THE TEMERITY IN A RAGS-TO-RICHES STORY -By Usman Rangeela |Mumbai Mirror
Posted on - 29 Mar 2017
THE ‘TEMERITY’ IN A RAGS-TO-RICHES STORY
-By Usman Rangeela, Mumbai Mirror | Mar 15, 2017,
It could be arguable whether luck plays any role in our daily lives or not but in horse-racing, it certainly does. This luck factor manifests itself in various forms and different stages in the sport and there’s no dearth of stories of both joy and tragedy describing how it influenced the chances of either the victor or the vanquished.
One such fascinating story is that of Temerity — winner of this year’s Ladies’ Derby (Indian Oaks) and the Indian Turf Invitation Cup — coowned by a gentleman called Berjis Minoo Desai. When it comes to owning race-horses, Desai is no Vijay Mallya, MAM Ramaswamy or Deepak Khaitan, yet his passion for thoroughbreds and horse-racing definitely matches theirs.
To say that Desai has been a lucky owner would be understatement; willy-nilly he has had the good fortune of picking shares in horses which have turned out to be classic material. The best horse Desai has co-owned till date has been Jacqueline, the super filly who holds a virtually unbreakable record of winning all four Indian classics in 2010.
Delightful journey
Whenever he spares time to be at the races or the stables with his co-owners/friends in the evening, this deceptively witty corporate lawyer regales everyone with his marvellous sense of humour. Desai also dabbles into journalism by contributing regularly to a Mumbai-based Zoroastrian community journal.
The fact that he is a gifted writer too came to the fore last week when Desai penned the ‘rags-to-riches’ story of the audaciously named filly Temerity.
In a delectable and meaty narrative, Desai recalls Temerity’s journey right from the moment he sets his eyes on her insipid-looking mother Narmina, a mare hailing from Aga Khan’s Stud Farm, when she stepped into ring for one of the auctions conducted in 2012 by Europe’s famous Bloodstock auction house Goffs and till she was crowned as champion horseof-the-year at Bangalore earlier this month.
Winning suitor
Desai, a self-confessed bargain-hunter, unabashedly calls himself a rag-picker, one who scrapes the bottom of the barrel when it comes to buying mares for breeding purposes. He relates how his budget of 6,000 Euros went awry and the “generosity” of his partner Shyam Ruia, Equus Stud Farm-owner, in allowing him to up the bid to 9,000 Euros which helped him thwart Narmina’s other suitors. The landing cost of Narmina, who was pregnant with the soon-to-be born Temerity, was a million rupees. Its sounds “cheap” as compared to what owners pay — two million to a crore of rupees — for any yearling which inspires hope of being a potential champion.
Desai tells us about Ruia’s refusal to house Narmina at Equus as he found her ugly and his advice to shunt the mare to Khushroo Dhunjibhoy’s Nanoli Stud Farm where Temerity was eventually born next year. Desai and Ruia didn’t think twice before entrusting Temerity to Pesi Shroff and the rest, as it’s said, is history.
The rag-picker and his generous partner hit the jackpot with the dainty daughter of that ugly mare. She fetched them a cool two crore rupees in prize money.
Not so lucky
Meanwhile, before the luck factor went against them, Ice Glacier and Who Makes The Rules were serious Indian Derby contenders until some freak injury knocked them out of the contest.
If Desai is ever asked to comment on this incident, his probable retort would be: Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander!
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