Superstitions in horse racing

How superstitious are you? In racing, most people are superstitious which finds expression in various forms. India’s biggest winner Dr M A M Ramaswamy has been sporting the same tie for the last 30 years on all big occasions. He carries the same purse and the hanky on all big days. ``I believe in superstition.

 These things are my lucky mascots. It is not my tie or hanky will make the horse run faster. It is the belief factor,’’ said Ramaswamy when I queried him about his superstitions. ``I am a god-fearing man,’’ he added. Somebody as successful as Pesi Shroff believes in positive vibrations. ``I am not superstitious,’’ he told me once. However, over the years I have observed that on days when he was riding in a big race, he never spoke strongly about the horse that he was very confident on. Now that he has become a trainer, his ``positive vibrations’’ have of course changed. He was sporting a blue tie on one of the big days and when one of my friends asked him if he would part with his tie because it looked so beautiful, he said ``it is a lucky tie for me!’’ 

 Big racehorse owners like Dr Ramaswamy and Dr Vijay Mallya don’t buy horses that are ``asudars’’. If there is a white mark between the eyes at a particular place, a horse is considered to be an asudar. They believe that buying an asudar will not bring them bad luck. However, trainers like Padmanabhan don’t believe in this and his all-conquering filly Running Flame was an asudar. I have seen people at the racecourse change the place frequently if they have failed to play a winner. They hope to change their luck by changing their seat or improving their ``vaastu’’ as they call it. 

 And there are some who hate anybody calling them from behind if they are on their way to lay a bet. There are some others who tell a lie about the horse they like if only because they believe that their luck will be affected if more people play the same horse. There are some professionals who will not do anything if their astrologer tells them that they are running bad time and advises them not to venture into anything major. They have even waited up to a year for the good time to come to try their horses. There are also some who go on eating something or the other if they are on a losing spree. And then there are others who eat because they have won after eating something! Some people believe that drawing the number 9 is unlucky. Some people wait for the first horse to be loaded before they place their bet because they believe that the horse which they want to back should not be loaded first! What then is your superstition?

Comments

  1. Bugs BunnyAugust 12, 2009 at 11:05 AM

    Over several years of attending the races I have observed various superstitions manifesting in some owners, trainers and even serious punters.

    I once had nearly had a serious argument with a senior member of the club who is a former Chairman of the BTC over a particular chair / position in the members' lounge where he apparently always had to sit! I relented finally when I saw the face and trembling of the poor runner who had been sent to convey the message to me repeatedly.

    The latest observation is that a particular trainer wears the same suit and tie on all big race days - you may observe the same from pics of the 2009 summer season on each of the days when he had a runner in these races - from the Speaker's Cup to the Summer Derby to the Governor's Cup (with the exception of the St. Leger) - it appeared to work most of the time, with the exception of the Governor's Cup and most notably, the Colts' Trial Stakes!!

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