that made surviving even tougher. The
highlydisorganized structure of the industry and practically zero
insurancecover combined with high taxes (33 per cent to import a horse and
26per cent for those who bet) are some of them. Consider all these withthe
escalating land prices and as Dhunjibhoy claims, owning a stud farmin England
works out to be cheaper. Hence, it wasn’t surprising whenwith time many stud
farms shut shop while some changed hands, like theCapricorn Stud Farm,
India’sfirst and only private limited stud farm. Though it was Gayo Pedder
whooriginally set up the farm (then Canhill Stud Farm), the businessrecession
made it impossible for him to support it. “He was desperateto sell it off
before things got ugly. An NRI Kamal Bhatia pooled inother investors and formed
a joint stock company that today, owns thefarm,” explains Berjis Desai,
director of a 260-acre farm and also alawyer for the last 28 years and
partner in a corporate law firm.What’s interesting is that Bhatia himself at
one point owned a championhorse named Capricorn who lost the Indian Derby by a
whisker, leavinghis long held ambition unfulfilled. Where on one hand, the
takeover wasan attempt to rescue the farm from its financial woes, it was
alsoBhatia’s second innings to realise his dream.
And Desai, whonever imagined himself being associated with a stud farm, makes
it apoint to pay a weekly visit. “I was always opposed to the gamblingaspect of
the industry. Even today, there’s a stigma attached to it.And of course, there
are on and off speculations of race events beingfixed,” reveals Desai.
When it comes to every day business, itis Dr Jeya Bharat, the farm’s vet and
managing director who “runs theshow”. “These horses are experts at fooling you.
Then, they have theirmood swings during breeding. They even have their own
sexualpreferences. Some mares are lesbians, who wouldn’t let the stallioncome
near them,” he laughs. However, it’s this every day juggling thatactually keeps
him happy. As he puts it, “People dream of owninghorses. Here, I am paid to own
them,” says Dr Bharat, watching a mareand her foal relax on a lush green
paddock.
There are manyothers like Dr Bharat who find solace amidst horses, far from
themetropolitan cacophony. Lorraine More who owns Japalouppe, a horseriding
equestrian club at Talegoan, is one of them. “This farm is myhome, my
wonderland. We don’t have neighbours or great entertainmentfacilities. But to
me, it’s far more comfortable,” she smiles as sheputs on her hat to step out in
the farm in the afternoon sun.Japlaouppe’s story is nothing short of a
celluloid narration. WhereJaplaouppe now stands was earlier the Talegoan Stud
and AgriculturalFarm, the baby of Narendra More (Lorraine’s father-in-law), a
glasscutter at one of the Mumbai mills and a thorough horse-lover. “Hissuccess
story was one of its kinds. He started his own glass businessand with every
penny he saved, he purchased seven horses — a bigachievement in those days as
well,” says Lorraine of the man who thenaspired to own a stud farm. Before
playing his life’s last big
gambleat the racecourse, he asked for a wish. As luck would have it, he wonthe
last bet of his life and the victory money was used to set up theTalegoan Farm.
Dr Jeya Bharat at work at
Capricorn Stud Farm
Berjis Desai, director of Capricorn Stud Farm However, their once
flourishing business came crashing during the endof the ’80s. They had to do
away with breeding horses for the racetracks for good and that’s when
Japlaouppe was conceived. Her son Rohanalso joined her. Where on the one hand
their corporate camps, aimed atteam building were well received, the
encouraging response towardstheir horse riding camps brought stability amidst
bad times andattracted riding enthusiasts of all age groups, one of them being
BradPitt, when he was in the city accompanying Angelina Jolie whileshooting for
A Mighty Heart. “He just walked in out of the blue andintroduced himself,”
laughs Lorraine. Today, the farm may be doing wellbut they have no plans of
getting back to breeding thoroughbreds forthe
race course, logistics being a concern. “The investments are toohigh, the
waiting period is too long and the risks too many,” explainsRohan More. “A
half-way good mare would be roughly for 40 lakh whereasa stallion can run up to
crores depending on the breed and bloodline,”he adds.
Yet,he believes the industry is set to witness some quality enhancementover a
few years, courtesy the moolah power of the big playersimporting “world class
livestock” and also the joint ownership systemcatching up amidst horse-lovers.
As he puts it, “Today, it’s no bigdeal for any common man to buy a horse
because investments are shared.And when the horse goes racing, he can be at the
racecourse, hold aglass of beer, brush shoulders with the who’s who, and
introducehimself saying, ‘Hey! I own a horse’.”
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