Indian jockeys had their moments in racing under the British Raj. Jaffer rode Kingcraft to victory in the Viceory's Cup of 1873; Heeroo Balloo was the Champion Jockey at Mahalakshmi in the early years of the 20th century and Purtoo Singh headed the table at Pune in 1920. But by and large, the foreign jockeys ruled the roost. It was Mr. K.M. Munshi's stipulation for 'Indianisation' of racing that really opened up the opportunities for Indian riders to show their skills. Mr. K.M. Munshi was the Home Minister of the Bombay Presidency and he made setting aside of specific amount of stake money for Indian-breds and reserving a fixed number of races where only Indian jockeys would ride a condition for the grant of racing license. That, in turn, led to the institution of Indian Classics in 1942-43.

The early 1940s saw a number of Indian jockeys making their way up the ranks of jockeys.  Pandu Khade and Kheem Singh made their debuts as apprentices in 1940.  Shamu Chavan did so in 1941 and in 1945 Jagdish had his first ride in public. Down south,  P. Shanker's name had appeared in a race card a little earlier in 1939. This quintet went on to prove its mettle and all of them rode over a 1000 winners each except Kheem Singh who retired early in 1959.

Chavan had his first ride on 15 March 1941 on a grey Arab horse called Great Mughal, who was owned by one Mr. Hull,  in the Delta Plate (2000 m.) for Class III Arab horses. Great Mughal was an 8/1 chance and Chavan finished off the board. Exactly a fortnight later, on 29 March he won his first race on the third ride of his career in the Gwalior colours riding the imported grey mare Vijai Kumari trained by Aziz Mahmoud. It was a mile race, Chavan's mount was at 5/1 and he won by a short-head from Sauce Anglaise who was ridden by another apprentice, Uttam Singh. Uttam Singh did not have a very distinguished riding career but later became a very successful trainer at the highest level. At that time, neither Khade nor Kheem Singh, who had commenced their careers earlier, had ridden a winner. The two jockeys, however, made up for the lost time much faster.

Khade became the first Indian jockey to ride a Classic winner when he won the 1948 Indian St. Leger, Gr.1 on Doorani. A year later, Kheem Singh went one up by winning the Indian Derby, Gr.1 on Balam, the first Indian jockey to do so. Chavan broke his Classic duck when he won the Indian St. Leger in 1950 on M/s. P. Rylands and M.D. Petit's Summer Lightning. Summer Lightning's victory meant that Renala Stud registered the first clean sweep of Indian Classics as the earlier winners of that year, Gamble For Love (first three Indian Classics) and Mansoor Beg (Indian Derby), had been bred there. It would also have been the first clean sweep by Indian jockeys because Gamble For Love was ridden by Kheem Singh in the two Guineas and Khade was astride Mansoor Beg in the Derby. Unfortunately, Kheem Singh was serving a suspension and B.T. Duffy had the ride on Gamble For Love in the Indian Oaks which she won comfortably.

The previous year, Chavan had ridden H.H. Maharani Seeta Devi's horse Diesel to a victory in the Viceroy's Cup at Calcutta. He was the first Indian jockey to ride a winner of the race since Jaffer in 1873.  Like  his first ride and his first winner, Diesel was a grey. Chavan actually rode a Derby winner much before Kheem Singh or Khade. In 1947, he piloted Gwalior's Boonian to win the Bombay Arab Derby. It was the last Arab Derby to be staged and Boonian was backable at 7/1. The great Arab horse Wavell had won the previous four Derbies and the favourite to win his fifth but Boonian foiled him. Needless to say, Boonian was a grey !

In 1953-54, Shamu Chavan achieved a distinction that will always remain unique. Mr. Diamond's Commoner became the first Indian Triple Crown winner and he was astride the horse in all the three races ! That year, the Indian jockeys registered the first clean sweep with Hanuman Singh having piloted Abeeta to win the Indian 1000 Guineas while Khade  guided Vedette to a success in the Indian Oaks.

Chavan was now at his peak. The following year he rode Tosca to win the Indian 1000 Guineas-Indian Oaks double for trainer Talib and repeated the feat with Meherban in 1958-59 for brother Ganpat. In 1957-58, he won the 1000, Oaks and St. Leger on Kashmir's filly Sunny Downs. That year, Kashmir's Decoration won the 2000 with Shiba astride while Sunny Downs, ridden by Jim Foley was second to Canny Scot in the Derby. Kashmir had insisted on Chavan riding Tall Story, a costly pre-Classic purchase (that's a tale for some other time) in both those races. Since Sunny Downs beat Canny Scot in the Indian St. Leger, it is quite probable that  Shamu and Ganpat Chavan (and Kashmir himself)  would have swept all the Indian Classics that year but for Kashmir's insistence.  May be, Kashmir was aware of his folly. In his will he left a sprawling bungalow less than a kilometer away from the Pune Race Course to the Chavan family.

Shamu Chavan's 1000th winner came at Mahalakshmi on 11 November 1979. He was 55 years-old then. The horse on which he reached the milestone was not a grey but called Silvery Moon. He continued to ride for some more time and his last winner was Barkha on Christmas Day of 1983. He was still not done. On 9 September 1988 he rode Jalpari at Pune. He was now 64 and he decided to hang up his boots. His sons, Chandrakant and Dileep held a trainer's license for some time. Chavan himself continued his association with racing and he was always not far from the paddock on racing days. If there was rain in Pune and the track needed inspection, the cry "Where is Shamu" went up. And Chavan would appear, hack round the track and give his report. Chavan may have lacked the finesse of Khade but he was a strong, forceful rider. He rode with a sensible length of stirrups and sat deep the saddle. Major Lad once said that at his best he could hold his own against anyone in a finish.

Shamu Chavan rode 18 individual Classic winners to win 26 Classics including 18 Indian Classics. His feat of riding six winners of the Indian 1000 Guineas, five of Indian Oaks and five of Indian St. Legers are records for each of those races. All records are meant to be broken but those three will not be erased in a hurry. At least till then, "Shamu Dada" will not be forgotten.

PAST THE POST

A humble, likeable man, Chavan was always ready to help the newcomers. Two veteran trainers of Western India were quick to share their memories of Chavan so their contribution is much appreciated.

M.K. Jadhav was just starting out as a trainer and he had the comedian Mehmood's horses with him. He took some of them to Bangalore for the summer season of 1972 including the filly Rock Witness of whom he had high hopes. Chavan, who had ridden for 'M.K.'s' father as a young apprentice, took special interest in the filly and even trotted her in the school. He had already won twice on the filly in Mumbai and completed the hat-trick in Bangalore. The next race was the Fillies' Trial Stakes. Her final piece of work was meant to be a 400 m. spurt. Another filly from the stable set off from the mile marker with Rock Witness a few lengths behind cantering for the most part. Chavan slowly brought Rock Witness upsides as the final 400 m. approached and after a few metres stopped. The connections watching from the stands were dumbfounded. The trainer ran to meet the filly and her jockey, his heart in his mouth. "What happened, Dada ?", the trainer asked anxiously. "Nothing", replied Chavan. "But you stopped riding her", said the trainer, his heart still heaving. "She is spot on. I didn't want her to boil over". The jockey was spot on, too. Rock Witness won the Fillies' Trial Stakes by half a length from the favourite Royal Wish, Chavan getting the better of Elliot in a battling finish.

Like Khade, Chavan was from Kolhapur and the two of them held the royal family of Kolhapur in great esteem. Maharaja Rajaram Chhatrapati II had died just as Khade and Chavan were starting their careers and it was to be a while before the Kolhapur family revived its interest in racing. During the interregnum, it was Akkasaheb Maharaj, the elder sister of Rajaram Chhatrapati who maintained the tradition. The lady was simply passionate about horses. In October 1970, she was 76 years-old and hospitalized in Pune when her filly trained by S.S. Shah, the appropriately named Last Adventure, was running. It was the last race on Sunday with rains and Saturday's racing having reduced the track to a quagmire. (Chavan had earlier in the day ridden Bakhtawar to win the Idar Gold Cup, 2400 m., in a time of 2.45.6 !) As the second last race of the day was about to be run, Akkasaheb Maharaj, having given the hospital staff the slip, appeared at the course. It was a big field of 12 runners and Last Adventure opened the favourite.  As Shah gave Chavan the leg-up, the grim faced jockey said, "I have never wanted to win a race more than this one". Last Adventure had no form but she had her owner's blessings. Chavan left the gates quickly and took a handy position. At 800 m. mark, he sent Last Adventure into the lead with a silent prayer and came home a four and a half lengths clear. You can be sure that in his present abode, Shamu Chavan will get plenty of rides on horses owned by Akkasaheb Maharaj !