Nitin Gupta ignores lack of competitors to introduce Vanilla Sky to great heights
The National Equestrian Championship (Show Jumping) 2020 concluded at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata on Sunday and there is no sign of official results being made available, either online or offline. Come to think of it, the results of the Junior National Equestrian Championships held in Bengaluru in December 2019 have also not found space yet on the EFI website.
One of the key personnel who organised the National Championship in Kolkata told circleofsport.com that he could not share results since he had no instructions from his seniors. We will have to wait for the Equestrian Federation of India to upload the results on its website. At a time when results are made known in an instant through social media, EFI officials drag their feet.
The Madhya Pradesh State Equestrian Academy’s Faraz Khan won the Grade III event on Harlicen and the Novice Accumulator bronze on Chandni. Yet, even his coach Capt. Bhagirath does not have a copy of the official results. “The prize distribution was held but I do not have a copy of the official results,” Capt. Bhagirath said.
Nitin Gupta (United Riders Barn) was the only competitor in the Grade I event and, astride Vanilla Sky, earned himself the National Champion crown. You can let your imagination take over. The officials of the Tollygunge Club had to get the ground ready for one rider-horse combination on Friday and Sunday. Judges turned up to watch this one combination perform.
Last year’s Grade I podium finishers, Kaevaan Setalvad (astride Cherokee), Zahaan Setalvad (Quintus) and Rishabh Mehta (Caprice) were conspicuous by their absence. Besides, riders like Chetan Reddy Nukala, Amar Sarin, Sehaj Virk, Yashaan Khambatta and many others gave the National Championships the miss.
Jumping is the event in which the Setalvad brothers, Zahan and Kaevaan, as well Chetan Reddy Nukala represented India in the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018. It is the event that courted controversy when Balaji Vijayshankar moved the Delhi High Court, alleging that the selection committee had unfairly left him out of the Indian team for the Asian Games.
For the record, there were 16 entries in the Novice category, 5 in Grade III, none in Grade II and one in Grade I. It is mysterious that the horses and riders from 61 Cavalry and ASC Bangalore were among the prominent combinations that chose to ignore the Nation’s most prestigious competition.
For a National Federation that has been in existence for nearly 53 years now, it is a pity that it could not draw more than one competitor for its biggest competition. What is more, it raises a big question mark on claims made by the EFI officials that the sport would suffer if the reins were taken away from Army officials.
“Of course, I would have loved competition but, to be honest, it did not matter that Vanilla Sky and I were the only highest-grade combination vying for the National Championships. The course offered us a stiff challenge and I was glad I could put the 10-year-old mare through her paces,” Nitin Gupta said.
“To be honest, I was only getting Vanilla Sky, my client’s horse, familiar with those heights (1.40m and 1.50m). My trainee (Bhopal’s Pranay Khare) wanted me, as his coach, to fine-tune the horse. It was important for us to get the horse going in India and to settle her in India. If we had not gone to Kolkata, we would have had to wait until 2021 to jump 1.40-1.50 with this horse.”
The National champion believes one of the reasons for low participation in the National Championship could be the distance between Kolkata and cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai where most of the best horses are stationed. “It was bad decision on the part of the EFI to be allotting the National Championships to Kolkata,” Nitin Gupta said.
“To be fair, Tollygunge Club did a fabulous job of conducting it – zero fault,” he said. “Yet with more warm-bloods coming into India, many riders are getting fussy about the ground conditions being ideal for their horses. Instead of getting the show to where the horses are, why would you want to transport them all the way to Kolkata?”
Perhaps, the Equestrian Federation of India officials have more plausible explanations for that.
