Thoroughbred Crime

THE 143-year-old Royal Calcutta Turf Club (rctc) has a long and illustrious history. Five years after Calcutta staged the first Derby race in the subcontinent in 1842—a two-mile race called the Calcutta Derby Stakes with a handsome Rs 5,000 prize—the club kicked off organised racing in India. It's unique 'monsoon' track is one of the quickest-draining tracks in the world. But last week's stabbing of a four-year-old race horse at the club's stables shook the comparatively placid world of horse racing in Calcutta.

Rumours flew thick and fast, more so as the incident occurred on the eve of the Derby. Was trainer Vijay Singh's Derby runner, Alvarada, stabbed—one of the Derby contender's legs was found sliced open, presumably with a sharp weapon—to jinx its chances at the event? Alvarada, owned by Calcutta-based industrialist Deepak Khaitan, was expected to give a tough fight to the favourite, Altimara, who eventually won the race. Nobbling of horses—disabling a race horse, especially with drugs—is not a new phenomenon in Indian racing. But Calcutta had been comparatively free of this scourge. To be sure, the Calcutta Derby has still not been taken over by the race-fixing mafia because the volume of betting here is lower than in centres like Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The track record of the injured horse strengthens suspicions of sabotage. Alvarada was 'quoted' as the second favourite behind Altimara, also owned by Deepak Khaitan. Even a hypothetical second placing could have fetched Alvarada, the winner of the premier Usha Stud Calcutta Oaks event run over a similar distance of 2,400 metres, an amount of over Rs 5 lakh as 'stake' money. Apart from the owner, trainer Singh and leading jockey, C. Alford, who was to have ridden her in the Derby, were the losers as they were almost assured of hefty commissions even for a placing. The incident has sent the club officials into a tizzy. Says rctc ceo & secretary Vineet Verma, "This is the first incident of its kind in the 20 years I have been here. We are shocked."

But how could an intruder enter the stables dodging the rctc's securitymen posted at the main gate? There are two security rings around the club's two stables, comprising of the club's own guards and those hired by the horse owners. Club insiders do not rule out internal sabotage. "How can we stop an insider intent on creating mischief?" queries a club official. Interestingly, the trainers' employees—whom "the club does not regulate"—reside in the stables' staff quarters.

The police nabbed a stablehand, Rehmat Ali, in connection with the incident and questioned several syces and jamadars. rctc sources don't rule out the involvement of syces or grooms in the stabbing of Alvarada. "Despite the numerous lacunae in the stables' security, it's not possible that an insider would get in. The police need to prove the internal sabotage angle," says a functionary on condition of anonymity. On its part, rctc has sent a sample of the injured horse's urine to a Hong Kong laboratory for analysis. The report is expected within a month.



Ali's arrest sparked off an agitation among the syces at the club last week, resulting in the cancellation of races on January 10. The arrested syce was eventually released on bail. After a meeting between the syces, trainers and the club, racing is set to resume again. But even Verma admits that the club's stable security has not been foolproof. In the past, trainers have also blamed rctc for slack security; and syces also claim the security of the club is weak. They allege that stable walls are easily scaled by outsiders. The club too has not been exactly clean all this while: about 10 cases of doping come to light every year, and in some of the cases, allegations of sabotage have been made. Trainer Bharath Singh, whose horse Lockers Park tested positive for anabolic steroids sometime ago, had alleged that even the collapsible gates of his stable were non-functional.

Incidents of stabbing of horses have taken place in the past in India. In Mumbai, Derby horse Knight 'N' Day was found dead in his stable due to arsenic poisoning a few years ago. The Royal Western India Turf Club (rwitc), the controlling body there, had appointed top cop Julio Ribeiro to probe the incident. Incidents of abduction of jockey's relatives before a race have taken place in Bangalore. But Calcutta racing had always prided itself on the fact that its prized horses were safe in their stables.

No longer though. With the rctc planning to revamp its security—fixing wire meshes on the ventilators inside the stables, replacing old collapsible gates and installing closed-circuit TV sets in the stable—and the police still looking for clues, the only good news is that the injured filly may be back in training in a week's time. But racing will never be the same in the city again.