Zareer Darashah, a name
which we can replace for hard work, dedication and last but not the least,
Records. He was the son of a legendary cricketer, Safi Darashah. But Mr.Zareer
Darashah was destined to be a living legend in Indian horse racing.
When he chose his
career in racing as asst.trainer he was only 20yr old at 1966. In 1969, he got
his own trainer license. He had a benchmark of winning 500 races would be very
enough for his career, but now he is galloping towards 2500 wins.
He is the only second Indian
to win more than 2000 races, the other was Rashid Byramji. Rashid Byramji is
the greatest trainer ever produced in this country. If you want to know how
good you are in training, Mr.Byramji will be the mark and you have to look how
close you can get to him.
After 1000 win post,
Mr.Darashah met Byramji. Byramji congratulated darashah for his feet achieved. Darashah
told Byramji that he is getting ready for his next 1000 wins. Hearing this Byramji
told “Mr.Darashah, you are already 42 yrs old. Another 1000 wins will take
20yrs more or less and no one in India has done this”. Darashah replied like a
bullet fired from sniper as always “Then I would be the first to do it”. He is
a man of words. He got his 1000th win in 1988; his 2000th
win came in style in 6th of December 2006. Where his wife joined the
celebration like she does in his every win.
Zareer Darashah never
went in search of money. His hard work has made him to meet success, which will
never leave him. His will power and commitment is very much adored by all
co-trainers and is a role model for the youngsters. He wakes up early by 4a.m.
He is the first to be on tracks. His horses take the field first everyday
during track work.
He is very proud of his son, Neil Darashah. Who is having a very good training career in the Bangalore Turf Club. He was also an all-rounder in cricket and was the captain of Karnataka under-22 cricket team. When he found he cannot make a good life in cricket, he approached his father Mr.Zareer Darashah and chose his Father’s path.
Darashah is fond of
dogs. He has 15 dogs at his place, which shows his love over animals.
He is very strict when
it comes to work. He hires whom he want, he fires whom he want. He is undisputed
trainer. He had more than 100 horses to train, but the rules of the turf club didn’t
allow any trainer to train more than 40 horses. This brought a delay in getting
his 2000th win. If you are a stats collector, you shouldn’t even
think what would have happened if he was left to train 100 horses!!!
He had this tunnel
vision of scoring more and more wins as much as possible and taking the horses
rating higher as possible. He wanted to be a cricketer like his father, but he
had no skills for being it! Admits the very humble legendary trainer. He explains
this using the pedigree concept where genes are transferred completely in case
of horses. This shows his mind is full of concepts related with horse.
Zareer Darashah believes
in his hard work and the opportunities. In madras, he had problems with
Mr.Ramswamy and he left madras losing all the clients. He shifted to Bangalore.
In 1976, one of the Bangalore’s greatest trainers R.M.Puttanna died. Being 7yr
younger than Darashah, the highness SriKantaDatta NarasimhaRaja Wodeyar asked
Darashah to train his horses. Darashah seized this opportunity and came out as
a champion trainer of Bangalore Summer Season in 1976, which he describes as
like “it was like winning in Wimbledon”. After that there was no turning back
for him, it was a dream run from then till date for darashah. He has won more
than 1000 races in Bangalore and more than 900 in Mysore. It’s next to
impossible for anyone to win 1000 races in two tracks.
He is the only
owner-trainer to win more than 500 races. In Hyderabad racing museum, he is the
first person to be honored for the 2000 wins in racing history.
