LAHORE: Syed Babu, the oldest jockey in Pakistan, who had the distinction of riding race-horses in India and Pakistan, died after a short illness in the Shalimar Hospital here a couple of days back. He was 96.

Born in Mumbai in early 1920, Babu chose the profession of riding race-horses after receiving training from the then famous “Bombay” School of Riding in 1938.

He was indentured for a year as apprentice to an English trainer who professionally assigned to train horses owned by the then Maharaja of Gowaliar at Bombay Racecourse.

He rode horses in Bombay for few years as apprentice and was promoted as riding boy before coming to Karachi in 1946.

He took to saddle craft at the Karachi Racecourse and started riding horses at Gymkhana Race Meetings a year after Pakistan came into being, and could never go back to his parents in Bombay.

To his good fortune, he received guidance from some senior jockeys, who had the privilege of receiving training from the Bombay School of Riding, and trainers, who had been visiting Bombay for short stints.

He made short stints at Lahore and Rawalpindi Racecourses while getting a chance to ride in races and enriching his experience to hone his skills. English trainer Tymon and a few local owners gave him occasional rides.

For a decade or so Babu remained shuttling between Karachi and Lahore and in the early sixties he settled down and made Lahore his permanent staying place.

At the time Babu used to ride in Lahore and Karachi, the racing centres at two places used to be flooded with English and overseas jockeys and there was a tough competition from which he leant a lot and enjoyed a good reputation as a rider willing to give a clean deal to owners and most helpful to owners, a quality which is unseen in most of the present day riders, who lack the saddle craft too.

With the forced shifting of the Lahore Racecourse from Gulberg to the southern part of Kot Lakhpat industrial area and the hostile attitude of the government, Babu thought it was a time to hang his saddle for good because the prevailing conditions and the age was not favouring him anymore.

Babu did not marry and remained in celibacy throughout his life with no relative in Pakistan.

Six years before his death in an interview with Dawn Babu said he joined riding as a profession because he had great love for this majestic species of animals. Secondly, it was a respectable profession at that time.

The Nawabs, Maharajas, big landlords, top business magnates and high officials owned horses and it was an honour to rub shoulders with them. They used to patronage riders and shower respect when they win races on their horses.

Everything went topsy-turvy after the Z. A. Bhutto government banned racing which resulted in the departure of foreign riders and trainers, and the high gentry.

In the same interview, he recalled that his coming to Karachi was to see the great Muslim leader, Quaid-i-Azam M. A. Jinnah in person. As a school student in Bombay he was attracted to and fascinated by the leadership quality of the Quaid.

Although settled in Lahore, Babu would go to Karachi whenever he got a chance and pay tributes to the great leader by visiting his mausoleum.

It was very sad that he spent his last couple of years in an old home set up by a philanthropist family and was treated at the Shalimar Hospital, a free health facility for needy and deserving people.

On learning about the sad demise of Babu, a few of his friends and well-wishers gathered in a corner of the Race Club on Sunday to offer fateha.

Published in Dawn January 24th, 2017