Although there have been instances of horse-trainers achieving success in the early stages of their career, it's rare to see a young professional win two group one events during the Invitation Cup weekend. Fortythree-year old Sulaiman Attaollahi achieved this feat when Serjeant At Arms (SAA) and Captain Morgan returned victorious in the Super Mile and Stayers' Cup respectively.
Although he won the summer Derby in 2015 with Angel Dust at Bangalore, it was the success of both SAA and Captain Morgan last month that has actually catapulted Sulaiman into the "big league". However, Sulaiman's journey to the top has been anything but a walk-in-the-park.
His grandfather Mohammed Ali reportedly had the honour of training horses for their community's spiritual leader Aga Khan III and Prince Aly Khan while father Sherali was also successful in this trade at Western India and Bangalore.With such a lineage, Sulaiman had every reason to aspire and become a horse-trainer.
Initial grooming
Interestingly, as advised by his father, Sulaiman thought of becoming a veterinarian before looking to train horses, a strategy which worked perfectly for his grandfather. Furthermore, Sherali cautioned him `God forbid if you fail as a trainer, the vet practice would secure your livelihood.' But Sulaiman's hopes of becoming a vet were dashed as he was forced to quit junior college on personal grounds.
In 1996, however, the tide began changing gradually for 22-year-old Sulaiman after a chance meeting with Dr Ravi Reddy, a family acquaintance and Nanoli Stud Farm's (NSF) chief vet. Meanwhile Reddy's father required blood during his bypass surgery which was made available by Sulaiman and his friends. In a series of fortuitous events that followed, Sulaiman's career took shape; slowly but surely.
Sherali met Reddy and sought an opportunity for Sulaiman to work under a vet which led to a meeting with NSF's owner KN Dhunjibhoy (KND). Sulaiman soon landed his first job at NSF as an understudy to Imtiyaz Anees, the yearling manager, and thus began his long, fruitful association with horse-racing.
Over the next seven years, apart from completing his higher education on KND's insistence, Sulaiman performed every possible job at NSF and got to meet experts like vet Pheroze Khambatta, nutritionist Dr Peter Huntington, and master farrier Bernard Duvernay. Later, a meeting with KND's friend James Underwood, editor of European Racing & Breeding Digest, gave Sulaiman's career a different trajectory.
Dream accomplished
Underwood shared Sulaiman's ambition of becoming a trainer with KND who was quite willing to give him the much needed break. But that plan got shelved for want of a suitable replacement for Sulaiman.
Shortly afterwards, in 2003, Vijay Mallya's private trainer Jaggy Dhariwal was on the lookout for an assistant and Sulaiman joined him with KND's blessings. Four years later, Sulaiman got the big break and accomplished his dream of becoming a trainer when Mallya entrusted him with 20 horses.
A filly named Cimarron set the ball rolling for him in June 2007 and although there were no immediate fireworks in his career, Sulaiman's resilience fetched him a variety of bigticket owners over the years. He finally proved his mettle with SAA and Captain Morgan.
Modest and humble as ever, Sulaiman says there are too many individuals to whom he owes his success: "his family, bosses, dad's friends, mentors."
