The professionals and stakeholders are delighted with the news that horses will be back on track in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, the two premier racing centres in the South, the Hyderabad Race Club (HRC) announcing that they will start the winter season on, Monday, March 9, while the mandarins of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC)  after a long-standing silence, disclosed a couple of days before that BTC will start racing operations this summer on April 19and the extended summer season will conclude on August 9. 

BTC, it is learnt will start the season, holding a solitary meeting in the first two weeks taking into account that the horses in the campus will find it tough to beat the heat and the fact that a portion of the renovated track which is likely to be ready by March 20, will get sufficient time to settle down. The management committee is hopeful that a couple of April showers before the appointed date will help bring the temperatures down and that will hold the key to how the start will pan out, knowing that not many trainers, particularly the big guns, will not run the risk, running their quality horses in extreme hot and humid conditions. 

A couple of trainers and owners made no secret of their opinion that 4-5 meetings in March and then resuming the season in the first or second week of May was a better idea, but the members of the Karnataka Trainers Association (KTA) lost out on the opportunity to impress the decision makers of the club, staying away from the all-important meeting with the members of the management committee, the reason: office bearers of the Karnataka Racehorse Owners Association (KROA) were not invited by the club to the meeting scheduled to ascertain the professional view, how comfortable are the trainers and horses under their care to start, but unfortunately that didn't happen and the committee then decided that there will be no more debate or dialogue and the season will start only on April 19. 

While half of the trainers were pushing their horses in the morning trials in the effort to get them fit and a good number of early birds were hoping for a March start, the other half let the cat out of the bag, secret whispers, revealing that a majority of horses would struggle to perform at the optimum level if BTC decides to resume racing in March. A BTC steward on condition of anonymity disclosed that more than half-dozen trainers had categorically made it clear that the horses after the three-month break were taking time to get into the stride and that BTC has done well to wisely put the horse back on track only in April. 

HRC, who were ready to go two weeks ago, finally got the clearance from the Animal Husbandry Department of the state and in double-quick time chose to start the season this Monday. Despite the fact that summer has set in and it will be hot and sultry at Malakpet, HRC is positive that a good card will be framed on the opening day taking into account that the trainers and owners at this centre, which was hit hard by Glanders are ready and willing to start operations after four long months. "The onus is now on us to put in entries and get the ball rolling and we will definitely do that and send the message across that all is well at HRC now," said a senior trainer. 

Well all said and done HRC is looking forward to Monday and BTC will hit the high road next month and the Mysore Race Club (MRC) will get their act together in May and that effectively means that racing in the South will be back in full flow in the next two months.