I have been watching Robert Foley for close to 30 years now. Like his late father Jim Foley made a mark in Bengaluru as a specialist trainer for M A Ramaswamy, the Foley Jr. also ruled the roost in Chennai. No other trainer in the world can claim to have been with so many horses in their lifetime like Foley. I remember Foley standing in the paddock surrounded by at least a dozen jockeys in almost every race, while other trainers like K S Mandanna and J Sebastian also used to be there but hardly with a mount to saddle.

With the death of MAM and the Guindy racecourse getting a new facelift, things seem to have changed incredibly. These days Foley stands mostly alone, with hardly a mount or two in a race. For example, in tomorrow's card what this grand old man trains is only four horses altogether. I, for one, find it hard to believe, mainly because the number of horses owned by this powerful stable remains almost the same.

The real beneficiaries in the changeover seems to be veterans like Mandanna and Sebastian and others like Fahad Khan and Uthaiah who are now found training more number of horses than Foley in any given race. B Suresh, who always lived in the shadow of Foley until recently, also seems to be going into the oblivion with only a handful of horses to train.

So, is it not a fair thing to do for Foley to bid goodbye to racing and try to help the next generation trainers, who have already taken over the charge in Chennai. It really feels sorry to see a man who had once stood like a colossus now reduced to nothing in his own empire. Come on, Foley Sir, we all know the hard work (?) put in by you over the years in obeying the orders of the stable. After all, you at least managed to get your jockeys in order to pull and push the animals according to the dictates of the Powers That Be. By he way, has Foley's name found an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records?