Riders on the storm

Racing is called the Sport of Kings but its footsoldiers, the jockeys, live a life very much rooted in common fears and frailties. The glamour of racing 8212; the owners, the Beautiful People who watch 8212; is well documented. What isn8217;t known, though, is the story of those who do the job.

And the very hard life they lead. Today, Pesi Shroff, the greatest contemporary Indian jockey, will officially hang up his whip and move into training. And one of his first indulgences, he said, would be eating gulab jamun!

The patrician Shroff is the face of Indian horseracing but Belose is probably more representative of the Indian jockeys8217; community. Growing up in Matheran, the hill station near Mumbai one of the two principal feeder lines for jockeys, along with the former princely stables in Rajasthan, Belose was one of many employed in giving tourists joy rides on the horses there.

What does it take to make a jockey? Horse sense, for one. 8216;8216;One needs to have a feel of the horse, to understand their behavioural patterns,8217;8217; says Malcolm Kharadi, an ace jockey for the past 16 years. More tangibly, and obviously, height and weight are critical.

At the terribly upper-crust Royal Western India Turf Club RWITC, the qualifications for the school they once ran was this: 8216;8216;SSC pass, in the 14-16 age group, weighing around 40-45 kg and standing preferably at just over 5 foot8217;8217;. The school had to be shut down two years ago because of a rush of applicants!

The clamour to join the profession is despite the fact that it is already crowded 8212; 145-odd, all across the country 8212; and that success is limited to very few. There are approximately 2000 races held every year at Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty, Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi.

Indeed, lack of fixed earnings is the first problem jockeys learn to deal with. The lucky few 8212; Shroff, Mallesh Narredu, Prakash 8212; are attached to the badshahs of racing: Dr Vijay Mallya, Khusro Dhunjibhoy, Dr MAM Ramaswamy, Deepak Khaitan and the Poonawallas. For the rest, it8217;s a battle for survival.

Often the lack of job security prevents jockeys from dishing out their best, says Dhunjibhoy, the RWITC chairman, and also drives them to malpractices such as pushing and excess use of the whip.

Even if you can cope with all this, just day-to-day jockey work is tough. The top jockeys lead a hectic life shuttling between different centres. 8216;8216;I travel about five times a week to complete assignments. It gets hectic but you can8217;t help it. It8217;s our duty,8217;8217; says Shroff.

All this, while surviving on a diet aimed at keeping the weight down. Shroff8217;s craving for gulab jamun stems from the fact that for 20 years his meals have comprised tofu, broccoli and fruit, which helped him maintain his weight at 55 kg, 10 kg below normal.

It8217;s worse 8212; much worse 8212; during race days. Every jockey comes to know about his possible mount horse 48 hours before the race. And if the jockey is overweight then it8217;s a frenzied, frantic struggle to lose weight.

8216;8216;We sometimes starve and often survive on wafers and sandwiches. Some also prefer walking and sitting in a sauna. Sitting in that box can help shed 1.5 kgs in an hour,8217;8217; says Shroff.

The latest problem Indian jockeys have had to contend with is the foreign hand. What originally began as a gimmick by the big owners to attract attention 8212; and there were big names, including Walter Swinburn and Pat Eddery 8212; has become a formalised policy, so much so that at one time there were 15 foreign jockeys in the fray. Eventually the RWITC stepped in to limit the number to six per season .

The difference now lies in the money. Indian jockeys officially get Rs 750 per mount, earning about Rs 8000 to 15,000 per month. Unofficially, however, he can be paid anything. The biggies, who are employed on a retainer basis by the top owners, get around Rs 15 to 25 lakhs per year the amount is never disclosed.

Top foreign jockeys like Irishman Mark Gallaghar, Jimmy Fortune or Frenchman David Badel reportedly earn Rs 25-30 lakhs.

Aslam Kadar, the ace jockey who retired last year, feels Indian jockeys would benefit if they were paid as much as the foreigners. 8216;8216;Hamare jockeys kisi se kam nahin. Kam hai to paisa.8217;8217;

It8217;s a good life for the foreign jockeys, predominantly Irish. Niall McCullagh is the current favourite at the Mumbai racecourse and has spent more than 11 years on the Indian circuit. His advantage is that the European and Indian seasons do not overlap. 8216;8216;Every year I stay for about four months in Mumbai between mid-November to mid-March,8217;8217; he says, returning home for the season there.

Finally, there are the occupational hazards of injury 8212; and, less frequently, a fatal accident. The most stunning incident was 25 years ago when wunderkind Karl Umrigar 8212; Shroff8217;s cousin and inspiration 8212; fell off the horse and died.

Three years ago, 19-year-old Sawai Singh Bhati succumbed to his injuries when he fell from the horse during a morning workout at Mahalaxmi. And last month Yoginder Singh fell during a race at Pune.

But such incidents are far and few. The lure of the lucre continues to draw them to the racecourse. That the RWITC gives Rs 25 crores as licence fee annually to the Maharashtra Government is an indicator of the money involved in the business of horseracing.

If only more of it could filter down to the jockeys.

8216;Jockeys8217; fees need to be hiked8217;

FOR close to two decades, Pesi Shroff has been the punter8217;s delight. His 100 plus Classic victories, eight Derby triumphs and 1750 wins overall make him an Indian racing phenomenon. Born into a family of riders, Shroff received formal training at the age of five when his mother Tehmi Shroff, an accomplished rider, took him to Mahalaxmi.
Shroff, also the vice-president of the Jockey Association of India JAI, spoke to Shailendra Awasthi on the eve of his retirement

A game of chance
Racing is a game of chance for the punter but you can still make money. You cannot compare racing with gambling at a casino. You ride your luck there too but racing provides great timepass outdoors for just Rs 20 that8217;s the entry fee for the public enclosure at the racecourse. You don8217;t even get a cinema ticket for Rs 20.

How the sport has changed
Today the number of race days and races have increased and there is virtually no time left to relax. The profession has become more demanding and one needs to be on one8217;s toes. But that holds good for all professions these days.

Jockeys should be paid more
I think the biggest problem today is the amount of riding fees, only Rs 750 per mount. This should be increased immediately to around Rs 2000 per ride. Of course, the lack of job security is also the biggest hurdle for the ones who are already in the profession and others aspirants.

Future plans
I8217;m going to become a trainer and hope to get horses from Dr Vijay Mallya and others. I8217;m not going to replace Jaggy Dhariwal Mallya8217;s trainer. Jaggy is a private trainer, he trains specially for a certain person but I8217;m going to be a public trainer and will train horse for everyone.