The Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) badly needed a couple of new faces. New ideas, bold moves, out of the box approach and more importantly the willingness to shoulder responsibility and work as a team was the need of the hour. It is no secret that BTC is on a slide, hard hit by the financial crunch and the club quickly needs to generate funds for its survival. The  premier racing centre is losing out  conducting winter racing and with no on-line betting support the club has it's back against the wall. 

Vinod Sivappa at the first meeting of the members of the managing committee on Wednesday was again elected, chairman and Senior Steward of the club.  The chairman disclosed that all is not lost and the scenario could well change in new year. "The managing committee understands that BTC needs to generate funds and the committee is exploring all avenues, " said Vinod Sivappa. 

BTC first needs to gain government  permission to get a sizable number of railbirds entry. And the moment that happens and the people at the tote windows get busy the club and the sport will survive. 

"It is tough and we need to stick it out and weather the storm“ said Vinod pointing out,  now that the sport is back on track, it provides better scope for revenue generation. 

Vinod revealed that his team was confident that it would scale over the hurdles in the months ahead. “We managed the alarming Covid situation extremely well when it was at peak in the city and now that we have successfully conducted eight race meeting, we are positive that things will only get better in the months ahead,” said Vinod.

The BTC chairman pointed out that the two new elected Stewards, Satish Gowda and Naval Narielwala are ready and willing to play their part.  “It is a solid team and the chairman let me tell you is only as good as the team,” said Vinod Sivappa.

Well the election for the three Stewards and two Committee member posts generated maximum interest with a couple of past chairmans in the fray, but it was clear from the result that the members who wanted a couple of new entrants in the board room had succeeded in their exercise. The three new elected Stewards were fancied most to score and Uday Eswaran topped the list in the Stewards' election. 

Dr L Srinivas Reddy came out tops in the election for the Committee members while D K Ashwin edged out Anish Sood by a slender margin of three votes.