The Royal Calcutta Turf Club has risen like the proverbial phoenix and Racing begins with a truncated Monsoon Season on 26 September 2023. It’s wonderful to know that one of the oldest racing institutions in the country is back on track.

Nora Roberts, the world, famous novelist once said, I never kick a man when he’s down unless I’ve put him there myself. Well, that certainly didn’t apply to a host of self proclaimed critics and cynics who took perverse pleasure in adding to the woes of the administration by ridiculing their efforts as they tried to get things onto an even keel while working in what can best be described as a hostile environment.

The India - Canada stand-off, has seen a number of people saying (whether right or wrong is a different story) that India has changed in their approach from being a soft state to a hard state. Well suffice it to say that the RCTC has certainly Altered their approach completely and their decision to take a hard stand in the matter was the need of the hour. If it meant having to sacrifice a part of the monsoon racing season so be it provided of course the ends would justify the means.

For once, the majority of the owners and trainers were on the same page as the Club. The basic monthly cost of maintaining a horse in racing had escalated from 29,500 in the month of January 20 23 to 35,000 in the month of April 20 23. It had become the most expensive centre in the country in which to race. Compare this to amounts of between 24,000 to 29,000 in other race clubs.

The task they faced to try and negotiate to get this cost down was a Herculean one. Yes it was nothing new, they had faced it before, but this time they all realised that there was no going back. Bite the bullet now and survive or give in and perish.

It took a lot of doing a lot of work a lot of effort a lot of patience and and unwavering perseverance, which eventually worked out a deal that will be the cornerstone Of what should be the revival of racing in Kolkata.

The basic maintenance cost per month per horse has now been reduced to Rs.29,000. Add to this the subsidy that the club could chip in, and that could well bring the costs down even further.

In addition, the number of syces per horse which varied between 1.1 and 1.2, depending on where a hose was stabled has been settled at 0.8 per horse. What was once  a pipe dream has been transformed into a reality thanks to some great work done by the Stewards, the Administration, the Owners and the trainers.

So as we gear up for the first day of the monsoon season 2023 the Cynics are back, their tongues wagging. What sort of racing are we going to witness with hardly any horses in station. Well to answer that let’s go back to the early years of 2005 -2006, when our average field per race was between 5 and 6. We managed to keep going even then so why not now?
What we need now is to replenish the number of horses, owners and trainers who have moved out with fresh blood from the other race clubs. For Assistant Trainers this could well be a golden opportunity to start out on their own by applying for a license under RCTC rules. And for the RCTC, don’t look back. The storm has passed. It’s time to dance in the rain.