Once upon a time, several decades ago, Calcutta was considered to be the heartland of Indian racing. It was a happening centre – what with the Galstauns, the Fownes pair and Haskell David at the forefront of trainers’ spectrum and men such as Eddie Cracknell, Richard Alford and Nelson Reuben doing duty in the saddle. Cracknell won the Calcutta Derby four times in five years between 1962-66 – a record that is unlikely to be broken in the years to come. It was a golden era that oldtimers recall – some of them with moist eyes. Now a trainer in his own right, Richard Alford is a living legend and proof of that splendid period of thoroughbred racing here. It was also an age when racing was inevitably conducted every Saturday. Of course, there was no inter-venue betting in those days. The romance of Saturday racing has been captured this winter by the mandarins at RCTC as virtually fifty percent of the scheduled 25 race-days are slated for weekends.      

The climax of the shorter 25-day meet will no doubt be the Derby to be run on the second Sunday of January. The meeting will conclude after five months of exciting racing on March30, 2019.  There are approximately 177 races scheduled including 64 Cup events. The advertised stake money for the season is Rs 9.40 crore.   A further sum of Rs. 19 lakh is the value of cups and trophies.

The Club presently has approximately 463 horses in station, including 99 two-year-olds.  A further number of horses are expected to arrive from other centres to compete during the five-month long meet. As many as 21 trainers and 24 jockeys have been issued ‘A licenses and at the moment there are 22 ‘B’ licensed jockeys and 10 apprentices who will be seen in action.

Brothers Vijay and Bharath Singh will once again lead the way for the local stables with their exclusive set of thoroughbreds, while this centre’s ‘fading’ star – and I use that word with a heavy heart -  former champion jockey Christopher Alford may find it difficult get the better of outstation saddle artists like Trevor, Dashrath and Neeraj Rawal in all the major events where their presence will undoubtedly be felt. Some of the local three-year-olds to look out for are Monsoon Derby winner Shivansh, 1000 Guineas candidate Aashna, surprise package Home Of The Brave and crack sprinter Eastern Star. The outstation youngsters who are expected to be here to take a tilt at the classics are Mallesh Narredu’s Oriana and Padmanabhan’s indomitable Sir Cecil. The one that is already in station is the promising Punjabi Girl. Apart from these big names Padmanabhan’s Desert God, who won the Derby at this centre in the year 2016, is likely to return to take a swipe at the Calcutta Gold Cup and Queen Elizabeth II Cup. 

A number of outstation trainers have shown interest in racing their charges in Sweepstakes races during the season which should make racing more competitive. 

The important races scheduled to be run during the season are  as under:-

The Calcutta 1000 Guineas (Grade III)   -   24th November, 2018
The Calcutta 2000 Guineas (Grade II)  - 8th December, 2018
The Deepak Khaitan Memorial Calcutta Gold Cup (Grade II) - 22nd December, 2018
The Calcutta Oaks (Grade III) - 22nd December, 2018
The Eveready RCTC Gold Vase - 1st January, 2019
The Indian Produce Stakes  - 1st January, 2019
The  Calcutta Derby Stakes (Grade I) - 13th January, 2019
The Dashmesh Stud Alokananda Stakes - 13th January, 2019
The Calcutta Champion Sprint Trophy (Grade III)  - 19th January, 2019
The Indian Champion Cup (Grade I)  - 23rd January, 2019
The Indian Champagne Stakes (Grade III) - 23rd January, 2019
The Queen Elizabeth II Cup (Grade III)  - 9th February, 2019
The Calcutta Million (Grade II)  - 9th February, 2019
The Calcutta St. Leger (Grade III) - 1st  March, 2019