Mary Ekah
While Horse racing is one of the oldest sport in the world and a traditional sport in Northern Nigeria, the same cannot be said of the sport when it comes to other paths of the country which is why Alhaji Haliru Abubakar, an official of the Northern Horse Racing Club has decided to berth the sport across Southern Nigerian states. The Chairman of newly registered Southern Horse Racing Club with his Vice, Mr. Dare David Oduntan, are spearheading the first Southern Horse Racing Tournament billed to hold in July.
Shading light on the ornament among other things, Oduntan said the Southern Horse Racing Tournament is a three-day event billed to hold between July 15, 16 and 17 in Lagos.
“We are going to build a race track. There will also be some entertainment on that day. There are five races for each day for those three days making it a total of 15. Before each of the race starts, the horses have to be introduced to the public. There will be 10 horses for each race. At the end of the race there will be cash prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd runner up. It’s going to be a very colourful event; horse racing has always been an interesting sport everywhere in the world. It’s very big in the North and dates as far back as 1960. The tournament is going to hold in all the southern states but we are starting first with Lagos. I’m optimistic it will be a successful tournament. Right now the atmosphere is boring so Lagosians, are in for a great time.”
Speaking on what motivated his involvement in horse racing, Oduntan said it all started when he went to Benin Kebbi where he met Haliru Abubakar, through the Special Assistant on Development in 2004. “He wanted to bring horse racing to Southern part of Nigeria and I happened to like horse racing a lot because growing up back in the UK, we used to go to outside London to watch the sport. But shortly after my discussion with Haliru, I travelled back to the UK. Upon returning from the UK, I decided to give it a shot again and here we are”, he recalled. .
Asked what it takes to be a rider, he said, “The riders are called Jockeys. Horse racing is a big fun but it can also be dangerous. To become a rider you must get your permit. There are no Jockeys here in Lagos, so for this tournament coming up in July, the Jockeys are coming all the way from the North with 50 horses and the seats are limited. So I will encourage as many as would love to have the experience because it going to be a one of a kind event, to make their reservation early enough as soon as the sale of tickets starts.”
For his partner, Abubakar, horse racing is not alien in Nigeria. “I will say that in the South it is something new but in the North it has been a traditional sport for a very long time and that is how we come to embrace it”, he said.
Speaking further, the Chairman of the Horse Racing Club said, “Right from when I was 10 years old, I could remember that there were horses in my house; my father use to have them. Normally, it originated from the kings, chiefs; they are the people who are owners of horses and they do this traditional sport during Salah. The next level started right from 1960, when Sir Amadu Bello Surdana the first Emir of Northern Nigeria in order to unite the North, he introduced a tournament, called Northern Club Authority which involved big cities like Zaria, Jos, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Maiduguri. There were representatives from all these cities. It was a huge tournament. I even went to the UK to represent my state at a point. “On what informed his decision to bring it to the South, he explained that horse racing has been on for quite a long time. “In the history you talk about the UK, Dubai, America and so on.
Horse racing has reached another level where it is more than just a traditional sport like we did in the North. It is a worldwide investment and we choose Lagos because it is a very enterprising town. We want to do the whole South but we started with Lagos because it is the root. And it has a positive effect; there are chances of getting employment. Like in Japan horseracing club helps in social services annually more than one billion dollars. In Lagos for example, we are starting with not less than 50 horses, each horse has a houseboy, each horse has a Jockey and there are others that are labourers, so it’s advantageous. Horse racing is no longer traditional like I said; it’s going to be a full blown business in Nigeria as a whole that is what we are working on.”
For him, horse racing is a very loveable sport. “If you see anybody that doesn’t like horse racing definitely he hasn’t come across one. Horse racing is all about competition. Anything competitive people tend to love it because in human athletics you can see how excited people can be when they see heroes. I am telling you when it involves horses it is even more interesting”, he added.
Speaking on the Southern Horse Racing Tournament, Abubakar said, “My friend Dare Oduntan who is my Vice now, did his NYSC in my state. He happened to have interest in horse racing and always frequented our Race Course. Already before we met, I had it in mind to introduce this sport to the South so when the opportunity of meeting him provided itself we started discussing it and that was in 2004. From the moment I met him, I found him very hard working and I liked his tenacity in achieving his goal not just horse racing but whatever he puts in mind to achieve, he achieves.”
He maintained that horse racing is not an elitist game. “Maybe if it’s about buying horses you can call it an elitist game because a rich man can buy as many horses as he can. And how much the horses cost depend on the breed. We have Argentine, we have Sudanese, we have thorough breed. The breed determines the prices. A thorough breed for instance, a racing horse in Europe or Dubai you will get for about two million to 10 million dollars. The last horse that won a cup in Dubai is worth about 10 million dollars. But if you are talking about Nigeria, you know we are just introducing it to the South so our own horses are cheaper. We only want people to become aware of the sport. The horse will be cheaper here but the more a horse becomes a hero the money will go up again”, he added.
For those who may desire to buy a horse, he warned that maintaining a racehorse is not easy. “You have so much work to everyday. You have to buy the food, mostly millet. You have constant water; you shouldn’t allow it to be tasty. In short, they have to be at least two boys looking after a horse. One boy takes care of the horse. The other one exercises the horse, ride it every day say to a distance of 10 kilometres”, he noted.
He was quick to add that horse racing is a tourist attraction in itself, adding, “If the government should be involved, it will go a long way to provide employment and that will be the best thing to happen to this sport.”
