Even those who have lost money backing overwhelming favourites for the last three years are banking on the 2008 super horse Bourbon King to break the jinx. One of them is 41-year-old Tardeo-resident Janak Singh, who isn’t a habitual better but friends had promised him easy money for the last three years forcing him to back horses that had unbeaten record. Three frustrating big days at the Race Course haven’t made him wiser. Janak knows that banking on Bourbon King defies logic but says “hope always floats at the Race Course and this is what makes horse racing so unpredictable and at the same time exciting too.”

So can Bourbon King do what other illustrious horses failed to do at the Mahalaxmi Race Course on the first Sunday of February since 2000? “Yes, he can,” says Subbiah Ganapathy, easily the most successful trainer in the game today and the master of Bourbon King. But on last two occasions, his two contenders, perhaps the finest race horses the game has ever seen—Mystical in 2006 and Southern Empire in 2007—were seen biting the dust.

Bourbon King, after losing in his debut run as a baby in Bangalore in 2006, has won 10 races on the trot, including Poonawalla Breeders’ Multi-Million, Bangalore Summer Derby and the Indian 2000 Guineas. His career earning is about Rs 2 crore. If one trusts the race-goers’ bible—the formbook—none of the 19 contenders can beat Bourbon King.

Ace jockey-turned-trainer Pesi Shroff too his gives his take. “You can never doubt his class. If anybody wants to win the Derby he will have to beat Bourbon King,” says the man who has eight Derby successes under his belt.

Bourbon King’s rider Irishman Colm O’Donoghue— the most successful jockey on the Indian circuit in the last two years—says Bourbon King will rule. “He likes to run freely and will surely relish the 600-metre-long home stretch of the Mahalaxmi Race Course.”

But the bookmakers are of the view that the jinx should continue. Afzal, a leading bookmaker, says, “Because of the past, people don’t trust the record books on Derby day. We pray that the jinx continues. In such a scenario punters think all are contenders. Bets are spread and that always helps us,” he says.

For every Janak Singh with heartbreak, there will always a smiling Afzal at the Race Course.