Hi Friends,

Almost every new racing season at Bangalore - at least in the recent past - runs into some kind of a rough weather, leaving excited and 'let me recover my money this time' punters with fingers crossed. Why this pause so often?

From Yediyurappa to the present Siddaramaiah government - so no politics involved - BTC has been facing a constant 'threat' to hand over the premises back and relocate itself in a new but far off place. Having operated from the present prime location for so long, it has been posing various hurdles for the Turf Club to do so although the Club has been holding discussions from time to time to find an amicable solution in this regard.

The 'sudden' visit by the Chief Minister, along with his legal advisor and Secretary, to the sprawling racecourse on Sunday - note at a time when the entire top brass of BTC was at Mysore for the Derby - raises several eyebrows in the racing circle as to why this surprise action from the part of the government when the proposal is already under the 'active' consideration of BTC?

Is it not purely pressure tactics to ask the BTC to sign a two-year deal to vacate the place for the licence to be renewed otherwise which this winter racing season, slated to kickstart on November 1, is likely to hang on fire.

We all saw how the Ooty racecourse - arguably one of the most beautiful racecourses in India,m - got closed unceremoniously with the Tamil Nadu government bent upon retrieving the massive premises - legally though - without giving sufficient opporuntiy for the Madras Race Club to find time for mobilising resources - close to a whopping 800 crore rupees - to pay off the arrears pending to the government. But that's not the case with the BTC, isn't it? 

Let's hope better sense prevails on the sport-friendly government officials, who have never been harsh to BTC despite often trying to pull the rug from under the feet, and thus guarantee that the winter racing season takes off without the usual 'stop and go' drama.