Bulls whip up a frenzy on race day
Bulls whip up a frenzy on race day
Yoni Astuti, Contributor, Sumenep, East Java
Every competitor has to have the will to win. But it came as
an unexpected shock to Matlani Basir, a 50-year-old employee at
Torjon II elementary school in Sumenep, Madura island in East
Java.
The overexcitement forced him to be supported by friends as he
was led down the podium to the tent where other colleagues were
resting.
Matlani was neither racing nor fighting. But the fact that his
two-year-old bulls managed to win the Presidential Trophy at the
annual traditional bull race on Nov. 11 at the Giling field in
the village of Pengarangan, Sumenep, boosted his pride. His pairs
finished first, putting aside the other 23 competitors from four
regencies; Bangkalan, Sampang, Pamekasan and Sumenep.
Matlani's winning pairs, named Kor Manat, were purchased when
they were barely six months old. Yanto Effendi -- an 11-year-old
student at Rosong elementary school, Sepudi, Sumenep -- served as
the pair's jockey. In 1985, Matlani's bulls also won first place
in the losing category.
Matlani started his hobby of bull-racing way back in 1963 and
is now the proud owner of five pairs of bulls.
For him and fellow bull-racers, no other prize is as important
as the coveted Presidential Trophy. The trophy brings prestige,
fame and respect to the owner of the bulls. Other prizes
including a television, a motorcycle and other items are often
given away to jockeys and supporting members of the crew to take
care of the bulls.
The costs of preparation and care for the bulls far exceed the
nominal value of the prizes. The intensive and proper care of the
animals make bull-racing quite an expensive hobby. Around three
to four months prior to the race, each bull is given a specially
prepared concoction on a daily basis, consisting of herbs, 50 to
75 eggs, honey, coffee, pepper and so forth.
It costs more than Rp 10 million (US$943) to cover the care of
each bull, including the payment for assistants. However, a
winning pair can fetch a lucrative price of over Rp 100 million,
though, when every rupiah is calculated for the entire costs up
to the winning moment, it is still not profitable.
Apart from the special concoctions, the bulls gets a regular
check-up and are taken for a weekly practice run by their
jockeys.
The prestige and respect brought by the winning bulls usually
make the owners feel reluctant to sell them and so they prefer to
prepare the bulls for the next competition instead.
This year's race, scheduled for just one day, had to be
extended to two days due to a protest from one of the
semifinalists, who was declared a loser, in the last hours. The
protest turned into a scuffle, as he hit a police officer on the
cheek with a piece of wood with nails normally used by a jockey.
To secure the area and avoid further unrest, the policemen fired
his gun into the air to disperse the demonstrators.
On Nov. 12, the event took place more orderly. To win the
Presidential Trophy, the bulls had to compete in races from the
subdistrict up to regency levels. The final results were divided
into two categories: the winner and the loser.
Matlani's Kor Manat finished first to claim the trophy and a
Tossa motorcycle while the winner in the losing category was
Satelit (Satellite) owned by M. Hamdan from Bangkalan regency.