The close finish of the Gool S Poonawalla Million on Sunday at Mahalaxmi had a special dimension to it.

MAM Ramaswamy's riders should take a bow

The close finish of the Gool S Poonawalla Million on Sunday at Mahalaxmi had a special dimension to it. Winning jockey A Imran Khan on Superior Quest donned the same silks that losing jockey B Prakash proudly wore until only a month ago.

Whenever Indian racing's history will be chronicled for posterity, there will have to be a thick section on the colourful and intriguing personality of Dr MAM Ramaswamy, and surely a special chapter on his riders!

India's top horse owner for over 35 years 'Ramu', as Dr Ramaswamy is called in racing circles has owned thousands of horses and employed hundreds of riders while running his racing empire. Ramu's horse sense must be termed legendary since he consistently picked the best horses in his quest to dominate the Classics scene at every racetrack. However, when it came to riders he employed not only the best, but also the worst of the lot. It was part of a well-thought-out strategy. The shrewd operator was the first to understand and exploit the racing truth that a horse's performance improved drastically sometimes by several lengths in the hands of the best jockey, especially after being ridden by the worst jockey in last run. It is widely believed that he financed his huge racing operations by cleaning out bookies who repeatedly failed to fathom how much improvement Ramu's horses would show after his top rider got on them.

Indian legends like Jagdish, Robin Corner, Vasant Shinde, Malesh and Satish Narredu, and foreigners like Willie Carson, Jimmy Fortune, Richard Hughes and Colm O'Donoghue have figured on the exalted list of 'Ramu's riders'.

But barring Jagdish, who was the first big ticket rider to win races for the stable (including the Indian Turf Invitation Cup astride Own Opinion in 1979), Ramu never really trusted his riders' loyalty, the worst hit by this lack of trust was Robin Corner who was dumped after Generous Patron (1993) lost the Bangalore summer Derby to Littleover.

By contrast, B Prakash was perhaps the only rider who not only won Ramu's confidence but also his love by his hard work and sincerity to such a degree that Ramu started treating him almost like his son. Even their parting of ways last month was reported to be amicable. Therefore, those in the know of the emotional bond between Prakash and Ramu were eager to watch the rider taking on a Ramu horse in a close finish as he was expected to do at some point in time.

On Sunday the moment came, and to his credit, even while losing, B Prakash showed that his professional commitments run much deeper than his emotional bonds.