Squanderer Was the Greatest Indian Thoroughbred - By Bob Sawhny
Posted on - 31 Jan 2012
Squanderer Was the Greatest Indian Thoroughbred
By Bob Sawhny
The Indian Derby has been the most coveted racing prize in the country since 1943 and like all great races it has its share of all that makes racing the best supported spectator sport in the world.
Class, courage, soundness, speed, stamina and pedigree are the main attributes that are usually found among the champion thoroughbreds who have won The Indian Derby. They have, however, been a few exceptions viz. Martial Law who cut a snail-like time of Two minutes 50 seconds whilst winning The Derby in 1952 and Pyare Miya who was a maiden before he won the 1975 Indian Derby.
The super class filly HER MAJESTY owned by the late A.C. Ardeshir was another All Time Great who was extremely unlucky not to have won the Derby in 1947 (as she was seriously injured when she bumped into here stable mate Equity). However, she won all the other Indian Classics in a sensational manner.
SQUANDERER (Valoroso - Milky Way): An extremely versatile Triple Crown winner (1977) who won 18 races from 19 starts. He won his last 15 races in a row and the only race he lost, which I saw, was due to Jockey Jagdish’s hesitation, in not taking a narrow feasible passage, which led to Red Satin, winning The Colt's Trial Stakes at Bangalore.
Squanderer's mind-blowing eminent performance, which I had the privilege of watching, was when he romped past-Certainty (Ernie Johnson up) in The RWITC Invitation Cup, despite being badly baulked in the straight, was one of the finest ever witnessed on the Mahalaxmi course. His magnificent victories with Jagdish astride will live on in the memories of racegoers who were fortunate enough to have witnessed his dazzling talent.
Summing up and taking all relevant criteria into account, Squanderer owned by the late joint owners Ranjit V. Bhat and Indru Mirchandani was an exceptionally great horse and could rightly be considered as the greatest Indian thoroughbred of all time.
ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL (Wattlefield - Right Step), Chestnut (1991) - Retired as a six-year old after 22 glorious wins from 23 starts including The 1995 Indian Derby (Gr.I), The 1994 Indian 2000 Guineas (Gr.I), The Indian Turf Invitation Cup, President of India Gold Cup (Gr.I) and Nizam's Gold Cup (Gr.II) twice, Mysore Derby (Gr. I), Bangalore 2000 Guineas (Gr.I), RWITC Invitational Trophy (Gr.II), Eclipse Stakes of India (Gr.II) and many other premier events. It is pertinent to note that although Elusive Pimpernel was the winner of 22 races he was not a Triple Crown winner.
Undoubtedly, a great horse, ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL, however, blotted his record a wee bit, by losing to a class II filly, Consequence (46 kg.) in The Idar Gold Trophy (1995) in which he failed to carry the heavy impost of 63 kg’s. Furthermore, Elusive Pimpernel did not run in the 1995 Indian .St. Leger as he had a stifle problem in his hind leg. Rashid Byramji, who has won the Indian Derby twelve times in his career, trained both these horses and frankly speaking, this is no mean achievement. Rashid’s name will surely go down as one of the greats in the annals of the sport of horse racing in India.
