What Lord’s Stadium is to cricket and Wimbledon is to tennis, Ascot Racecourse is to horse racing, hosting the prestigious Shergar Cup each year. The first Indian jockey to ever taste victory at the tournament, Suraj Narredu, calls Bengaluru home, and early this week, he was invited back for a rare second year in a row among 12 jockeys around the world. Even though this time, the 2025 champion did not bring home a trophy, he says, “Getting invited two years in a row in itself is big for me, as most [from Asia] are eliminated because two of the four are teams from Europe and Great Britain & Ireland. The competition was stiffer and we knew the opposition would grasp at any mistake we made. We had to bring our A-game.”
Being from a family of jockeys, with his uncle Malesh Narredu being the first Indian to compete at Shergar and his father Satish Narredu, a top jockey at the national level, Narredu was riding as young as Class 6. “The atmosphere at home was all about racing, but I’d also seen Frankie Dettori at the Royal Ascot win seven big races one after the other; that inspired me – I thought, if I do anything, I want to do this sport,” he reveals.
Today, Narredu has over 2,400 career wins and is one of the top jockeys in the world. Getting here meant doing more than what is typically expected of jockeys. “Many jockeys come in the morning, do their daily exercises, go back and think that will make them successful – you have to treat yourself like a proper athlete,” says the sportsman, sharing that at the heart of training are two things: weight and agility. “That’s what eventually differentiates between a good and average jockey. I regularly go to the gym and on alternate days, play a sport like badminton which needs agility.”
Often, jockeys don’t know the horse they’ll be riding, so how do they build a relationship and learn to work with their new partner? Narredu says, “They say that a jockey or a trainer is as good as his horse. Many times, the first time I see the horse is when they come to parade in the ring before going to the starting gates. Between this and the starting edge, I try to analyse the horse and take inputs from previous riders and trainers.”
Bengaluru once had a thriving horseracing culture with Bangalore Turf Club right at the city’s centre. But with its land being reallocated, combined with the hit of the pandemic and GST rules taxing each legal bet instead of just winnings, the city’s racing culture is not what it used to be, says Narredu, adding, “If you place a `100 bet, regardless of whether you win, you’ve lost `35 [to tax]. It encourages illegal betting. In the pandemic, with all races stopped, we lost owners who couldn’t afford to maintain the horses – it costs around `35,000 a day to keep a horse.” According to Narredu, today, horse racing is a dying sport here, with reduced prize money, fewer horses being produced in India and fewer races. “If someone withdraws sponsorship or the day comes when nobody wants to put in the money, we’re going to collapse in India.”
While home ground may be shaky, Narredu is looking forward to the World All-Star Jockeys in Japan, where he is set to compete for the first time on August 22 and 23, riding with Yutaka Take, his teammate at the Shergar Cup and a living legend in horse racing. “Thirty years ago, my uncle rode there with Take and now, he is going to be my competition at Sapporo,” says, adding, “Japan is one of the leading horse racing powers in the world and it’s exceptionally hard to get a licence to ride there. It is a proud moment that an Indian jockey has been called after 30 years. I know the responsibility that comes with that, and really want to win at least one race!”