For Jitu Virwani, Chairman and MD, Embassy Group, horses are his second passion, the first being the real estate business. Virwani has been instrumental in nurturing the sport in India. What he purchased as a farmland (now close to the Bangalore International Airport) for his kids to nurture their passion now stands as the Embassy International Riding School (EIRS). Established in 1996, EIRS features among the countrys top riding schools.
For a decade, every year during the winter holidays, he travelled with his kids and the EIRS team for the Junior National Championship, organised in different parts of the country. In 2006, he got the first sport horses (Warmblood) from France. In 2008, he travelled to Germany and imported nine sport horses for the qualifiers of the Asian Games 2010 held in China. In 2015, at the EIRS, he gave the go ahead for the first breeding programme in India to produce top-quality sport horses for young aspirants.