When H.H. Sir Harisinghji Jamwal, the Maharajadhiraj of Jammu and Kashmir, passed away in April 1961, he had led in more winners of the Indian Derby than anyone else till then. His four winners of the Blue Riband of Indian racing were Odds On (1944), Regal Domain (1952), Rough Deal (1955) and Fair Wood (1959). It is a curious fact that his winners were trained by four different schoolers, ridden by four different jockeys and ran in four different colours. It was said of him that at the end of each year, he either changed his trainer or his jockey or his colours ! Though he himself owned a stud farm, all his four winners were bred elsewhere and were bought either as two year-olds (Odds On and Regal Domain) or much later after they had exhibited a Classic spark (Rough Deal and Fair Wood).

In racing circles, he was generally referred to as just 'Kashmir'. His first runner was an English mare called Leila who carried his silks at Lucknow in January 1917. Initially, he raced mostly in the East with Calcutta as his headquarters. Though he won a couple of good races at Calcutta, the prime targets the Viceroy's Cup and the King-Emperor's Cup eluded him. He then switched to Bombay and was immensely successful, winning the Eclipse Stakes of India four times with Pougatchev (1934), One I Love (1939), Steel Helmet (1940) and Desert Sunrise (1944). He really came into his own after the Indian Classics were instituted and won 18 of them in less than two decades. 

In 1957-58, Kashmir won four of the five Indian Classics. He could well have had a clean sweep -- something which no one has yet achieved -- had be bought Canny Scot instead of Tall Story from Mr. M.P. Davis. Mr. Davis had told Kashmir that he considered Canny Scot the better of his two 'got-abroads' and even suggested that he buy them both. The Tall Story fiasco rankled Kashmir. However, that did not deter him for looking for a Classic contender to be his standard bearer for the 1958-59 Indian Classics. He had the eye for a prospective Classic type and that eye fell upon a colt called Vandyke. Vandyke was owned by the Maharaja of Idar and as a three year-old had won two races most stylishly after an easy debut run. 

Vandyke did not run during the monsoons at Pune and the next time he was seen on a race course was in the Kashmir livery in H.H. The Maharaja of Morvi Gold Cup at the start of the Bombay season. What happened in the interregnum is generally not well known and it was his new trainer Dady Adenwalla who provided the details. After winning the K.P. Singhania Gold Cup effortlessly in March, Vandyke had a "a bit of a leg" and his trainer Narayan Singh suggested to the Maharaja of Idar that it would be best if he was sold. The Sippys were planning to come into racing around that time. They were also negotiating to buy an apartment in the Shri Vijaya Bhavan which the Maharaja of Idar was then building on Altamont Road in Bombay's posh Cumballa Hill. After trainer, Dady Adenwalla, had inspected Vandyke, he told the Sippys that while the horse did have a problem, he was sanguine that he could get him right. The colt, he said, would have to miss the Pune season. The Sippys bought Vandyke and the apartment from Idar and colt moved to Adenwalla's yard.

When Kashmir approached Idar for Vandyke, he was told that the colt had already been sold. Kashmir then made overtures to the Sippys. As was usual with Kashmir, negotiations for Vandyke were prolonged. Kashmir made his final offer of one lakh rupees but the Sippys wanted five thousand more. There the negotiations stalled. Kashmir asked Adenwalla why that five thousand was so important to his owners. Adenwalla told him that the apartment which the Sippys had bought had cost them  Rs. 1,05,000. Kashmir went back to the Sippys. "Look", he said. "You want your apartment to be paid for by the colt. I want him to win the Derby. So you have a deal".

Vandyke's name was changed to Fair Wood and Adenwalla was very patient with him. The troublesome fetlock was regularly poulticed and slowly the colt recovered. Adenwalla's first Indian Derby winner, Balchand, had been ridden by Pandu Khade and the trainer had a good rapport with the ace jockey. When Fair Wood was fit enough to be trotted, it was Khade who schooled him. It was again Khade who gave Fair Wood his first pace work in Pune. By the end of September, Khade informed Adenwalla that Fair Wood was completely sound. Khade was then in the midst of a glorious run which saw him win eight Jockeys' Championships at Mahalakshmi in nine years. He told Adenwalla that he would not be free to ride Fair Wood and suggested that a jockey be booked well in advance. Adenwalla, after speaking with Kashmir, engaged Calcutta rider J. McGaffin for all of Fair Wood's winter engagements.

The Morvi was Fair Wood's first run after eight and a half months. The favourite for the race was Gwalior's Azim-ul-Iqtidar while Fair Wood was easy to back at 5s. McGaffin got Fair Wood off to a good break and then settled in a box seat as the favourite made the running. When Azim-ul-Iqtidar cried halt at the distance, Fair Wood went past him and won cosily from the fillies Royal Princess and bracket-mate Erin Dust. The favourite did not even come on the board.  For the Indian 2000 Guineas towards the end of December, Fair Wood was a firm, odds-on choice. The Gwalior pair of Azim-ul-Iqtidar and Flying Carpet called the shots early on with this time McGaffin keeping his colt further behind. For a while in the straight, Fair Wood found himself in trouble with nowhere to go. McGaffin extricated him with a bit of forceful riding -- hampering Kun Kaan in the process -- and then sailing home easily. 

Fair Wood did not run again till the Indian Derby. That was the first Derby for which there were outstation challengers. From Guindy came  Scone Stone, a Scotch Crown half-brother to Tall Story and Supremo, both owned by Mr. M.P. Davis.. They had finished 1-2 in the inaugural South India Derby on their  home turf.  Between the "2000" and the Derby, Temptation had won the Sir H.M. Mehta Gold Cup -- the forerunner of the R.R. Ruia Gold Cup -- beating the Kashmir pair of The Bell Ringer and Erin Dust. Fair Wood was vastly superior to his bracket-mates and so that win of Temptation did not worry Adenwalla in the least. Talib had won the Cooperage Plate over 2400 m. on the same day with Kun Kaan and the Kashmir camp considered him a more formidable foe. The betting public, though, was nap on the Kashmir colt and Fair Wood started an even money favourite. 

The Starter had a torrid time as the field was very unruly. Counsellor reared up and dropped his jockey Hyam who remounted.  When the tapes went up, Fair Wood's pacemaker, The Bell Ringer, whipped around, bucked and deposited Amir Ahmed on the turf. Artist's Proof, the third outstation challenger, took them along till the mile marker where Azim-ul-Iqtidar assumed command. Then, Scone Stone took over as the field approached the final bend. All this while, Fair Wood had been content to loll in the rear. When Scone Stone went ahead, McGaffin realised that it was time to get serious. Fair Wood began to move up, almost surreptitiously at first and then more purposefully till he was just behind Scone Stone entering the straight. When McGaffin gave Fair Wood his head, the colt surged ahead, went past Scone Stone in a trice and pulled away to win by four lengths. That was the longest winning margin in the Indian Derby till then. Kun Kaan and Counsellor occupied the other places in the frame.

Kashmir was over the moon. Beating Tall Story's half-brother exorcised some of the ghosts of that haunting episode. A day or two after the race, once the euphoria had evaporated, Adenwalla broke the news to Kashmir. Fair Wood had felt his leg in the Derby. The Triple Crown, though, was at stake. Both McGaffin and Adenwalla, however, felt that there was still one more race in their colt. He was nursed carefully and given only light work before the Indian St. Leger for which he went to the post at 3/10 on. This time his pacemaker The Bell Ringer took a good jump and ran like a scalded cat, a street ahead of the field. McGaffin had kept Fair Wood well covered up and he moved up very gradually on the favourite. Mid-way up the straight, Fair Wood was poised to challenge but just could not accelerate readily. Kun Kaan, under a typical hard drive under Shamu Chavan, passed them both and won comfortably by two lengths from Fair Wood who just managed to get ahead of The Bell Ringer at the post. Like Balchand, also trained by Adenwalla, Fair Wood was thwarted at the last hurdle of the Indian Triple Crown.

Fair Wood is one of the twenty winners of the Indian Derby who never won a race afterwards. He returned lame from the Indian St. Leger, did not race during the Pune season of 1959 and was subsequently trained by G. Bunnetta and Ganpat Chavan, having five starts over two years. He was then bought by Mrs. J.S. Deane, the wife of the noted veterinarian, for whom he ran thrice at Secunderabad in 1962. His last start was in the Stewards Cup over a mile in which he pulled up lame. .

Kashmir, McGaffin and Adenwalla never won another Derby. Kashmir had runners in the 1960 and 1961 Derbies who finished off-the-board. Kashmir's greatest legacy to Indian racing was the priceless band of broodmares he had collected at his stud in Ranbirsinghpura, south-west of Jammu. Eight Indian Derby winners descend from that 'Kashmir Collection'.  McGaffin had three more rides in the Indian Derby and finished on the runner-up in all of them -- 1961 (State Bank), 1962 (Rushikesh) and 1963 (Mount Everest). He rode for a few more years and then took out a trainer's license at Calcutta. Adenwalla had a long innings as a trainer but never quite fulfilled his early promise. Apart from Rushikesh, he saddled another Derby second in Ipi Tombi sixteen years later. He was also a respected Chief Stipendiary Steward at R.W.I.T.C., Ltd. for many years.

Fair Wood's sire Willoughton (Bois Roussel - Olein) was a winner at 2 and 3 in England. Bois Roussel is classified as a 'stout' chef de race while Olein was a winner of the Coronation Stakes.  Willoughton had earlier sired the Indian Oaks winner Titwillow but perhaps his best 'get' was a  colt called Hit or Miss owned by Kashmir. Hit or Miss was considered one of the top colts of his generation but could not run in the Classics because he was not entered and in those days there was no provision for final entries. Willoughton had only a short tenure at stud in India before he had to be put down just before the start of the 1956 covering season. He stood at the Kunigal stud but was owned by the Raja of Vizianagram -- "VIzzy" to cricket lovers -- and Mr. G. Narasimhan. Kunigal Stud, alone of Fair Wood's immediate connections tasted Derby glory again with Topmost (1974) and Desert God (2016).

PAST THE POST

Like the previous year's Indian Derby winner Canny Scot, Fair Wood was not a Thoroughbred and so carried the [NSB] suffix in official records. There was a flaw on his dam's side which prevented the line from being admitted to the General Stud Book. This, despite the fact that the Birdhill family to which Fair Wood belonged, was probably the most illustrious one in Mr. Prior's Half-Bred Stud Book. Fair Betty, the dam of Fair Wood, was a winner in England and India. In one of her wins in India, Fair Betty beat a horse called Red Flannel who later won the Eclipse Stakes of India, Fair Betty's grandam Quashed was a winner of the Epsom Oaks.

This dam line flourished in India for a few years and Mr. R.M. Reddy of Lumbini Stud bred a very good horse called Attaturk from it. By that time, some members of this family had been admitted to the General Stud Book on the insistence of Lord Howard de Walden, the then Chairman of the Jockey Club. The very knowledgeable Mr. Reddy took up the case for Attaturk's acceptance citing the example but to no avail. In 1990, the case was officially taken up by the Indian Stud Book and at a meeting of the International Stud Book Committee in 1990, the living members of this family in India were granted Thoroughbred status. Mr. Charles Weatherby, who chaired that Meeting, remarked, "It is nice to welcome, finally, the members of this family to Thoroughbred status through the front door !"

A curious fact is that Counsellor who finished fourth behind Fair Wood in the Indian Derby, was also from this family. Counsellor's dam Vindicate was by Bois Roussel so she was bred in on lines similar to Fair Wood. Maharaja of Idar did sell Vandyke but won the Indian Derby the very next year with Rose de Bahama. It was some years before the Sippys made a belated entry into racing. They had greater success in Bollywood than at Mahalakshmi but still have their apartment on Altamont Road. You can be certain that proceeds from the sale of one Indian-bred three year-old will not buy you a three bedroom apartment anywhere on Cumballa Hill today.

INDIAN DERBY 1959
Mumbai, Sunday 8 February 1959

A Gold Trophy value Rs. 3,000, sweepstakes of Rs. 800 with Rs. 55,000 added from the Fund. Total stakes Rs. 1,01,400. Winner, the Trophy and Rs. 65,022.75; second, Rs. 19,266; third, Rs. 12,041.25. Rs. 5,000 to the Breeder of the winner. For Indian colts and fillies four years old only (foaled in 1955). Colts, 9 st; fillies, 8 st. 9 lbs.

Distance one and a half miles.

1. FAIR WOOD[NSB] (J. McGaffin) (Evens)
    (b/br c Willoughton* - Fair Betty[NSB]* by Fun Fair)
    H.H. The Maharajidhiraj of Jammu and Kashmir

2.  Scone Stone (E.J. Cracknell) (5/1)
     (ch c Scotch Crown* - Demavend* by Emir d'Iran)
     Mr. M.P. Davis

3.  Kun Kaan (S. Chavan) (10/1)
     (b c Decorum* - Scarlet Poppy* by Kinchinjunga)
     Mrs. Sakinabai H. Ahmedbhoy and Mrs. A.L.J. Talib

4.  Counsellor[NSB] (R. Hyam) (40/1)
     (b c Firmament* - Vindicate[NSB]* by Bois Roussel)
     Mrs. A.H. Hyam and Mr. E. Minzly

Also ran: Temptation, Super Glass, Supremo, Flying Carpet, Roshni, Indiana, Artist's Proof, Statesman, Dark Japan, Azim-ul-Iqtidar, The Bell Ringer (15 runners).
Winner Trained by D.N. Adenwalla
Verdict: 4, 1 1/2, 1 3/4   Time: 2.42.0
Tote: Rs. 21 for win, Rs. 12, Rs. 15 and Rs. 21 for places.

FAIR WOOD[NSB] (late Vandyke[NSB]) (First Foal) 20 Mar 1955
Bred by Mr. A.M.M. Arunachalam
Bred at Kunigal Stud