THE 1989 INDIAN TURF INVITATION CUP WON BY EXHILARATION

This Day….. That Year

When a jockey who has ridden seven winners of the Invitation Cup pronounces a horse as being “an all time great”, you don’t question his judgement. More so, if he has ridden the horse. Pesi Shroff, who was astride Exhilaration in all his nine starts and won the Indian Derby and the Invitation Cup on him, reckons that the son of Malvado falls into that select category.

Exhilaration, who grew up to be almost 16 hands later, was such an eye-catching juvenile and moved so fluently that Dr Cyrus Poonawalla had decided quite early on to retain a racing interest in him. A half-share was given to Mr J P Goenka and the colt entered Imtiaz Sait’s yard. On Cordon Bleu’s Derby Day – the first Indian Derby winner bred by the Poonawalla Farms – Exhilaration made a pleasing debut. This despite Shroff putting up 3 kgs overweight, to win easily by nearly three lengths from Grand Stand, who boosted the form by slamming the Breeders’ Produce Stakes field by almost five lengths exactly a week later.
Exhilaration was even more impressive when he bagged the Bookmakers’ Cup by seven lengths, with Shroff barely moving a muscle. The colt raced only once more in his first year, and that was at Pune when he further enhanced his reputation by winning the S A Poonawalla Cup over a mile by a distance in record time.
Before the start of the Mumbai Season, the Poonawalla Brothers bought the share of Mr Goenka in Exhilaration, and gave one to Dr M A M Ramaswamy. So, it was in the Poonawalla colours that Exhilaration won his prep race, a Class II handicap over a mile, by eight lengths. Mr Solomon Sopher, a long-time friend of the Poonawalla’s became the fourth co-owner in Exhilaration, who was a raging favourite for the Indian 2000 Guineas. Second coming into the straight, Shroff soon gave Exhilaration his head and he breezed past Zealot, nearing the 400m marker and won by a distance from the late finishing Napoleon.
The question being asked most frequently before the Indian Derby was whether Exhilaration would get the trip. He was unbeaten in all his five starts and undoubtedly had the class. On the other hand, he looked far too brilliant and had yet to race beyond a mile. His Gombos half-sister Stellar Role had won the Golconda 1000 Guineas, beating Noble Quest, though the Ilheus filly had beaten her over the 2000m in the Deccan Derby. Malvado certainly added class to his progeny, while there was no evidence that he was prepotent for stamina. The real question though should have been whether any of Exhilaration’s 14 rivals in the Indian Derby possessed the right mix of stamina and class to seriously test the unbeaten colt.
The bookmakers made Exhilaration a 10 to 7 on favourite, with the Ruia winner Knight Earnest at 5 to 1, the Super Mile Cup winner Northern Star at 8 to 1, and the Indian Oaks winner Midnight Madness at 10’s. There is no doubt that the stamina question was a matter of concern for the connections. Shroff rode him defensively, dropping him out early on, moving up round the bend and kicking for home mid-way up the long Mahalakshmi straight. Exhilaration began to veer out of the straight path, but as he was striding out well, Shroff made no effort to correct him. As Exhilaration drifted towards the outer rail, Kinane finished on well on the inside rail on Northern Star. The gap was steadily closing and the post came just in time for Exhilaration, to maintain his unbeaten record by a length.
Some people felt that Exhilaration’s drifting out indicated that he was at the end of this tether, and that he had not really stayed the distance. However, Shroff reckoned that he had ridden the colt far too defensively and made too much use round the bend. In the Invitation Cup, he kept Exhilaration mid-field right from the beginning, moved up gradually round the bend to take the lead and come the shortest way around. Kinane and Northern Star once again threw down the gauntlet and the two Malvado colts fought it out over the last 100m, with Exhilaration warding off the threat by half-a-length.
This time, Exhilaration, with the inside rail to guide him, ran straight as an arrow. And if Northern Star reduced the margin to half-a-length, the race was also run a tad faster. Exhilaration not only held off Northern Star, but also the rest of the field, which included the Bangalore Arc de Triomphe winner Parfait Amour; the Calcutta Derby winner Aphroze; the South India Derby winner Basque; and the Golconda Derby winner Armagnac. It was a superlative performance.
For the RWITC Ltd Invitational Trophy, Exhilaration had to give as many as 8.5 kgs to Northern Star, and the connections were in a dilemma whether to run or not. Finally, and perhaps rightly too, the connections chose to run as they had little to lose as long as their champion colt ran a good race. Exhilaration ran probably the best race of his life, going under by just half-a-length to Northern Star, on whom Kinane this time chose to make the first move and let Exhilaration do the chasing. The tussle between the two fine horses produced a new course record time, and Exhilaration lost little in defeat as his run here showed him to be at least 8 kgs superior to Northern Star.
Some time after the race, results from abroad showed that Northern Star’s Invitation Cup samples had been returned positive. And he was stripped of his second place in that race. What caused consternation, however, was that he was also disqualified from his subsequent race in which his samples came clean. This was the race where he had beaten Exhilaration fair and square on the track. There was a furious debate on the issue, but the RWITC Ltd. Stewards stuck by their decision to disqualify Northern Star from both his races. As a result, Exhilaration retained his unbeaten status. A point, which escaped everyone’s notice when the debate was most heated, was that the Stewards of RWITC. Ltd. had invited Northern Star for their race. They should not have done so, if the results of the Invitation Cup samples were then not known. Further, having made the mistake of inviting Northern Star – and Exhilaration – for their race, they should have let the result stand especially as the samples of that race were clean and the race was run fairly.
At Pune, Exhilaration won the three-runner Commoner Cup easily, and was then an odds-on favourite for the RWITC Ltd. Committee Trophy over 1200m in Mumbai. However, he was withdrawn at the post as something was amiss.
The Poonawalla Farms established the Exhilaration Stud in his honour, and he was retired as a stallion with a career record of nine wins from nine starts. Eighteen winners from 21 starters, six black-type performers, including the South India Derby winner Capital Risk give Exhilaration an outstanding record, despite which he hasn’t covered a mare since 1995. He remains in excellent health and, along with Astonish and The Pelican, draws appreciative comments when shown to visitors.
If it was Satinello who laid the foundations for the Poonawalla Farms to become the leading stud farm in the country, then it was the Nearctic horse Malvado who built solidly on it. The winner of six races in four years of racing in France, he had placed second in the Prix de Guiche. Retired to stud in India in 1978, he lived to be 27. A virile, dominant bay with a fiery mien, he covered 500 mares in 20 years to beget 28 Classic winners – a figure exceeded only by his barn-mate Riyahi and Razeen, who stand at the Usha Stud. Of his three Indian Derby winners, Exhilaration and Desert Warrior went on to win the Invitation Cup as well, while Astonish bagged the Indian Triple Crown. He sired at least one winner of each of the Indian Classics and the five winter Derbys. His daughters did well at stud, nicking particularly well with Riyahi. Several of his sons made it to the stallion ranks, though none of them has achieved notable success bar Exhilaration. An excellent all-round stallion, he was the Champion Sire eight times and the Champion Broodmare Sire on six occasions. It may have just been a coincidence, but Malvado’s first championship came after the Poonawallas moved their breeding unit to Thevr, and he occupied the paddock that was once Rock of Gibraltar’s.
The On Your Mark mare Preparation and Lorenzaccio’s daughter Charenzaccio have played the same part on the broodmare side for the Poonawalla Farms as Malvado and Riyahi have done on the stallion side. A winner of four races in England, the speedy Preparation was an immediate success, with her first five foals – Stellar Role, Exhilaration, Starfire Boy, Classic Conquest and Ace – all winning blacktype races. Her subsequent produce did not quite measure up to the earlier benchmark, though Lap of Luxury has given every indication of turning out to be as good a broodmare as her dam.
If it was the second Invitation Cup for trainer Imtiaz Sait, it was the third in five years for jockey Pesi Shroff, who had just missed coming on the board in the two previous runnings. Five of Shroff ’s seven Invitation Cup wins have been gained narrowly, the verdict being less than a length. That speaks volumes for the thought given by him to the tactical planning before the race and the clinical execution of the plan. After his break-up with trainer Bezan Chenoy, Shroff had accepted a retainer from the Poonawalla’s and regularly partnered their horses. He rode Exhilaration in all his nine starts. Such an unbroken association between a horse and a jockey, spread over two years, is a rare occurrence. Exhilaration was the second Invitation Cup winner bred by the Poonawalla Farms. The first one, Columbia, was imported “in utero”, whereas for Exhilaration, the entire credit was theirs.

An extract from
A Legacy of Champions The Indian Turf Invitation Cup
By Srinivas Nargolkar

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2009