Mumbai's Champak Zaveri buys horse for Rs 41.5 lakh, record set

Champakbhai Zaveri (extreme right) at the annual auction on Monday. He bought the horse for a record price on Tuesday evening. Pic/Ashish Raje

A record was created on Tuesday evening at the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) Mahalaxmi auction sale 2020, which is a sale of two-year-old bloodstock, when a horse was sold for R41.5 lakh. The buyer was Mumbai's Champak Zaveri. Champagne popped in the paddock and there was applause all around as history was created and a new benchmark was set.

Zavaray Poonawalla chairman RWITC said, "This is a record through the nearly 80-year-old history of auction sales. A horse has never gone at this high a price. We also had horses going for R30 lakh and R32 lakh, which are very, very high prices in this auction."

The horse bought by Champakbhai, as he is known at the race course, is full brother to Giant Star, trained by Malesh Narredu.

Former RWITC chairman Vivek Jain tweeted, "My true and one of the few loyal friends and a former colleague at the RWITC Champakbhai, created a record by purchasing a full brother to my Giant Star under the hammer at an all-time record price at Tuesday's auction. I will always admire him for his guts, passion and sincerity." The auction in Mumbai was 'revived' in 2018 after 20 years. It had moved out from Mumbai to Pune for two decades, because of paucity of space but it has galloped back andbrought the greenbacks with it.

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