Pesi's two heroes: Jockeys Mulrennan and Hayes

Will the Shroff juggernaut stop? That's the question everyone is asking about trainer Pesi Shroff's current incredible winning streak.

No one has ever seen or heard anything quite like this. Shroff has so far saddled 33 winners from 69 runners, at an unthinkable strike rate of 48%, and 90% of his horses have finished in-the-money. He has already won close to Rs 1.5 crore in stakes for his owners, and with nearly two-thirds of the season still to unfold, speculation is on how far he will go if he continues at the same clip.

At a complete loss for either words or historic reference to explain this super success, many theories are being proposed by race-goers and racing analysts, among whom are Shroff's fans as well as detractors. While his fans attribute it simply to Shorff's training skills, the detractors cite 'reasons' ranging from 'he has the costliest blue-blooded horses' to 'he has wealthiest owners with bottomless purses' to 'he had such lean racing seasons recently, so the horses are bound to bounce to form now', etc.

While both u2014 his fans and detractors u2014 may have some truth in what they claim, I find it extremely surprising that a major factor in Shroff's super success is summarily being ignored by one and all. I am talking about the two jockeysu2014Paul Mulrennan and Chris Hayesu2014who ride almost exclusively for Shroff at Mahalaxmi, and who have been in absolutely incredible riding form this season.u00a0

Paul has ridden at over 50% clip for Shroff (13 winners from 25 mounts), while Chris Hayes has created the kind of record that even Ramu cannot conjure up for his riders at Chennai: winning nine of the ten horses that Shroff offered him!

Considering the fact that any jockey in such exceptional form 'gains' at least half a second (or 3 lengths) for his horse, the fact that these two riders between them have won 15 races for Shroff (that's 47% of Shroff's 32 winners) by lesser verdict, highlights how crucial has been the contribution of the foreigner duo.u00a0 By contrast, eight other riders (excluding Richard Hughes who rode Jacqueline to the Guineas double) donned silks on the Shroff-trained horses, but earned only eight wins for him from 31 mounts, at less than 25% success rate.

Will the Shroff juggernaut stop? The answer to that question rests on whether the super riding form of these two riders, who have so far done justice to their trainer's superlative talent, continues or not.