Come Monday and the sound of hoofbeats will be ringing at the Malakpet turf. Almost five months after the dreaded outbreak of Strangles disease brought horseracing to an abrupt halt, the National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE) — after a series of serum and nasal swab tests — has declared that the thoroughbred equine population stationed at Malakpet Racecourse was disease-free. This all-clear signal has paved the way for the sport to resume at Hyderabad. In the wake of the clearance received from the NRCE and the Telangana state’s Animal Husbandry Department, the Hyderabad Race Club’s (HRC) authorities have announced that the turf club would conduct a brief winter racing season at Malakpet starting Monday March 9. The HRC released a press note to this effect on Friday, March 5.

Although they have not revealed the tenure of the racing season, the HRC authorities have released a sheet prospectus comprising six race-meetings, which is supposed to be its Winter Racing Season 26. Earlier, there were unconfirmed reports that the turf club was planning to conduct ten race meetings but that remains uncertain now for the lack of any official communication. Except for the first two race-days to be held on Monday, March 9 and Tuesday, March 10, the HRC has not notified any dates on which the rest of the races are to be conducted.

It is not only the stakeholders in the sport who are heaving a sigh of relief; hundreds of individuals whose livelihood was adversely affected in the preceding months are delighted that their excruciating wait for the sport’s resumption is finally over. In anticipation of the official announcement regarding the resumption of the sport, the licensed professionals at HRC have been busy for a while now in getting their horses prepared for the start of the racing season. As for the racehorse owners, their anxiety and insecurity about their investments in bloodstock and the expenses they incur on it will be allayed to a certain extent now.