Horse Sense - By Shiven Surendranath
Posted on - 23 Feb 2017
"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,". - Groucho Marx.
The Royal Western India Turf Club plays host tonight to eight of Mumbai's most exclusive clubs, where getting a membership is as difficult as winning a jackpot without buying a jackpot ticket.
Members of these esteemed institutions have not only got complimentary invites but will also have the pleasure of watching races that honour of each of their clubs with trophies in their names.
Member or not, there is no better way for you to enjoy your evening at the races than by having a bet and celebrating the win with your friends or by drowning the sorrows of your loss in solitary splendour at the bar set up specially for this "Club Race Day". A Dj in attendance promises to get you into the mood to groove irrespective of whether lady luck smiles at you or passes you by, arm in arm with someone else.
If you have heard about the Jazz at the racecourse and prefer it to the DJ's beats, a repeat visit to Mahalaxmi on Sunday is a must as a gleaming Honda Jazz awaits to be driven away by you if you can nominate the first four horses, in their correct order, in The Poonawalla Breeders' Multimillion or the PBMM as it is popularly known.
The PBMM day is famous for the impressive turnout of not just the best juvenile horses but also of Mumbai's A listers. More than just designer dresses, shoes, belts and bags or any other thing that can be designer, PBMM day is synonymous with the stunning display of hats that are found perched on the heads of the city's more recognisable faces.
While these hats may come from The Stephen Jones Millinery boutique in Covent Garden or Bates of Jermyn Street, the credit for the melange of hats and horse racing in India has to go to none other than the couturier in the Poonawalla family, Delna, who has worked single handedly to promote this essential element of style at the races.
For victims of filthy lucre and not fashion, the PBMM promises to be a race where picking the winner can see your investment multiply handsomely in approximately 1 minute 24 seconds or even faster! While an outsider winning this race is always a possibility, on current form, the race seems to be a fight between Awesome Hooves owned by Mr. S T Shivaprasad, Tutankhamun owned by Mr. Shapoor Mistry & Mr. Madhav G. Patankar and Ruffina owned by Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Mr. Adar & Mrs. Natasha Poonawalla, Mr. Saleem Fazelbhoy and the twins Mr. Dinsha and Mr. Munchi Shroff.
If the glamour and glitz of the PBMM is not enough, the running of the Hello Classic ensures a complete overdose of the good life, with their evening do being the talk of the town. More hats, more bags, more heels and more well heeled people hob nob here over endless cocktails and canapés and look back fondly at the memories of a day well spent in the next edition of the publication.
With no less that thirty eight horses entered in Hello Classic and some entered in multiple races, spotting a winner before acceptances is a difficult task but three horses that catch the eye even at this early stage are Angel Girl, owned by Mr. Altaf Hussain and Mr. Ashok Ranpise, Chizzler, owned by Mr. Jaydev Modi & Mr. J.F. Tapia and Dolphin, owned by Mr. Kapil Bahal & Mr. Surendra Kumar Bagri.
With this Sunday being amongst the last of the big days of racing of the Mumbai season your giving it a miss should have some very sound reasoning, another Sunday brunch where you already know what the food taste like is definitely not reason enough.
