THE RAMNIWAS RAMNARAIN RUIA GOLD CUP (GR.II)
This race was named in honour of the eminent personality of Indian Turf and a past Chairman of the RWITC, Ltd.
It had its beginning as “The Ramniwas Ruia Gold Cup” in the Bombay Winter Meeting 1952. The inaugural running of this race in November 1952 a handicap for 3 year old Indian horses, run over a mile, winner’s purse was Rs.12,372.80/-. It was won by bay colt “BAY OF TREASURE” owned by F. A. Irani trained by N. E. Raymond ridden by J. Gilmore.
In 1963, the distance was changed to 10 furlongs and it has remained the same since then. That year the winner was “MANSAB”, a bay colt owned by Messrs D. F. Karaka, S. C. Seth, Mrs. A. L. J. Talib and ridden by Purtu Singh.
In the year 1973, this race became a “Terms” race for 4 yr olds and a trial race for The Indian Derby and was won by “BADE MIYA” owned by Messrs M. D. Mehta and K. M. Mehta, trained by S. M. Shah and ridden by C. Roche.
Interestingly, “The Ramniwas Ramnarain Ruia Gold Cup” in the years 1976, 77, 78, saw the all time greats of Indian turf winning this race i.e., “COMMANCHE” in 76, “SQUANDERER” in 77, and “MANITOU” in 78. All these horses were trained by R. R. Byramji and owned by Ranjit V. Bhat and Yogesh M. Shah (COMMANCHE and MANITOU), Ranjit V. Bhat and I. S. Mirchandani (SQUANDERER).
In the following year i.e. 1979, “ROYAL TERN” (Karl Umrigar) was in the fray along with “RED CHIEFTAN” (V. Shinde) and “AJAYA” (E. Johnson). “ROYAL TERN” won this race by a distance. Interestingly, no bets were offered on “ROYAL TERN” that year.
Subsequently, this race attained Grade 3 status in the year 1987, and was won by “CHAITANYA CHAKRAM”, owned by Messrs. V. C. Narasimha Reddy, V. Vasanthkumar Reddy, J. S. Dhariwal and Sukbir S. Bedi, trained by J. S. Dhariwal and ridden by L. Marshall.
In the year 2000, this race was upgraded to a Gr.2 event, which saw “SMART CHIEFTAN” winning for Dr. M. A. M. Ramaswamy, trained by Karan Singh and ridden by R. Hughes. “SMART CHIEFTAN” won the Indian Triple Crown that year.
This race is an excellent race in its own right, its viewed as the major preparatory race for The Indian Derby and is regarded as one of the most prestigious races. Some of the great horses who went on to win this race and Derby are “BRIGHT HANOVAR”, “COMMANCHE”, “SQUANDERER”, “MANITOU”, “ROYAL TERN”, “ALMANAC”, “CHAITANYA CHAKRAM”, “SMART CHIEFTAN”, “INDICTMENT”, and “STAR SUPREME”.
