When the dust settles (I`ve never found dust settling for long in India, there`s always somebody whipping up a storm) on the 2024 QPL Derby the unique result – a finish dominated by four combatants from one family, the Nareddus - followed 2023`s unique result – a finish dominated by four combatants from a single stud, Usha – will add to the rich tapestry of a race whose history only goes back to 1943.

Odd that, since racing has taken place in India from 1777 and I have a copy of the print of the Assembly Rooms on the raceground at Madras, 1798. I`m also fortunate to have a copy of the first Indian Stud Book published in 1927 – through the good auspices of Major Nargolkar who brought the Indian Stud Book Authority to its rightful place at the world`s top table – a place occupied by the Major`s admirable successor Satish Iyer.

This is not a history lesson: anyone who is in the least bit interested in the history of Indian racing and the Indian thoroughbred will find all they need in the sumptuous ‘Horse Racing in India, A Royal Legacy` by Lynn Deas – all that is up to 2016. High time for an update edition.

Whilst Usha and Poonawalla Studs have come to dominate the Indian arena there is no question that the Irish establishment of Coolmore has dominated most of the rest of the world. India`s prime studs have been swapping blows for decades and despite gloomy forebodings of the state of Indian racing (more of which anon) both protagonists are currently intent on being the sport`s salvation by importing more foreign stallions to improve the breed.

Chindit has arrived to bolster the Poonawalla challenge: he is by the current hope of Coolmore, Wootton Bassett whose fee is 200,000 euros, while Usha, not content with purchasing Galileo`s son Deauville (first crop due to race this autumn) have recently acquired Gr2 winner Plumatic by Frankel`s nearest challenger as stallion overlord, Dubawi.

The show must go on.

The first Indian Derby winner by an ex-Coolmore stallion was Be Safe by Holy Roman Emperor in 2015. The second was this year`s Derby laureate Enabler, by Ruler Of The World who won at Epsom in 2013. Holy Roman Emperor only ran at two; the latter not until he was three. Both found their way to Castle Hyde – the predominantly National Hunt side of the Coolmore monolith. Although he hasn`t ruled it Ruler Of The World has, since leaving Ireland, been round the European block of it standing in France, Spain and Italy.

Now the heat is on Galileo`s son Deauville to maintain Usha`s ascendancy. Deauville did race for Coolmore, around the world – America, Europe, Dubai and Hong Kong - until he was six proving exemplary soundness.

Time was when foreign jockeys were either flown in for the occasion or were spending their winters in India. I had a singular experience at Mahalakshmi early one morning sniffing round the great racecourse. Behind one of the old stands I found a pile of jockey`s metal name boards – the yellow backgrounds with precise black lettering – and what memories they did conjure up.

E Britt, winner of the first Indian Derby, and then such names as K Gethin, W H Carr, A Barclay, M Kinane, W Rickaby, J Fortune, R Hughes and others too numerous to mention, all retired or departed. Where L Piggott and F Dettori had got to I don`t know – souvenir hunters?

Nowadays foreign jockeys venture to India mainly for the ‘high days and holidays`. This year was the Nareddus year of course; fathers and sons dominating. Tom Marquand, a UK champion surely in the not too distant future if he slows down from his intercontinental peregrinations. Tom is in demand on every continent while committed to the exceptional Newmarket trainer William Haggas. Along with another ‘day tripper`, Francis Norton, they were the only foreigners in the field.

Tom took over from Murphy, busy putting a bad boy image behind him, and who had narrowly lost the Ruia (our equivalent to the Dante Stakes) Derby Trial on Christofle, one of the five strongest fancies. But whereas the other four filled the frame, Christofle was a disappointing eighth. The last foreign jockey to win the Derby was David Allan in 2017 on S Padmanabhan`s Hall of Farmer.

Tom told me: “What an experience, the Indian fans are fanatical, their passion makes it a very special atmosphere. It`s full on. The weighing room is like weighing rooms the world over – jokers, quiet ones, not exactly a band of brothers because there`s no quarter given out on the track but there`s the same camaraderie. Indian jockeys know every blade of grass and they don`t give an inch of what is a beautiful galloping track. The tempo in the Derby was muddling and my horse couldn`t go with them when they got motoring. I would never underestimate the quality of Indian horses – or jockeys.”

Speaking from his Newmarket home occupied with his wife Hollie Doyle, considered the best female jockey we have seen in the UK, Tom said, laughing: “I`d landed in Mumbai from Dubai, flew back there and then next weekend it`s Australia again.” Does he risk burn out before the English turf season starts? That runs from late March to November – except the jockey`s championship extends only from 4 May to October 19 - which aberration can only be dismissed as a British eccentricity. (Of course with the advent of all-weather racing on sand, flat racing takes place 365 days a year in the UK and elsewhere. Rossa Ryan rode most winners through the calendar year – 2023 – but that didn`t count. No, some of us can`t work it out either).

An official explanation for the anomaly is that as top jockeys, such as Tom Marquand will spend their winters abroad they won`t be involved in the title race – which would lose its interest for racefans. But as we`ve seen current day jockeys flit from continent to continent and don`t seem disturbed by the new career pattern. Tom will be chasing last year`s ‘champion` William Buick whose Godolphin commitments take him round the globe too.

I might just look behind the Mahalaxmi stands to establish whether they`re preserving Tom`s nameboard. It seems to me time is being re-written and not necessarily with racing in mind. The Indian Derby was run at 6pm – the third day of the India-England Second Test had finished ‘conveniently` a couple of hours before.

Last year`s Epsom Derby (which many have never accepted the reasoning behind its switch from the traditional Wednesday date to Saturdays - to mollify broadcasters and sponsors) was run at 1.30 – so as not to distract from the day`s main event – the FA football Cup Final!

Racing had better look to its laurels, or the whole sport could be ‘dumped behind the grandstand!