Balkrisna Sukharan grew up in Guyana and starting race riding as a jockey when he was 12 years old.
Sukharan talked about how different racing is in South America: “over there you don’t have to be 21. You can race at 10 years old.”
Coming to America in 1994, Sukharan knew he wanted to be with horses.
“So I come over here and my goal was to get into horses, get into horse racing,” Sukharan said.
He eventually met trainers and decided to work with Jaime Ness and started racing at Canterbury Park in 2007.
Lookingforthesecret, who Sukharan claimed at Tampa Bay Downs, won multiple stakes that summer at Canterbury Park.
Sukharan raced through 2009 until he left to raise beef cattle up north. A call from horse trainer Chris Richard brought him back into horse racing. Sukharan orginally met Richard at Prairie Meadows in Iowa.
“Suddenly he comes to Minnesota and gives me a call and said ‘you ready now? Now I’m in Minnesota. Come here,’” Sukharan said.
Jason Totaram, Sukharan’s son, starting working with his dad and claiming horses of his own.
“Everything I learned, I learned from him,” Totaram said. “He told me about claiming and everything, and he helped me claim my first horse.”
Sukharan and Totaram both look at speed when deciding on claiming a horse.
“We like playing on speed,” Sukharan said. “I love speed.”
Starting to own horses in March 2021, Totaram’s first win as a sole owner was last May at Canterbury Park in the Brooks Fields Stakes with Lord Dragon.
Sukharan watched his son fall in love with horses from a young age.
“From little, he would come to the track,” Sukharan said. “He would watch the jockeys, watch the replays, and he would go home and put a couple pillows on the bed and pretend to be a jockey.”
Sukharan and Totaram look forward to working together and winning races this season at Canterbury Park.
