Ghee, milk, fruit and jam gives these bulls wings

In Sukkur, winning a bull race can mean an instant three million rupee pay cheque.

SUKKUR: Abdul Qadir is a bull cart jockey and he is pinning his hopes of becoming a millionaire on his two bulls.

He is no slave driver. He has spent thousands of rupees and countless hours training them to run at the fastest possible speeds.

The bulls are fed like kings with daily meals of butter, milk, fruits, ghee and jam all in preparation of the race.

Qadir has been in the business for about 12 years now. According to him, the shelf life of a jockey is around 15 years, so he has only a few years left. “It is a Sindhi tradition,” he says. “Our forefathers used to play it, and now we do.”

The races are held throughout the year with the exception of the summer. The racetrack is prepared meticulously - fields are flattened and linear tracks are gouged out for the bull carts.

Each race is between two bull carts each driven by a jockey.

While watching the race is for free, participation is a lot more complicated.

It all begins with the big players betting against each other. The bets can swell from Rs100,000 to Rs3 million as other enthusiasts join in.

The tournaments are generally held in Sukkur, Kandhkot, Nawabshah, and Jacobabad, but no two are held at the same time. This allows racers from all areas to come to the city where the race is being held.

Given that the bulls are bought as calves and trainers are hired to look after them, markets are set up in Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah.

The animals are sold from Rs500,000 to Rs1.5 million and the most popular breed is Tharri bulls.

The trainers are paid Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 a month, while jockeys are a little ahead in the food chain and earn Rs15,000 to Rs20,000. If their bulls win the race, they also get a part of the prize money.

Qadir is a bull racer through and through. He owns his own animal and races it too. Before the big race, he received an offer of Rs1.4 million on his prize bull, Parwaz, a name that translates to ‘flight’. However, he rejected the bid - the optimistic jockey believes that Parwaz will be worth a lot more once he wins the race.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th,  2011.