"Racing has taken me to places I once could only dream about ... Mumbai is one of these places." - Mick Goss, Summerhill Stud

For the second consecutive week, The Griffin focuses on a foreign experience, this time at the world's premier multinational racing talkfest, the 36th Asian Racing Conference (ARC) in Mumbai. 

The ARC is held every 18 months to two years, each time in a different member country of the Asian Racing Federation (ARF). The last was in Hong Kong in May 2014, the next is slated for South Korea in 2018. This year, it was India's turn.

Racing has taken me to places I once could only dream about ... Mumbai is one of these places
Mick Goss

It is far from perfect - too many administrators stuck in prehistoric times, plenty of backslapping, too few trainer, owner, jockey or punter representatives. But it is also a conflagration of ideas, a chance to gain an understanding of how racing operates abroad and an insight into the challenges and changes in the years ahead.

For a young journalist, it provided an in-depth education on key issues, although at times there were more questions than answers.

Sitting on the tarmac at Mumbai airport, with nothing better to do, what better time to reflect on the Mumbai experience.

MONDAY

Already a debacle within an hour of arriving in India's largest city. Self-funded, I am relegated to a hotel down the road from the conference, which the driver, five times, assures me he knows. He drops me at the wrong hotel, far removed from the beaten track. Now, I'm an extra in Slumdog Millionaire and the only transport to the correct hotel is a cab straight out of the 1950s. With no air conditioning, an engine on its last legs and a creaky chassis, it limps to the destination, then probably lumbers off to wherever taxis die. The driver almost dies, too, shocked when I hand over double the 100 rupee fare - about US$1.46. 

Mumbai is a city of extremes. Poverty exists everywhere, punctuated by occasional wealth. All stereotypes are based in reality - otherwise, how does it become a stereotype? - but it has never been more true than with India.

Cricket a cult? Tick. Cows walking along highways? Tick. Semi-organised chaos? Tick. Bollywood, curries, slums? Tick, tick, tick.

TUESDAY

An early morning walk, a taste of Mumbai away from the conference cocoon. Danger at every corner, and not just from drivers with no concept of road rules.

It is Australia Day, an opportunity to show national pride and to endear myself to the locals by donning my Australian cricket shirt.
Bad decision.

January 26 is also India's Republic Day and the two countries will go to war on the cricket pitch in Adelaide later that day. And with Indian fans reeling after an Australian thrashing in a one-day series, there were jeers, tears and smears. A group of kids, coexisting with cars on a main road as they played their national sport, looked heartbroken. 

The first day of the ARC featured seminars on wagering, breeding and emerging industries. Big lesson? The figures comparing Hong Kong's legal and illegal turnover on horse racing - US$13.8 billion to US$12.8 billion. It is a frightening analysis as illegal money burgeons.

A search for a curry should have been easy, especially at a joint named India Jones. Wrong. It must be the only restaurant in Mumbai without a curry in sight - plenty of authentic Chinese, though. 

WEDNESDAY

The first session is important to The Griffin, focusing on racing media in the 21st century. Twitter is the buzzword.

No one else was tweeting about the ARC on Tuesday, so our hashtag - #ARC2016 - is adopted officially.

After strong presentations from the ABC's Debbie Spillane and Channel 4's Jim Ramsey among others, moderator David Eades asked the 600 delegates, how many are on Twitter? A rough estimate: between 40 and 50 per cent. But when the BBC presenter followed up by asking how many were regulars, it dropped to between 5 and 10 per cent.

These are the people running racing, the people we trust to take the game forward. Yet the majority cannot grasp a tool that has already sparked a racing revolution in the space of seven or eight years.

A powerful rebuttal was made by the Racing Post's Howard Wright, though, who said that Twitter has played a role in undermining the authenticity and credibility of journalists.

The session also brought one of the ARC's most controversial comments, and not even from a panellist - Racing.com director Greg Nichols arguing the quality of Australian racing journalism is "abysmal".

As soon as the session broke up, an elderly administrator approached me. The accent was familiar, recognisably Australian, the sentiment from a bygone era: "You are the one they were talking about with twittering, yes? Forgive me, Mr Hawkins, but is it not rude to be twittering while people are talking? Surely you should be giving them your full attention? I'm sure no one will care, anyway, because those that care are here. That world is full of idiots with no clue, they are irrelevant to what we are talking about here."

If only I had managed to catch his name. 

Sessions followed about marketing, international horse movement and the art of handicapping and programming, but the administrator's viewpoint festered as the day wore on.

The ignorance was washed away by a traditional Parsi dinner at Mahalaxmi racecourse - an odd collection of 14 random dishes, served on a banana leaf.

 

THURSDAY

Security is ubiquitous in Mumbai. Every time a guest enters any hotel, there are body scans and bag checks - it becomes tiresome very quickly. A full body pat down when entering Starbucks to buy a coffee seems a tad extreme. 

But a simple memorial, backing out onto the Arabian Sea, sits outside the media room. The Oberoi Trident, host of the ARC, was attacked by terrorists in 2008 - 30 people died at the hotel, among 164 across the city. Heightened security doesn't seem so bad anymore.  

Sessions on drug-free racing, the Chinese racing industry, illegal gambling and the ambiguous "fresh angles" brought business to a close. These were some of the most intense sessions, sparking plenty of debate.

As for the ARC itself, the curtain came down with a Bollywood spectacular at Mahalaxmi, featuring Octopussy actor Kabir Bedi and composer Shankar Mahadevan, a majority of his set praising the elephant god Ganesh. 

 

FRIDAY

The Mumbai experience is over, the hospitality top-notch, the Indian people so welcoming.

That is, until overzealous airport security label me a "man of suspicious character".

Apparently, keys in luggage are a big no-no in India, their scanners instead detecting an explosive device. 

After explanation, argument and an unnecessarily long search, and satisfied a keyboard was my only weapon, they released me with a grin and a sledge towards Australian cricket captain Steve Smith.

India.

As this flight takes me home and Mumbai drifts into the distance, a polluted speck on the horizon, I think of the words of Mick Goss and smile - I am privileged to travel the world for a sport I love.

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