What A Shame. Two classic days races at the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) will be held on a single day. The owners and trainers at this premier centre, a couple of months back were shouting, screaming and crying hoarse, that the license issue had hit the owners hard and that it was difficult to pay the Basic Maintenance Fee (BMF) have conveniently done a somersault after BTC put racing back on track. The hopping, jumping and fuming stake holders now are not interested to enter their horses and earn the stakes on offer. The fact that that the club only managed to frame a small card of six events last Friday only confirmed that the trainers at this centre lack the enterprise and commitment to race the horses under their care and the owners who made all the song and dance before BTC got the green signal and set the ball rolling surprisingly are not making a noise nor pushing their trainers to enter their horses.

When asked why the trainers are not providing the required number of entries to help BTC frame a good attractive card, the President of the Karnataka Trainers Association (KTA) Pradeep Annaiah disclosed that the trainers with more than 40-50 horses in their yard are only entering a limited number of horses and that has led to this situation. “More than five to six trainers have more than 300 horses under their care and that’s more than half of the horses which are fit to race at this campus and if they don’t put entries, BTC will struggle to frame a good card,” said Pradeep pointing out that races in the 40-65 category are going void despite the fact more than 80 horses in this category are at this campus. “But the point is that most horses in this category are with the top trainers and they are just not interested to facilitate the club,” said Pradeep.

When pointed out that following a meeting with the BTC managing committee, the office-bearers of the KTA, and two trainers had promised that they would ensure no race would go void, Pradeep said: “For more than four years, KTA office-bearers spent hours convincing the trainers to provide one or two horses to frame required number of races, but allegations from a group of trainers that we are framing races only for horses in our yard only resulted in my team keeping away this time and the result is one single day, “ said Pradeep.

Endorsing the views of Pradeep, Lokanath Gowda disclosed that it is time the club framed rules, making it mandatory for trainers to race all horses more than twice or thrice in a season failing which they will be penalised, will bring home the desired result. “ This is only a suggestion put forward by many owners and trainers who are losing out thanks to races going void each week,” said Lokanath.

Trainer Arjun Manglorkar was of the view that BTC have made a couple of mistakes in the prospectus drawn for the season.

"You will not get sufficient entries if you have two 40-65 category races, one age group and open class over the same distance. The age group particularly for five- year -olds will go through, while the open class will get stuck simply because there are not enough younger horses in this category and on a classic day the three-year-olds in this category are competing in the classic, " said Arjun adding that in the meeting with BTC a couple of KTA members were seeking changes in the prospectus and he categorically told the BTC committee that the prospectus should not be tweaked or changed in the middle of the season.

Another leading trainer Satish Narredu was of the view that age group races in this category will deny younger horses in this category a chance to compete and move up. "It is true that 80 horses in this campus are in 40-65 category and more than 60 are five-year-olds and that makes it difficult to get younger horses to race in open class.

"It is just not right to say that trainers with more than 40-50 horses are not putting sufficient entries. Even if each of the five enter one horse the race will not go through," pointed out Satish adding that he has one younger horse in this category and he is certain he will never get to race this season.

Racing Committee Chairman, KA Jagdish disappointed with the approach and attitude of certain trainers revealed that he in his bid to get sizeable entries extended the deadline by three hours, but that also failed to generate positive response. “It was a classic week-end and we from our end wanted to frame a attractive card, but sadly this did not happen and we were forced to draw out a solitary day’s programme., said Jagdish adding that the sponsors willing to support the blue riband events will soon shift to other centres understanding that they will not get the desired mileage at this centre, struggling to frame more than seven races on a given day.