Many times public perceptions differ from the hard realities of horse racing and  keeps us reminding about some unforgettable  moments to learn more in our life. The mental attitude-with- which a punter approaches his game in racing, can only determine whether he will succeed or fail. Dislikes, fears, frustrations, negativity and suspicions are enemies of our approach to move forward and to our skills to further develop our  proficiency. Self confidence and determination always keep opens the doors of success. At times horses themselves teaches us a lot about how should be our approach for racing.   A popular saying is “ Good horses makes good trainer and good jockeys.”  If a horse is superior and ridden by  a  ace/superior jockey than  that enhances the chances of winning manifold and if ridden by an average or inferior jockey than also winning chances of that horse are not totally ruled out,  because of superiority and potential of the horse  but on contrary if a horse is lazy or a  average one or inferior one  than no ace jockey can make out or bring a win from such a horse, because ultimately the  potential and superiority and fighting spirit of the horse only matters most for a win in a competition of horse racing. Superior class of the horse would always enable to prevail over opponents . Horse racing is such a popular game where everyone wants and enters to gain in quick time and the game is more based on public trust and faith but it requires individuals own extra skills and extra intelligence also with lot of cautious and responsible approach. Risks are must for gains but I do agree risks should  not be  at the cost of livelihood and at the cost of life.

Doubt of foul play erupts protest and violence:

By and large the crowd at race courses in our country is very sportive, disciplined and cool. They accept the race results with trust and grace. They are also aware about risk factors and uncertainties and complexities of the game.  But sometime, some incidents shake their confidence and they suspect some foul play,  particularly at times when odds - on -hot -favourite horses  fails or didn’t obliges.  In other words their  base of perception to suspect the race result as foul play becomes stronger whenever  -out of reckoning horses wins and expected hot favourite flops miserably or looses  without a fight . And if such horse which wins as a  fluke or as a rank outsider, and if the favourite which fails to deliver,   belongs to the same stable,  than it becomes very difficult for the public to accept and digest  the result as fair.  Than they suspect foul play.

I remember one such incident happened during 1989 at Hyderabad when trainer Shamshuddin entered three horses in one maiden race to be run over a distance of 1000 /1200 mts and that  was the first opening race of that day’s race card. The hot favourite was odds on Lucky Ruby offered 70 paise for win and entrusted to ace jockey Aslam Kader( or  may be Robin Corner ). Other two runners from the same stable were Rani- beti and debutant Manisha’s Master and both quoted at longer odds. Almost entire media and expert - tipsters favoured Lucky Ruby to win the race as having run advantage and jockey also commended respect . But the race result surprised everyone when Manisha’s Master won the race ridden by jockey E Phillips,  that too with ease and was available at 15/1 and over for a  win and Lucky Ruby the odds -on -hot -favourite failed miserably.  A section of the crowd started protesting because they suspected a well planned coup as the winner and looser belongs to the same trainer and owner.  My elder brother N P Sharma was common owner in both the horses. When  the horses entered the weigh-in enclosure, I noticed the crowd started shouting slogans and abusing the connections for their suspected  connivance for this coup. They were demanding the race to be declared as null and void as in their opinion the results  planned to benefit only to the connections and few ones and the running of the race was not on merit and indicate some foul play. While the protest continued , white cone hoisted and a all clear signal was given . This was not expected by many and happened contrary to the expectations of the crowd. This further aggravated the situation and the crowd began to occupy the paddock area to not to allow next race horses to come-in and a section of the crowd indulged in hurling race - books, and some started throwing  stones,  some started damaging glass panels,  furniture, chair and tables and broke the TV sets.  Soon this uproar and riotous situation took more  violent turn. Soon police was called but the situation remained out of control and tense -continued as it is.  After all  the requests by  club authorities  failed on public address system to  calm down and  the crowd was not in a mood to heed the requests,  the authorities finally decided to cancel the day’s rest of the races and remaining program cancelled .

Perception and the Reality:

The inside story of this incident also was very interesting and not known to many, particularly to punters. The story based against the public perception which was totally based on suspicion. Actually MM was suppose to put for sale in auction as per normal practice on 2nd October, derby day after the last race along with some other youngsters but due to hoof related injuries not put  up for sale on that day and later he put on  sale on another day for  public auction but by that time the talking point of insiders at race course was  - the horse had a deep hole and injury in hoof and was under problems and was under  treatment and his full recovery and future running is doubtful and in question. Due to this talk the  horse not offered attractive price in  that auction - sale and sold for a cheap price and later at the time of his debut run  this story was dominating in our mind and due to this fact MM not given full workouts as required for a  actual race runner  and  with a intention not to apply too much pressure on him due to injury and treatment history,  we accepted the horse even though he was looking sturdy. . So everyone in the stable too took it lightly with a intention to watch this run and decide the future plans of this horse  afterwards/after this run . But without fancying  and without much preparation MM won and surprised everyone,  including all of us ( trainer, owner and the jockey ) .  

Later as the time progressed all the subsequent runs of MM proved his real potential and class beyond any doubt and MM won 5-6 more races and reached  class - I, whereas the fact with Lucky Ruby was, not even won a single race  after that run and till retirement and finally retired as a maiden only.

This is a example to show how horses themselves prove their superiority and class and proved the  earlier perception of public as wrong and so too the doubt about running of the race and the so called well planned coup. Horses proves many times the owner, trainer and jockey also wrong in their assessment. Many times horses too teaches us a lesson . As a human being we may under or over rate them but their superiority, potential and class reveals us  all  these facts during their runnings. I mean to say such incidents do occur in racing and time only will come to rescue of all,  to clear the doubts and perceptions which may remain  for and upto some time  but can’t overshadow the reality too long. A man who writes a book may have to wait a lifetime for the judgement of history; a man who studies the stock market may have to wait for months or years to learn if a investment was a good one but a punter can see his opinion about the horse and racing validated — or contradicted —  only in a matter of seconds and minutes and in few rare cases after some time. .

Fancied stablemate fails and jockey’s preference prevailed:

Another incident when two stablemates Zulu Prince, owned by Raghav Reddy  and Neo Champ owned by N P Sharma entered over a 1400/1600 mts  race in ‘91 at Hyderabad and the fancied runner was hot favourite ZP quoted at 1.50 for win but Neo Champ from the same stable won the race with Irish jockey Patrick Brady in the saddle,  which was available at 8/1 and over for a win and 2/1  and above in place. This time it was a  clash between the opinions of trainer and jockey as trainer Shamshuddin was favouring Zulu Prince with Aslam Kader/ or D Manning, ( not very sure ), in the saddle, but P  Brady was confident on Neo Champ and he told my elder brother and  owner of Neo Champ to take a reasonable/good chance on NC for win and place . Such things happens some times in racing when trainer and jockey differs in their opinions but in such cases we use to give more preference to jockey’s opinion before the race and  his feedbacks  after the race about the horse. The finish of this race was also  interesting and it was a hard fought win for NC and ZP also remained in contention till last few meters and lost narrowly.

A field day of our racing career :

A record was created long ago by Madhav Manglorkar by winning five races on a single race day at Hyderabad and after many years in ‘89 that record was equalled by trainer Shamshuddin by winning five races on a single race day in which three of our family horses won  namely —  Neo Champ, Neo Star and Neo Prince and the other two horses also  belongs to our same stable but belongs to different  owners.   That  day was really a field day and a memorable day for all of  us, as all five stable horses  won  in  good odds with a popular treble favored our family. The other two horses  were -   one Sikander- E - Azam, owned by P Pentiah and another one was Rani Rajeshwari, owned by C Achaiah. After many years this record of trainer M Manglorkar and Shamshuddin for five wins on a single race day was broken and I think at present  L V R Deshmukh is holding the new record of seven wins on a single race day at Hyderabad.

Average purchased horse won the derby and surprised  many:

We came across many interesting and many such unforgettable memories and moments in our racing career. Another one story we cannot forget,  when a average purchased horse proved too good and lucky for the stable and won the prestigious Hyderabad derby and surprised many big owners who use to purchase costly horses. Sometimes costly horses too  performs far below and fails to deliver. This is the beauty and a surprise factor of this game of horse racing. Here I want to mention the name of  of Sikander- E - Azam purchased for just  rs 69,000/- ( that too this amount paid in two instalments ) from Gokuldas of Sewania stud farms and this average purchase horse went onto win Hyderabad derby in January, ‘90 ridden by P Shroff beating many costly purchased horses and finished third to Desert Warrior at Kolkata in a  big invitational race in the same year.  MAM offered rs 10 lakhs for  this horse to the family -  members of late P Pentiah , who was the single owner of that horse but unfortunately the owner passed away before the hyd derby,  following a heart attack. It was his life time ambition to lead a derby race but not fulfilled and only after his demise the horse won the derby.  May his soul rest in peace. A decent and  always smiling, well mannered  person and a horse-owner who loved  horses very much and cared them best  and loved and respected by one and all in racing circle.

The bottom line of my above post is  despite ups and down activities of our life, keep yourself happy, content and satisfied to enjoy the life. Almighty and nature has given us many valuable things to remain happy with positivity. Enjoy your daily and other  activities as you wish. Do not allow anyone’s dislike and negativity to dominate you. No dis-satisfaction should overshadow your joy. Many did not have much money but their life is full of joy because they are not dis-satisfied and keep themselves enjoying in their activities .  Improve the flavour of living.  Life is a challenge and is a adventure. Most live lives as routine or as drudgery and are more and more concerned always about security that they cannot imagine how delicious is uncertainty ?.  Off course Certainty is the reverse side of Uncertainty, two sides of a same coin. Patience in life is must for momentous events to happen.  Time is the only source to authenticate the ultimate vindication of our  doubts and perceptions. Pl do share your unforgettable moments of horse  racing.  

I understand few may notice my grammar and english  and may not like as good or as per their like but for many I think  and believe I am able to communicate,  what is expected to be communicated.

Thanks and God bless you all. Stay safe and happy . Wishing you all enjoyable life.