It's happening and it's happening on the appointed date. The professionals, stakeholders and the racing buffs are delighted. The handicaps are out and in the next 24 hours a competitive seven-event card is likely to be framed for the opening day's summer racing season scheduled to kick-off on May Day. 

To the credit of the management committee of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC), it must be mentioned that against all odds the mandarins of the club successfully cleared the hurdles and hit the high road, sending out a strong message to the many doubting thomases that "when there is a will, there's a way" and "when the going gets tough, it is only the tough who get going." 

Well the committee did well to first get the state Animal Husbandry Department to De-notify the earlier notified area of the club as per clause-5 of the "National Action Plan for Control and Eradication of Glanders in India (Revised 2025) and open up the restriction imposed on the movement of equines, donkeys and mules in and out of the notified area with immediate effect. 

The renovation work on a portion of the track is complete. Track in-charge Kiran revealed that despite the lack of rains, his team managed to complete the work. "The feedback from the pros after we conducted a dozen mock races last week was that the track was hard and a couple of showers before the start would help. Unfortunately rain Gods are continuing to play spoilsport, but we on a daily basis are watering the track, 20-25 water tankers on the job, morning and evening," said Kiran adding that it has helped a great deal, but a couple of good showers are required to get the track in ship-shape condition. 

The chairman of the club, when posed with the question if the club has gained the licence to start the season on Friday, May 1, disclosed that the process is on and license should not pose a problem taking into account that the committee has addressed all issues in the right spirit. "Things are falling in place. And I'm positive that the 28-day summer season will prove to be a big hit after the unfortunate five-month break," said Shivashankar adding that 125 outstation horses including many classic hopefuls from Mumbai are expected to compete in the summer bonanza, the Poonawalla Summer Derby, scheduled to be held on Sunday, July 12, offering five crore total stakes, the richest purse offered in the annals of Indian racing. 

Shivashankar made it clear that horses from Mumbai and Hyderabad will only come in after two weeks and that's simply because the two premier centres are yet to gain a clearance from their respective governments for the movement of horses from their parent-centre. It is learnt that the administrators of the two clubs are on the job and will soon gain a go-ahead in the week ahead. That effectively means that only the local horses will compete in the first two weeks of racing before the Mumbai and Hyderabad hopefuls arrive in the third-week of May. 

Responding to a question, that the city experiencing sweltering heat and the fact that the track is hard will pose a definite problem to the horses willing to compete in this exacting energy-sapping conditions,  Shivashankar shot back: the trainers are satisfied with the prevailing climatic conditions and we from our end will start racing from 2.30 p.m. or 3.00 p.m. each meeting, framing a six or seven-event card for the first two weeks. "The idea is to beat the heat and hopefully a couple of showers will help make the first day, first show a big success," signed off the chairman.