Horse racing in india has been here since the Britishers ruled over india for nearly 200 yrs. They say it is a Royal sport for Royal people, but how far its true one has to analyse when it comes to its present state.
I have been following horse racing in india for the past 25 yrs and have been mostly witnessed the races in chennai. Chennai race course stands in the middle of its suburban area called Guindy, streaches over more than 100 acres. Its luch green grass, a swimming pool in the middle of the course and its huge Bicentenary stand (latter named after Dr.MAM.Ramaswamy), gives it the term as one of the biggest race courses in India, after Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi race course.
The main racing season starts in chennai in the late Octobar and goes on it the end of March. About 25 yrs back, to be precise before the 1984 years, it used to be the glorious years in the horse racing history of chennai.
Trainers like D.M.Hill, J.Tyrell, A.B.David, David Thomson, RR.Reddy, Dhariwal, occasionally Mr.Byramji used to train their horses for the glory of becoming the champion trainers. With them comes the jockeys from abroad, namely John Lowe, Eccleston, Carrol, Roche, Swinburn, Swinburn Jr.(who later won an Epson Derby) were the regular riders, apart from the stars like Lester Piggot, Willie Shoemaker, etc. With these kind of people around, the course used to be like a dream watching world class racing right in front of your home town.
As my father is the club member of the course, he was given a stand with four chairs on the Bicentenary club stand. People used to throng the paddock where the horses paraded, before the jockeys mount them. With intense knowledge in each race the punturs used to bag their horses in huge sums. The course used to full of crowd and during the Derby days an estimated crowd of nearly 50, 000 gather to witness the main event of the season.
Now, after 25 yrs, where has all that glory gone. The stands look deserted, there are no people in the stands as its all empty. People dont bother to look at the races as its going on. No people in the paddock stands. Hardly 5, 000/= comes as the total pool amount for the jackpot. Only one trainer R.Foley wins all the races and should be with the hightest wins by any trainer in India.
Now the club runs only on Inter venue racing which is shown live from other centres in india. Its large area is more suitable for marriage gatherings and musical parties.