The Hindu : Sport : BTC promises to clean up act

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Sunday, Aug 08, 2010
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BTC promises to clean up act

BANGALORE: N. Harindra Shetty, Chairman and senior steward of the Bangalore Turf Club Ltd. while apologising for the cancellation of the final day's races here on Friday, squarely held the Racehorse Owners Association and the Trainers Association responsible for the controversial step.

The BTC chairman said the BTC committee would meet shortly and, in future, implement all necessary disciplinary clauses in the rule book against erring trainers and owners, who, he claimed, constituted only a miniscule minority. “Ninety eight per cent of them are for racing,” he claimed.

He said, despite the extensive and patient efforts of the management to facilitate racing on the final day, the owners and trainers had not responded and refused to run their horses demanding two extra-day races and, as a result, the club was compelled to cancel the races.

He further pointed out that at the beginning of the season, the same trainers and owners had made an issue over the reduction of stake money and had forced the cancellation of the first two race days. BTC had taken that step on stake money, given the financial uncertainty, following the Karnataka High Court directing the club to vacate the existing premises on or before September 22. The future of racing itself was under a cloud. BTC's appeal to trainers and owners to resolve the issue amicably had gone in vain. As regards extra-day races, BTC, in fact, had framed an extended card of 11 races each on Thursday and Friday, which would have negated the unnecessary need for extra-day races. But this offer also had been aborted by the trainers and owners and racing had to be stopped after the first eight events on Thursday, much to the chagrin of the punters.

Mr. Shetty said BTC had always worked transparently as regards to its financial management and there had been no irregularities as charged by some of its detractors. It had paid the highest stakes and highest subsidy in the country by way of incentive to the tune of Rs. 3.5 crore, arguably the highest in the world, and it offers BTF loans, which no other racing club pays in the country.

Mr. Shetty assured that BTC would strive to conduct fair and incident-free racing in the coming season, once the Supreme Court decides on September 7 its plea against the order to shift its venue. “God willing, I hope we get a favourable verdict,” he concluded.

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