Hi,

It looks like slowly but surely the sound of hooves is getting erased from the memories of Chennaiites !

The picturesque Guindy Race Course, among the best in India, is standing all alone, giving rise to the million-dollar question: "Can Chennai afford to be without a race course?"

As someone born and brought up in this beautiful and 'accommodate all' metro city, I have been visiting Guinday course for close to 40 years now, and it's here I saw - for the first time - big names in training and riding.  No other centre can boast of having a crowd as knowledgeable as those one gets to find here. More vital is the contribution that the punters here keep making to the net Jackpot pool ever since it was launched.

The bookies here are least bothered or intimidated by the 'peti' shouts of racegoers unlike in many other centres, and I remember how many bookies made several lakh rupees in a short period of time from a Mumbai-based punter, who used to fly down to Chennai to place his bets some 20 years before.

The memories of Chennai racecourse are many, too many. MAM is one name to whom the whole racing industry in the country is indebted for a fighting a case all alone in the Supreme Court and getting a favourable verdict for the continuance of this 'King of Sports' uninterrupted. What MAM did then is being continued by the inimitable Zavary S Poonawalla now.

Can Chennai be without a race course for long?