the owners were colourful the trainers were no less interesting those names included the likes of british trainer jack goswell armenian trainer mac gaulstian and irishman paddy rylands even the bookmakers those days were flamboyant one called mm begg who later moved to mumbai and joined the movies was a top filmstar who played seth sonachand dharmanand in sree 420 his screenname was nimmo and his son abbas begg was a permanent bookmaker in kolkatabritish jockeys were common and the prominent names in the circuit were geoff lewis taffy thomas bill rickaby and wally swinburn two very famous australian jockeys were val faggoter and eddie cracknell they used to come to kolkata during winter and lived in guest houses either at tivoli court or humayun courtunlike mumbai film stars in kolkata never took a fancy to racing satyajit ray had come to shoot seemabadha with barun chanda and sharmila tagore but none of them were regulars at the course sharmilas mother used to come regularly in the 50s sometimes one would get to see chhabi biswas pahari sanyal and sisir bhaduri however they were not owners and just came for fun bhimani remembersthe colour of racing has faded with time horseracing has not spread in kolkata it has not been properly marketed as the sport middleclass morality prevails and for some reason the sport has become synonymous with gambling at home people had to hide their racing books because of the perception that indulgence in racing ran the risk of disaster chaki addsthe fashionable crowd has almost disappeared only to make appearances on queen elizabeth ii cup day a big social occasion where british and other expats mingle with club members in recent times celebrities like rituparna sengupta moon moon sen bickram ghosh jaya seal ghosh and joy sengupta have sometimes been spotted on big days but none are regulars the cup winners parties of yesteryears are no longer hosted except for the odd owner who may give a private party at the reserve stand says gupta racing has lost its lustre if you are rich enough you now own an ipl team if not just watch a match from the privilege box foreign riders have long given kolkata a miss because of a change in the system that was once more trainerdriven than ownercentric the horse auctions dont happen in the city any moreenthusiasts however see a revival of sorts there are a few bengalis including bhaskar banerjee goutam sengupta subir dasgupta and joydeep dutta gupta jeet banerjee and suvamoy saha who own a number of horses on new years day all of them sat in the reserve stand jana saysas the lazy winter sun fell on the track some sipped wine and gazed at the sprawling greens and the misty victoria memorial in the backdropcasual enthusiasts and a few fashionably dressed people trooped to the olive green boxes as music from the 70s and 80s filled the air at a distance was the noisy bookmakers ring with