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This story is from January 17, 2007
Spirits add big bucks to Derby
Vijay Mallya's UB group and Diageo are battling it out for the McDowell Indian Derby, the country's richest racing event.
Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC)���which holds the rights to Indian Derby���has received a bid that just might upset UB's reigning monopoly over what has become one of the most prestigious social events of the year.
The nine-member RWITC managing committee, headed by Cyrus Poonawalla��� who recently beat Mallya to RWITC's chairmanship���met on Monday to consider a bid of Rs 1.5 crore by Diageo India, three times what current sponsor UB's prize money is.
"It was decided, despite the significantly larger bid, that the club will honour its agreement with UB and allow it to sponsor the event until 2008,"said Vivek Jain, chairman of RWITC's media and marketing committee.
Since then Diageo has upped its stake by another crore, to Rs 2.5 crore. Said Asif Adil, MD, Diageo India, "We want to bring Indian Derby on a par with international racing fixtures and have communicated our fresh bid to the RWITC committee. In addition to the sponsorship we want to spend Rs 2 crore on marketing and promotion."
Sources say that while UB has been associated with the event since the mid-'80s and enjoys a certain goodwill with club members, the chance of multiplying the club's revenues five times is bound to influence the managing committee when it meets again in February to consider the fresh bid by Diageo.
Vijay Mallya, chairman, UB group, said, "Derby has been contracted to McDowell for 2007 and ���08. We will review our strategy for 2009 at an appropriate time."
Mallya is not likely to let the McDowell Derby slip away easily. Recently he fought a pitched and much-publicised battle with Poonawalla for chairmanship of the prestigious club, a race that the stud farm owner and vaccine maker finally won.
While Indian Derby may still not be in the same league as the Dubai World Cup and Epsom Derby, around 25,000 people attend the race every year held at Mumbai's Mahalakshmi race course in early February.
Last year about 200 thoroughbreds signed up for the event, grossing for the club approximately Rs 50 lakh in entry fees alone.
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