Interestingly, trainer Cooji Katrak had fiercely argued before the Stewards’ during the hearing of his objection against Vikram Walkar that the apprentice had knocked out the whip from Mahesh's hand. Subsequent to his objection being overruled, Cooji complained that Mahesh had deliberately dropped his whip and had not ridden out his mount vigorously. Cooji's turnaround is likely to have sealed the fate of Mahesh, as these were the precise reasons given by the stipes while reporting the apprentice to the Stewards.
In a related incident, it is reliably learnt that immediately after the race of Arcadius was over, the RWITC stipes paid a surprise visit to apprentice jockey Mahesh’s room located in the stabling area and held four young boys including an unidentified apprentice jockey for questioning. According to unconfirmed reports, the boys were detained till the conclusion of the Stewards’ meeting on Thursday evening and were let off without any interrogation.
The RWITC officials remained tight-lipped as usual about this incident and refused to divulge any information except for confirming the report of the four boys being found in Mahesh’s room.
