It was in 1952 that I walked into Guindy and it was my first time at the races. Guindy had competitive racing and among the three principal racing venues, Kolkata, then known as Calcutta, occupied the pride of place. Horse owners in Chennai, then Madras, spared no efforts to win the 1600-metre Calcutta Gold Cup. Mumbai, then called Bombay, offered the top five (Indian) Classics and I believe it was in 1959 (my best recollection) that the unbeaten Scone Stone, carried South’s hopes to Mahalakshmi to take on Fair Wood, owned by the Maharaja Of Kashmir. Scone Stone was soundly beaten.

Those were the heady days of horse racing in India. There were racing stories and they were stories of unusual courage and rare determination. An aberration now and then made the rounds. The one story I would hear is that an owner would not want to win with a horse as an odds on favorite. The public would get the impression that the horse was going through a period of regression. When the odds were juicy, the owner would ask the jockey to go all out.

Let us fast forward to 2013. I live in Chicago but I spend four months in India, December through March since 2000. The stories are everywhere and they come in all shapes and forms.

I want to take a look at the Chief Minister’s Trophy, a 2000-metre terms race, run in Bangalore on Friday, January 3, 2014. Nine answered the starter’s call. Here is one central theme in the story I am about to narrate. Yes, Mr Siddaramiah, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, was at the Bangalore Racecourse to make the presentation to the winning owner. A secondary part of the story was that one of the horses in the race, Agostini, was owned by Mrs and Dr Vijay Mallya and Mr Ashok Ranpise.

Turf Striker, Y S Srinath, an impressive winner of the Bangalore 2000 Guineas and a horse with strong credentials, was the 16/10 public choice. Wind Stream, owned by R K Wadhwan and the bridesmaid to Super Storm in the 2013 Indian Derby, was a 5/1 chance despite being what writer Sharan Kumar aptly called ‘ring rusty.’ Agostini, entrusted to the 22 year-old Louis- Phillippe Beuzelin, was a 7/1 chance. Despite not having risen to ‘Classic’ status, Agostini was a frontline sophomore who had just turned four.

Turf Striker stood still as the gates opened. He lost considerable ground. He made a valiant attempt to get into the mix. Turning for home, jockey Srinath found his mount could not offer more. Agostini stalked the leader and took charge about 400 metres from home. Wind Stream came calling. A duel generated interest in the stands. In the final 100 metres, Agostini and jockey Beuzelin asserted themselves.

Several of my friends fancied the chances of Agostini for valid reasons with which one has every right to disagree. The Chief Minister of Karnataka presented the Cup to Mr Ashok Ranpise, the joint owner.

It is said that it is easy to be wise after the event. In Agostini’s case, it was easy to explain the result after the race. More than one friend ventured an analysis. “It is the Chief Minister’s trophy. The winner, Agostini, is part-owned by Dr Vijay Mallya, Karnataka’s favorite son and top industrialist. Therefore, it was appropriate that Karnataka’s favorite son won the race named after the State’s Chief Minister. Jockey Srinath chose to eliminate himself early. R K Wadhwan, Windstream’s owner, is a man of waning influence in Indian racing. Now you see the race was set up for Agostini.”

Has Indian racing come to this? Conspiracy theories abound. Every winner and or a loser has a story behind it.

Why was not Set Alight allowed to win the Indian Derby in 2009? Silvestre de Sousa, riding Antonios, may not have known the Dr Mallya is RWITC’s biggest benefactor.