Most horses go through their careers without being involved in a photo finish. The camera usually separates those who do. In rare cases, when even the photo print is unable to do so and a dead heat is declared. So the number of horses who have dead heated is very small.

For a horse to have dead heated twice in its career is even rarer and the odds on doing so in two Classics must be astronomical. That, though, is just what the chestnut filly Air Hostess (Denier - Sky Flight) achieved.  Aris David-trained Air Hostess, owned by M/s. S.V. Arunachalam & N. Dwarkadas, was 10/1 chance for the Bangalore Fillies Trial Stakes in 1973. Midfield early on in a field of 13 fillies, Air Hostess (S. Geyer) hit the front at the distance and was soon joined by the half-money favourite Fire Haven (P. Stanley), running in the colours of the "Dasaparakash Brothers", and the two went stride for stride to the post. The Judge was not able to give the nod to one or the other filly even after consulting the photograph and a dead heat resulted.

Fire Haven added the Bangalore Derby, the President of India Gold Cup and the Deccan Derby to her CV during the rest of the year while Air Hostess failed to win. Having broken down, Fire Haven was retired to stud but Air Hostess, whose Mr. Arunachalam's share had been bought by Dr. M.A.M. Ramaswamy, went from strength to strength the following year. She won five of her six races during the winter season and her only defeat came in the South India 2000 Guineas when she was beaten by Prince Ardent (Swinburn).

Ridden in all her races by Ray Still, Air Hostess had won the South India 1000 Guineas, Bangalore Oaks, South India Oaks and South India Derby [where she had her revenge on Prince Ardent] when she lined up for the South India St. Leger. A half money favourite in a field of four, she seemed to be romping home when she went past Rock's Son at the top of the straight. She was surprised when Rock's Son (Swinburn) came with a second wind to force a dead-heat. Forty one years later, she remains the only horse to have dead heated in two Classics in India.

Sky Flght, the dam of Air Hostess, was bought by the ace polo player Col. Kishen Singh. He was in England playing polo when he received a request from a friend to buy him a mare for "not more than 500 pounds". One day at Cowdray Park, he came across an advertisement of a mare for sale in the Horse & Hound. He rang in the number given in the ad and the deal was settled subject to physical examination which was done later !

There is one other well known horse who has won two races in a dead heat in India. That is Zuyder Zee. The Royal Family of Bhopal  bought French-breds  Zuyder Zee and Mas d'Antibes from the Aga Khan for 5,000 pounds sterling and achieved much success with them on the track. Zuyder Zee (Zionist - Friar's Lady) was a smart sprinter-miler and he won several races. His first dead heat was in the Jammu Stud Gold Cup over 7 furlongs at Calcutta on New Year's day of 1938 when ridden by R.H. Jones. He and Mr. Esmond's Tetrazone (W.A. Rickaby) were inseparable at the post. Then, on 1 February 1939, Zuyder Zee (A.K. Obaid) and Ticanto (Cecil Selby) ran in the Willingdon Plate at Mumbai and at the end of the mile trip they were nostril to nostril.

Mas d'Antibes won the Viceroy's Cup twice, King-Emperor's  Cup once and was the runner-up in the Eclipse Stakes of India on two occasions. Zuyder Zee and Mas d'Antibes were both retired to Bhopal Stud. Zuyder Zee's daughter Chakori won the Indian Oaks, Indian Derby and Indian St. Leger in 1946 while Mas d'Antibes sired Doorani (Indian St. Leger) and Fitna (Indian 1000 Guineas). Australian rider R.H. Jones, who was astride Zuyder Zee in his first dead heat, won the Viceroy's Cup four times aboard the Gwalior horse Finalist and three Indian Classics including the Derby with Kashmir's filly Odds On. Jones was involved in two other dead heats. Earlier, His mount Ethics was declared a joint winner with Masked Jester of the Hughes Memorial Plate over 10 furlongs at Bombay in 1934.  The other dead heat came later in at Pune when Quindil Mahmud and Competitor, ridden by fellow Aussie W.T. Evans, jointly won the Keren Cup for Arab horses in September. Bill Rickaby, too, had another dead heat to his name. This came later in Belvedere Plate at Calcutta in 1947. He was astride Gold Scare who was locked with Steam Roller.

The Viceroy's Cup, instituted before the Melbourne Cup, was once described as the "best race east of the Suez". It was the race which everyone wanted to win. In 1912, this race produced a dead heat between Sir A.A. Apcar's  Mayfowl and Mr. Mathradas Goculdas's  Brogue. That's not all. Behind the front pair, Gunboat and Hilarity dead heated for the third spot. Two dead heats in one race must be as rare as snow in Calcutta. To add to the lore, Mayfowl was ridden by L.C. Hoyt while his brother Alf Hoyt was on Brogue. That was the third year running that Mayfowl had won the Viceroy's Cup and he was to add another one in 1913. The mare Brogue (Symington - Goody Two Shoes) was sent back to England for stud duties. She was a half-sister to the great foundation mare Simon's Shoes but unfortunately she did not excel at stud.

The Indian Classics commenced from 1943 but a brief attempt to introduce them had been made about twenty years previously at Pune when the Poona Country Bred Derby and Poona Country Bred St. Leger were run. The races were for Indian-bred 3 and 4 year-olds with the Derby being run over 7 furlongs  and the St. Leger over 10 furlongs. The latter race produced two dead-heats. The first occurred in 1923 when The Knut (Herbert) and the filly Zara (McPherson) were the joint winners. Both were bred at Willingdon Stud near Sirur and sired by Arthur B. Zara, a half-sister to Steel Blue who had won the Derby as well as the St. Leger in 1920 and 1921 and was one of the first Indian-breds of note for he won many races later beating, on occasions, imported horses. The next dead heat came in 1926 with Shivprasad (by Viceroy's Cup winner Bachelor's Wedding) and the filly Gift of Song (by Arthur B's barn-mate Politian) sharing the plaudits. Another dead heat where the joint winners were sired by the same stallion came about at Madras in 1976 in the Tamil Nadu Commemoration Gold Cup over a mile. Jugnu and Majolica, who shared the prize, were both sired by Punjab.

There have been 362 Indian Classics run so far and only one of them has resulted in a dead heat. That was the Buland (P. Khade) and Our Select (M. Jagdish) humdinger in the Indian 2000 Guineas of 1967. With two of India's finest jockeys starring in the grand finish, it was as enthralling a race as could be hoped for. Khade had at least three previous dead heats recorded. The first one was in 1945 in the Mathradas Goculdas Cup over 7 furlongs at Bombay. Odds On, the Kashmir filly with three Classics to her credit earlier in the year was ridden by Khade but J.F.  Raffaele on Savoyard forced the Kolhapurian to divide the spoils. Two years later. Khade's mount Grateful and Rajdoot (L. Davis) were inseparable in the September Handicap over a mile at Pune on 20 September. Just nine days on, Al Shanfara (P. Khade) and  Maha (W.T. Evans) dead heated in Mohd. Mustafa Talib Plate for Arab horses over 7 furlongs. 

There have been two dead heats in a Derby in India. Skyline (M. Shafiq) and Mauritius Pearl (Karan Singh) were responsible for the first at Bangalore in the summer of 1974. Then, over in Calcutta in 1989, Zara Shah (Warren Singh) and Aphroze (N. Bird) provided the other instance. The remarkable fact about the Calcutta dead heat was that both the horses were greys and bred at Poonawalla Farms. Less than 3 % of all foals born are grey so you can work out the chances of two greys dead heating in a race like a Derby.

The only dead heat in an Indian Derby so far has been  when Capital Risk and Cape Dance occupied a joint third place in 1995 well behind Elusive Pimpernel. But Mahalakshmi has been treated to a Derby dead heat spectacle in 1941. That was in the Bombay Arab Derby when Seventh Heaven (E. Britt) and Hikmat Pasha (A. Roberts), two greys, were deemed joint winners by the Judge.  

The 1944 running of the Rajpipla Cup brought double joy for H.H. Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia of Gwalior. Two of his horses, Caerloptic (Caerleon - Soloptic) and Star of Gwalior (late Caxton) (Sickle - Esmeralda II) dead heated and a jubilant Maharaja led them in, one on either side. Caerloptic and Star of Gwalior were both imported and had good performances in England to commend them with Caerloptic having won the Royal Hunt Cup and Caxton being victorious in the Cambridgeshire Handicap. Maj. K.P. Jadhav had saddled the two horses in the Rajpipla and given the leg-up to A. Roberts on Star of Gwalior and Faiz Mohammed on Caerloptic. A year later, the Gwalior stable repeated the feat in Pune with Lila (A. Roberts) and Wellington (S. Chavan) in the Cecil Gray Plate for Class I Arabs, the pair this time trained by Maj. V.M. Lad. Jockey A. Roberts, of course, had earlier won the Indian Derby for the stable on Deepak. 

We have noted the feat of Arthur B and Punjab siring both the dead heaters. Australian stallion Glorious sired two dead heaters (Table Top and Colleen Juna) as did Prospector (Quarryman and Belvedere) but not in the same race. Blood relation, it would appear, is not confined to just horses when it comes to dead heats. Alf Hoyt was involved in the famous Mayfowl-Brogue dead heat of 1912 with his brother L.C. Hoyt. Alf Hoyt's son C. Hoyt was on Gift of Song when the filly dead heated with Shivprasad in Poona Country Bred St. Leger eleven years later.  

The well-bred French  Manjri Stud mare Yasenitza came to India in 1939 in-foal to the good stallion Rose Prince . That 'got-abroad' foal was called Prince Buland. The following year she dropped another colt by the resident stallion Bouldnor who was named Filmindia. In March 1945, the two half brothers, Prince Buland (W.T. Evans) and Filmindia (E. Britt) shared the Royal Indian Navy Cup at Mumbai. That was on the final day of the Mumbai winter season and the Jockeys' Championship was up for grabs. Three Australian jockeys -- T. Burn (27), E. Britt (26) and W.T. Evans (24) -- were all in contention. Evans won the opening race of the day. Then came the Evans-Britt dead-heat. Britt would have been excused had he lodged an objection considering what was at stake but sportingly did not do so. However, Filmindia's trainer Hamid Chotani lodged one which was overruled. Burn drew a blank so 'dead heated' for the jockeys' honours with Britt.  Edgar Britt had been involved in another dead heat earlier when his steed Blenheim and W.J. Sibritt's Royal Rival were the joint winners of Beyrut Plate at Pune in September  1943 over 1800 m. If Britt and Sibritt had a rhyming pattern, wait for the names of trainers. Blenheim was trained by M.C. Patel while B.R. Patel saddled Royal Rival !

In the old days, the owners of dead heating horses had the option to share the prize or "run it off". The "run-off" was at the same weights and over the same course but the jockeys could be changed.  The 1976 Viceroy's Cup was run as The H.H. Prince of Wales's Cup to commemorate that dignitary's visit to India and it resulted in a dead-heat between Satellite and Lord Clifden. It was run-off  and Satellite (Cozens) beat Lord of Clyde by a length.

A printed record of every race run in India for over two centuries is available but a list of all dead-heats has not been compiled. It would be an onerous and time consuming exercise.  The facts mentioned above have hence been taken from Yoshiro Tajima's labour of love " Principal Races and Horses in Asia (1857-2000)", personal records and memory but only those dead heats which had some other interesting angle have been mentioned.. E. Britt and Khade, it would seem, were involved in four dead-heats but none against each other; R.H. Jones, A.V. Bowley, W.T. Evans, A. Roberts and R.S.C. Barnett had three each against their names while W.A. Rickaby, P. Brown, L.C. Hoyt, Townsend, R. Stokes and A.V. Bowley rode a brace each. If full records were available, these jockeys may well have more dead heats to their credit but certainly not less. Instances of other memorable dead heats known to the cognoscenti will be much welcome.

PAST THE POST

Racing has the ability to throw up the unexpected and that is ones of joys and fascinations of the sport. In world racing, there have dead heats involving three horses. Just three years ago, at Lingfield, England there was a race called the Theo Micro Toon British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes over 7 furlongs for which three runners were declared. At the last minute, Secret Sign was withdrawn so only Snowboarder and Ayaar went to the post. Frankie Dettori took off on Snowboarder, 1/5 on favourite. Generally, when Dettori hits the front, the money on him is safe. Snowboarder ran a bit green but was two lengths clear of Ayaar, trained by the former English international footballer Mick Channon. As they came to the final furlong, Martin Harley on Ayaar (6/4) began to make his run while Dettori loosened his reins on the piping hot favourite. Dettori looked to have enough in hand but Ayaar drew alongside in the last 25 yards and the  two went past the post in a cinch. The camera verdict hardly needs to be mentioned. It was a dead heat in a two horse race ! What's more, Ayaar was owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Saeed bin Rashid al Maktoum while the Mohammed Al Zarooni-trained Snowboarder ran in the Godolphin colours of his cousin Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Rashid al Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai !!