Children’s presence is owners’ lucky charm in horse racing

Do children really bring good luck to their parents in horse racing? These examples suggest so

Children's presence is owners' lucky charm in horse racing

Do children really bring good luck to their parents in horse racing? These examples suggest so

Racing and superstition go hand-in-hand and understandably so.

With millions at stake and when a race can be won or lost by a hair's breadth (Il Tabarro, winner of the MiD DAY Trophy, touched the wire one-hundredth of a second before runner up River Dragon did), horse owners have every reason to be superstitious and do things which they normally wouldn't.

Take the case of Haresh Mehta, owner 2000 Guineas favourite Versaki. Mehta got his son Manav to attend the races, because on the dozen occasions in the past when Manav had accompanied his dad there, they had always led in a winner. Unfortunately, Versaki, unbeaten from six starts, failed to live up to his reputation, but in the next race, the Mehta-owned Beyond Stars won defying huge odds of 50 to 1!

There'su00a0 ample proof that more children have led in winners with their parents. The other day, Shapoor Mistry's son Pallon lead in Oasis Star.

On Sunday, the youngest child in the Dhunjibhoy family, Anosha, led in Jacqueline, the 2000 Guineas winner.
Do children really bring good luck to their parents in horse racing?

Vivek Jain, the newly elected chairman of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) Ltd, laughs off the superstition. "There is no end to this if you fall for it, so I don't encourage such irrational thoughts," said Jain, though he admitted that the first time his daughter Shivantika got her friends to watch the Pune races two years ago, his filly Gobelin, a 20 to 1 longshot, caused an upset to win the grade 1, Nanoli stud Pune Derby.

A few years ago, Captain Jamshed Appoo had sponsored a race in the name of his late uncle, Dara Godrej, who was extremely fond of Appoo's son Cyrus. So Appoo practically dragged Cyrus, who was not interested in racing, to the racecourse to give away the trophy that carried his grandpa's name.

As luck would have it, a horse trained by Cooji Katrak and owned by Appoo, won the trophy at the odds of 10 to 1, and, Appoo had to present the cup to son Cyrus.

Ironically, the name of the horse was Rigged.

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