Thursday’s Mumbai races were cancelled due to a heavy downpour on Tuesday night. It is believed that the rainfall measured around the 45 mm mark. Mumbai, this year, has seen unprecedented late showers and this has rendered the racecourse, particularly the stable areas, soggy with large puddles of water logging in many areas.

The un-seasonal rains have indeed played havoc with the underfoot conditions and the race track was rendered non-conducive to racing. There was zero activity as far as horses are concerned as even the training areas were slushy. Most horses are still in Pune and the work tracks there too were closed for practice. Horses stationed in Mumbai had a small area of the Bund school to limber up. If the heavens hold up and no further rains lash the city, the tracks would be opened in couple of days.

With there being no races on the coming Sunday, the track has a good week ahead to recover in time for the races, as the next race day is scheduled for the 2nd of December. By then, things would be brighter and races should take off smoothly thereafter. The RWITC had done remarkably well to ensure a scheduled start for the season, battling adverse climatic conditions even then. There has been no let up from up above, with spells of frequent showers drenching the city. All the hard work put in at that time, has come to a naught and it is sort of back to square one.

One sympathises with the Club’s officials too, who have their hands full at the moment and working against time is never easy. Armed with gumboots and umbrellas one can see the Estate Officer Suhail Mohammed and NHS Mani, the deputy secretary camping themselves in the stable area and personally monitoring the work in progress. It is a thankless job indeed and I, for one, would never want to be in those gum boots.