"Had a gut feeling--but didn't have the guts.": Farouq Rattonsey

A jubilant Farouq K Rattonsey leading in Derby winner Antonios (SA DeSousa up) along with trainer S S Shah (extreme left)  [pic: rwitc archives]

The grade 1, McDowell Signature Indian Derby maintained its reputation as graveyard of the favourites for the straight ninth year when the SS Shah-trained rank outsider Antonios stunned piping-hot favourite public fancy Set Alight to claim the richest prize in the Indian turf history. Ridden to perfection by Brazilian rider SA DeSousa, the Nanoli-stud bred four-year-old colt earned a back-to-back Derby victory for the Rattonsey family who had just last year tasted their first success with Hotstepper.

The ecstasy of the moment hit the owners--JK Rattonsey, Farouq Rattonsey & Hussain Nensey--so hard, the otherwise sober trio went wild with joy and put in an extempore bhangda performance with their family and supporters, and Khushroo Dhunjibhoy's Nanoli camp on the first deck of the members' enclosure. Interestingly, when Hotstepper had won this race last year beating hot favourite Bourbon King, Farouq Rattonsey had given an exclusive interview to MiD DAY before the race and had confidently predicted his horse would win the race. 

When asked yesterday if he had fancied his chances this time, he confessed to MiD DAY, "To tell you the truth, I had a gut feeling we could win, but did not have the guts to say so." The moot point is even if Rattonsey had shouted from the rooftops like last time, nobody would have perhaps taken him seriously--Antonios ran friendless at the odds of 50 to 1. Hussain Nensey, Rattonsey's partner, said, "I thought we had a small, outside chance, so why not be there?" His instinct apparently forced to him to take a flight from Dubai to Mumbai 

The 15 runners were flagged off about 15 minutes later than the scheduled time, and strangely, Set Alight (M Narredu up) found herself in front, on the heels of Go Guzzi Go (I Chisty up) who, contrary to expectations, set a leisurely pace. Antonios (SA DeSousa up) chose to race in mid-bunch, while Autonomy (R Hughes up) was ridden way off the pace. The pace suddenly stepped up after the half-way mark, and Set Alight wasted no time in taking charge on rounding the bend, while Autonomy had moved up rapidly to make his bid, with Antonios on his outside. However, none of them made any impression until the final furlong marker, and the massive crowd started chanting "Set Alight" to cheer up the favourite who looked like sailing for an easy victory. But with Autonomy throwing in towel, SA DeSousa atop Antonios charged at Set Alight with renewed vigour and gathered such momentum that he practically flew past set alight barely 30 meters from home, but still spared a good length and a half to her at the wire.

Brazilian jockey DeSousa who gave a dream ride to Antonios, however, refused to take any credit for the victory. "The whole credit goes to trainer Shah," he said in a post-race interview, "this (Antonios) is not a horse, this is a machine, a perfect machine created by his trainer, and I just operated it." Farouq Rattonsey chimed in endorsing the jockey's view, "We owe this success to Shahsaab and his assistant Ms Roxanne, both of whom have taken great pains to get the horse at this mark," he said.

(MiD DAY, April 13, 2009)