Over 25,000 people visit the Mahalaxmi Racecourse every year on the first Sunday of February to witness the McDowell Indian Derby (Gr 1), and nearly 80 percent of them are either first-timers or once-a-year-visitors, who hate to miss this mega racing event that decides the champion four-year-old thoroughbred in the country.


Late Bollywood actor Feroz Khan (left) and Sanjay Khan (centre) with Cyrus Poonawalla at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse in the late 1990s. Sanjay Khan's horse Prince Khartoum won the Indian Derby in 1972 

A thoroughbred is a pure-blooded horse whose ancestry can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century in England when local mares were mated with three imported Arabian stallions, namely, Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian.