The ‘doosra’ mindset of race-goers!
Indian racing enthusiasts are a matured lot having a good understanding of the nuances of the sport, its ups and downs and willing to take things sportingly. But there also exists a section which is firm in its belief that racing is all about manipulations. The failure of every favourite is viewed with suspicion and the victory of a lesser fancied runner belonging to the same trainer or owner at the expense of the favourite is considered as a conspiracy. Instances of the connections indulging in manipulating the results of their horses are seen in India but then everything cannot be straight bracketed.
In racing conspiracy theory takes wings as a heady mix of conviction and lack of logic overrides reason. The power of the internet has helped propound theories of conspiracy no matter how little evidence one has on hand. Leaping to conclusions and possibly the fondness for stock expressions has also led to perforation of conspiracy theory in every aspect of racing. I have come across one person who sees a devil in every race. He possibly may be visiting a psychiatrist if he does not spot a devil!
In recent times, with the public getting plenty of avenues to express their views or rather vent their anger, anybody visiting these sections would not be wrong if he tends to believe that Indian racing is all about manipulations and doosras. This sort of situation has been brought about by unequal distribution of horses where good horses are concentrated in a few hands.
In the Indian Derby, trainer Pesi Shroff had five runners which had more or less one common owner in each of these horses while Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and his partners had four runners. There were three other horses representing different owners.
Moonlight Romance who was the second favourite won at the expense of favourite Ocean And Beyond. The filly had accounted for two individual Derby winners on different occasions and had every credential to win. It is just that Richard Hughes chose to ride Ocean And Beyond in the Derby in preference to the filly and the horse went into the race as a firm favourite. Hughes had strong conviction to do so and he continued to believe in his conviction even after the race that he had made the right choice except that the horse did not respond the way he had done in his previous race.
Hughes is not the first jockey in the world of horse racing to have a chosen a loser when confronted with the problem of choosing between two or more horses. Racing is full of stories of how jockeys missed a chance of a life time in winning the most coveted event by their error of judgment or due to the fact that the horse they chose failed to produce its best on the all-important day. For instance, former jockey Warren Singh who won over 1000 races never won the Bangalore Summer Derby in his career though on one occasion he possibly could have won.. He had a choice to make between Treasure Girl and Lucky Shrike and he chose the latter which lost by a whisker to the horse he had discarded.
Hughes had won the Oaks and Indian Derby last year on Jacqueline. He did not have a problem of choice. But this year, Hughes had to choose between Moonlight Romance and Ocean And Beyond. Hughes may have been influenced by the fact that Moonlight Romance, having won the Oaks hardly two weeks ago, would not be in the best of shape to reproduce another gruelling effort. This may have weighed heavily on his mind.
A decade ago when Hughes was yet to reach the pinnacle of glory, he rode Padmanabhan trained Running Flame to win in the Indian Oaks and the Invitation Cup but the filly was below par and lost to all Asian champion outside of Japan, namely Saddle up. The filly did not show the spark of Oaks though the filly bounced back to beat Saddle Up in the Invitation Cup. Possibly this influenced him to take Ocean And Beyond though he is not willing to concede that possibly he might have made a wrong choice.
I had a chance to chat with Hughes on Saturday evening, the day prior to the Derby and Hughes was quite emphatic that Ocean And Beyond was unbeatable. He did not believe that Moonlight Romance could be a big threat. ``Moonlight Romance beat Frost Fairy by six lengths in the Oaks and look at the performance of the latter today in an ordinary race,’’ he had countered. Many jockeys including Paul Mulrennan who rode Sunlight in the Derby felt that Hughes had indeed made a wrong choice. One has to see which horse Hughes will ride in the Invitation Cup next month. There will surely be a change in the jockey of Moonlight Romance whatever Hughes’ decision may be.
When Dr Vijay Mallya won his first ever Indian Derby, he had three runners in the fray, with Kir Royale and Enrico being the fancied runners while Cordon Bleu was at odds of over 10 to 1. Cordon Bleu won in the hands of Mick Kinnane and everyone hailed the winner and one rarely bothered to even think if the result was contrived.
The more fancied runner among the lot of horses owned by the same person has managed to win but quite often the long shot has embarrassed the connections. In recent times, Southern Empire who was the shortest priced horse in the Indian Derby got beat by stablemate Diabolical who went on a start to finish mission, with the favourite unable to cover up the lee way. There was lot of hue and cry and much acrimony. There have been instances of former jockey Malesh Narredu also finding himself on the wrong `un on a regular basis.
With only a handful among professionals and race horse owners holding all the aces, doosras are going to become an inevitable part of racing and race-goers will have to come to grips with it. Or add a new repertoire in their armoury to survive!
In racing conspiracy theory takes wings as a heady mix of conviction and lack of logic overrides reason. The power of the internet has helped propound theories of conspiracy no matter how little evidence one has on hand. Leaping to conclusions and possibly the fondness for stock expressions has also led to perforation of conspiracy theory in every aspect of racing. I have come across one person who sees a devil in every race. He possibly may be visiting a psychiatrist if he does not spot a devil!
In recent times, with the public getting plenty of avenues to express their views or rather vent their anger, anybody visiting these sections would not be wrong if he tends to believe that Indian racing is all about manipulations and doosras. This sort of situation has been brought about by unequal distribution of horses where good horses are concentrated in a few hands.
In the Indian Derby, trainer Pesi Shroff had five runners which had more or less one common owner in each of these horses while Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and his partners had four runners. There were three other horses representing different owners.
Moonlight Romance who was the second favourite won at the expense of favourite Ocean And Beyond. The filly had accounted for two individual Derby winners on different occasions and had every credential to win. It is just that Richard Hughes chose to ride Ocean And Beyond in the Derby in preference to the filly and the horse went into the race as a firm favourite. Hughes had strong conviction to do so and he continued to believe in his conviction even after the race that he had made the right choice except that the horse did not respond the way he had done in his previous race.
Hughes is not the first jockey in the world of horse racing to have a chosen a loser when confronted with the problem of choosing between two or more horses. Racing is full of stories of how jockeys missed a chance of a life time in winning the most coveted event by their error of judgment or due to the fact that the horse they chose failed to produce its best on the all-important day. For instance, former jockey Warren Singh who won over 1000 races never won the Bangalore Summer Derby in his career though on one occasion he possibly could have won.. He had a choice to make between Treasure Girl and Lucky Shrike and he chose the latter which lost by a whisker to the horse he had discarded.
Hughes had won the Oaks and Indian Derby last year on Jacqueline. He did not have a problem of choice. But this year, Hughes had to choose between Moonlight Romance and Ocean And Beyond. Hughes may have been influenced by the fact that Moonlight Romance, having won the Oaks hardly two weeks ago, would not be in the best of shape to reproduce another gruelling effort. This may have weighed heavily on his mind.
A decade ago when Hughes was yet to reach the pinnacle of glory, he rode Padmanabhan trained Running Flame to win in the Indian Oaks and the Invitation Cup but the filly was below par and lost to all Asian champion outside of Japan, namely Saddle up. The filly did not show the spark of Oaks though the filly bounced back to beat Saddle Up in the Invitation Cup. Possibly this influenced him to take Ocean And Beyond though he is not willing to concede that possibly he might have made a wrong choice.
I had a chance to chat with Hughes on Saturday evening, the day prior to the Derby and Hughes was quite emphatic that Ocean And Beyond was unbeatable. He did not believe that Moonlight Romance could be a big threat. ``Moonlight Romance beat Frost Fairy by six lengths in the Oaks and look at the performance of the latter today in an ordinary race,’’ he had countered. Many jockeys including Paul Mulrennan who rode Sunlight in the Derby felt that Hughes had indeed made a wrong choice. One has to see which horse Hughes will ride in the Invitation Cup next month. There will surely be a change in the jockey of Moonlight Romance whatever Hughes’ decision may be.
When Dr Vijay Mallya won his first ever Indian Derby, he had three runners in the fray, with Kir Royale and Enrico being the fancied runners while Cordon Bleu was at odds of over 10 to 1. Cordon Bleu won in the hands of Mick Kinnane and everyone hailed the winner and one rarely bothered to even think if the result was contrived.
The more fancied runner among the lot of horses owned by the same person has managed to win but quite often the long shot has embarrassed the connections. In recent times, Southern Empire who was the shortest priced horse in the Indian Derby got beat by stablemate Diabolical who went on a start to finish mission, with the favourite unable to cover up the lee way. There was lot of hue and cry and much acrimony. There have been instances of former jockey Malesh Narredu also finding himself on the wrong `un on a regular basis.
With only a handful among professionals and race horse owners holding all the aces, doosras are going to become an inevitable part of racing and race-goers will have to come to grips with it. Or add a new repertoire in their armoury to survive!
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