October signals the end of the Pune season, however, November sees the start of another promising year for the best of racing action in India. The Bangalore Winter Meeting begins in the first week of November and a couple of weeks later the colourful Mumbai season takes off. The highlight of the racing action, particularly at these centres, is the participation of the cream of talented jockeys from across borders. With an eye on the new Indian Classics and the regional Classics, high-profile owners, more often than not, engage talented foreign jockeys to add an international flavour to their stables. An element of suspense as to ‘who is hiring who’ has always been an interesting speculation each year among the racing fraternity. Indiarace, as always, keeps an ear to the ground. It is reliably learnt that the now familiar international contingent, barring a couple of omissions, will yet again be seen in action on Indian Turf.

Among those who would be first timers in India is top-notch French jockey Anthony Crastus. Crastus is a seasoned young jockey. He has been on the scene for a while now, his first successful mount dating back to 2004. He has ridden close to 400 winners since and has always enjoyed a high ranking within France, his home centre. He was retained as the ‘stable-jockey’ for the powerful Wildenstein stable, riding for leading trainers Ellie Lellouche and Criquette Head.

To his credit, Crastus has done exceptionally well scoring 25 group winners and his success away from home has been remarkable as well. He has enjoyed two stints in Japan winning 20 races there, including two Group races. He is 25 years of age and can ride at 51 kgs.

Richard Hughes has been a major hit with the Indian racing fraternity. Who can forget his famous ‘affair’ with the wonder filly Jacqueline! Last year, Richard partnered Moonlight Romance on three occasions and won them all. He won the Kingfisher Bangalore Derby (Gr1), the HDIL Indian Oaks (Gr1) and the HDIL Indian Turf Invitation Cup (Gr1) for the Wadhawan Group with Moonlight Romance. The ‘romance’ with the Wadhawans is extended and Richard has been retained by Mr Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan for the coming season.

Stephane Pasquire who first came to India last year will be back again and is likely to ride for the Dhunjibhoy camp. He made everyone sit up and take notice when he sizzled with a lightening finish to secure Amadeus a debut win, coming from a long way back to a dramatic on-the-wire finish! He then rode to a similar finish astride Picasso, winning the Kunigal Stud Breeders’ Produce Stakes (Gr III) and the ‘juvenile Derby’ - the Poonwalla Breeders’ Multi-Million (Gr 1). Having acclimatised to the Indian conditions, Pasquire will be a formidable force to reckon with.

The other big names that will be seen again are Ladjadj Stephane, who is currently riding in Pune, has been retained by Marthand Mahindra as his old faithful Jockey S A DeSouza, it is learnt, will not be arriving this winter.

David Allan is likely to be retained by Mr Harish Mehta for Mumbai, trainer Padmanabhan is believed to have hired the services of Martin Dwyer and ‘home boy’ Mark Gallagher will continue to be seen in the famous Goldie-brown silks of Dr MAM Ramaswamy. Samuel Fargeat has tied up to ride for Mr. Arjun Sajnani and Neil Darashah based out of Bangalore, while Gary Carter is expected to stay on and Niall McCullagh is not the one to stay away from Indian racing.

It is interesting to note that a ‘French Connection’ is spiralling into Indian racing. Ladjadj Stephane, Stephane Pasquire, Samuel Fargeat and latest addition Anthony Crastus are all French boys. The trend shows that the focus seems to be shifting steadily from Ireland to France. Whatever the trend, the infusion of foreign boys is sure to add more colour and Indian racing would thrive with their presence.

Local boys Suraj Narredu, C. Rajendra, Y.S. Srinath, C. Alford, along with new talents Dashrath Singh, S. John, S. Zervan, Sandesh and P. Trevor better be in top form, as riding against such illustrious horsemen would need them to be at their best. The international saddle artists are equally known for their sound techniques as they are for their shrewd tactics as well.

With aspiring champion horses like Smashing, Hills And Stars, Pronto Pronto, Cardinal, Picasso stationed at western India and many others like Dandified, Speed Six, Field Marshal, In the Spotlight from various other centres eager to make their mark in their “Classic’ year, these jockeys are going to play a huge role in creating new champions of the turf. They will, after all, be the ones holding the reins of fate of several potential legends!