THOROUGHBRED BREEDING IN INDIA Historical Background In the early days of Indian racing, virtually all the racing stock was imported from England or the Middle East. As racing flourished, and more and more horses were imported, retired racehorses began to be used for breeding on a small scale. Such enterprises were strictly private in nature. Breeding of horses on a large scale was limited to breeding undertaken by the Army for its needs. The Army used Thoroughbred stallions, imported from England, to upgrade its remount stock and these stallions were also made available to private breeders. Climatic as well as military considerations meant that most of the Army breeding establishments were located in the North and North-West areas of India. In time, as racing became more and more popular, commercial and private stud farms began to be established. Mr. Jehangir Rustomji Soparivala, who established the Royal Stud near Pune in 1921 under the chairmanship of Sir Sultan Chinoy, is generally regarded as the founder of Indian Thoroughbred breeding. At about the same time the Renala Stud was founded in District Montgomery, the heart of the then horse-breeding country - while the Maharajas of Kolhapur as well as Baroda set up stud farms in their own states. The Mysore Government founded the Kunigal Stud near Bangalore on an area used decades earlier by the famed military warrior, Tippu Sultan, for breeding horses; Mr. F.D. Wadia established the Yeravada Stud in Pune in 1939 and in the same year the Nawabzada Yemin-ul-Mulk of Bhopal commenced his breeding operations in his state capital, Bhopal. Shortly thereafter, the Maharajas of Kashmir and Gwalior, who were to become leading breeders, established their own stud farms, the former in Jammu and the latter in Gwalior. The year 1935 may be taken as representing the real commencement of organized Indian Thoroughbred breeding as it is in that year that records of foalings were first kept by the Keeper of the Indian Stud Book. Prior records were kept by the National Horse Breeding and Show Society of India, predecessor of the current National Horse Breeding Society of India. A mention must be made here of the significant part played by Sir Victor Sassoon. His "Eve Scheme" proved to be a great fillip to the Indian breeding industry in its formative years. Under this scheme, broodmares were imported by the R.W.I.T.C. Ltd. and placed with stud farms, which were guaranteed a fixed return for the progeny at the auction sales. Any excess realized was shared between the club and the breeder. The disastrous effects of the politically-inspired move to ban gambling naturally had severe repercussions on the breeding industry. Foal production fell drastically from a peak of 315 in 1948 to a low of 118 in 1950. Thereafter, with the threat to racing having receded, Indian Thoroughbred breeding expanded gradually, the former peak being crossed once again only in 1968 – twenty years later -- when 368 foals were registered. Largely because Bombay is the commercial capital of India and because racing in Western India, where the Indian Classics are run, was undoubtedly the best in the country, the Pune area - only about 170 kilometres from Bombay - rapidly developed as the premier breeding centre in India in the 'fifties and 'sixties. A decade later, the emphasis had shifted to the area around Bangalore, where the equable climate year-round made life more agreeable both for the horses and breeders. Breeding activity in the North more or less completely ceased in the first fifteen years of Independent India, as the premier breeding area - District Montgomery, along with its most famous breeding establishment, the Renala Stud - went to Pakistan after the partition. The establishment of the Qutab Stud in Delhi in 1961 was the first post-partition instance of a major breeding farm being located in the North of India, where the abundance of water and fodder, and the fertility and texture of the soil together make for an ideal horse-breeding environment. The Qutab Stud example was quickly followed and in the last few years the North has once again re-emerged as a prime breeding belt. Import Restrictions Right from Independence, there was little or no restriction on the import of horses for racing or breeding purposes. The stringent foreign exchange situation in 1958 led to the introduction of Import Licensing, a restriction that unfortunately is in existence even today. Gradually, there was a total clamp-down on import of racing stock, while breeding stock was allowed, albeit on a vastly reduced scale with no clear-cut policy being laid down. By the late 'seventies, the policy regarding import was published annually in the Import Policy Book and imports were allowed for breeding during the ‘eighties on a more liberalized scale. This has had a beneficial effect and today Indian breeding produces an adequate number of foals to meet its domestic needs. In fact, the annual foal production compares numerically with that of Italy or West Germany. The quality of the Indian-bred has also improved by leaps and bounds, although with values for importation of stallions and broodmares continuing to remain needlessly restricted, the industry has yet to achieve its optimum potential. Initially, the progress of the Indian Thoroughbred had been hampered to some extent by import of certain mediocre stallions and broodmares during the period 1950 to 1980. For these three decades, imported stallions tended to have "Ascot Gold Cup" type of bloodlines, whereas the racing programme in India was largely oriented to sprint races. The broodmares being shipped out to India in those days belonged to the most plebian families. Twenty years ago, there was not even a single mare tracing back to Mumtaz Mahal or Marchetta. Today there are dozens. Fortunately, with Indian breeding undergoing a transformation from the traditional to the commercial breeder, a better understanding of pedigrees began to dawn and the bloodstock imported has improved qualitatively in terms of bloodlines, although vast scope for improvement remains. Also, with the market having turned from a seller's market to a buyer's market, the standards have necessarily had to rise, which is a healthy development. More recently, with the economic downturn, there are no takers for average mares for stud purposes. While this attrition to the ranks is painful, in the long run it will have a beneficial effect as inefficient breeders and bloodlines will have been winnowed out. The Indian Thoroughbred abroad Until 2000, the Indian Thoroughbred hardly had any opportunity to compete abroad. Balam (who raced once in England) and Own Opinion (who had two starts in Japan when well over the top) were the only Indian-bred horses to have competed on foreign soil in a 45-year span. Since the 'sixties, with virtually no imported horses being allowed to race in India, the yardstick necessary to gauge the development of the breed was totally absent. It was only in 1993 that it proved possible to export Indian Triple Crown winner Astonish to Hong Kong, a task that involved considerable logistic planning and a long period of quarantine in the United States of America. When Astonish made his Hong Kong debut in January 1994, he stunned the local turf with a superb victory in Class 1. This achievement lent credence to the views of foreign jockeys who regularly rode in India during the Winter, who opined that the top Indian horses would correspond to a Timeform rating of around 100, with a few champions going up to 110-115 mark. The majority, however, would be below this. Indian Breeding Today Indian breeding has come a long way since 1935. From 40 foals out of 98 mares in that year to 19xx foals and 3xxx mares in 1997 represents a phenomenal growth. Numbers have stabilized since at around the 1500 mark. It would also be not wrong to state that the quality of the Indian Thoroughbred has improved very significantly. A time of around 2:40.0 was good enough to win an Indian Derby in the 'fifties. Today, with timings coming down to around 2:31.0, the Indian Derby winner of yesteryear would finish over 100 metres behind current winners! It can hence be rightly said that Indian breeding has come of age and is poised for a quantum jump in the future. 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