Racing World India - India's Only Horse Racing Magazine - JUNE - JULY 2010 : BTC ON THE BRINK OF CLOSURE

JUNE - JULY 2010 : BTC ON THE BRINK OF CLOSURE

BTC ON THE BRINK
OF CLOSURE

(JUNE - JULY 2010)

- Sanjay Reddy

With just four months to go before vacating the premises from where they have been operating since 1863, in compliance with the judgement passed by the Karnataka High Court, Bangalore Turf Club is clueless as to its future. Floating without direction and with no one to steer it during these extremely tough times the Club is floundering even as egos and petty individual considerations take precedence over more pressing matters. Nnothing sums up this depressing scenario more than the fact that the new chairman, clambering into the hot seat after staging a coup d’etat against the previous

incumbent, has left the club leaderless for over a month.
The past eighteen months have witnessed infighting and ego clashes between the members of the managing committee on a scale never witnessed before. Instead of presenting a united front when faced with the hard and inevitable task of taking on the government in court, as mandated by a resolution passed in an extra-ordinary general body meeting and brought about by the consistent refusal of the government to put their oral assurances down on paper, some members of BTC’s managing committee voted with the

government nominees on the committee when they proposed a withdrawal of the case and signing of the agreement to take over the land offered at the Chikkajala tank bed. When faced with an uproar from the members of the club over their actions these elected leaders of the club hastily backtracked.
The decision to approach the courts was taken after much deliberation and despite a general body resolution adopted in Jjuly 2009 to this effect the case was filed in the High Court only late in October 2009. Questions are

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now being raised about the wisdom of following this path of confrontation with the government especially with the case going against BTC. The fact is that there was no other alternative left for the club and the only logical course of action now is to approach the Supreme Court for redressal though this is being resisted by some members of the managing committee who favour a negotiated settlement with the government even though nothing has been forthcoming from them.
In fact the BTC has been unable to get an appointment with the Chief Minister to discuss the issue and even the brief unscheduled meeting they managed with the CM ended with only a vague proposal to set up a meeting to go over the issue. This was over a month ago and till date there has been no progress. Worse still is the apathy on the part of the BTC management in formulating a plan for the horses and along with them the trainers and syces should the inevitable happen. Nno contact has been made with other turf clubs to look into the logistics of rehabilitating nearly a thousand horses and their attendant work force. A few individual trainers have already made their plans to relocate should racing come to a stop in Bangalore but for the majority the future looks very uncertain. Nno one in BTC has an answer when asked what contingency plans are in place should there be no relief either from the courts or the

government.
Instead the club decided that their best course of action would be to curtail the benefits and incentives that they have been offering to race horse owners for all these years. While some of these benefits like the three months credit facility in regard to the basic maintenance fee for each horse which has been given by the club to the owners for some decades now may seem a little excessive, trying to stop this benefit now appears more as a provocation than a cost cutting measure. The reduction in stakes and incentives was supposed to save the club around three crores of rupees and was strongly opposed by both the owners and trainers.
The owners and trainers for their part did not cover themselves in glory as their obdurate stand on these issues led to a further hardening on the club management’s side. Certain elements among the owners tried to take matters into their own hands and resorted to threats and abusive language towards club officials as the situation began to spiral out of control. Hectic behind the scenes parleying was done and just when a solution seemed to be at hand a new issue would crop up leading to a stand off once more.
Despite the best efforts by well meaning club members and owners to get both sides to the negotiating table the first week-end’s racing had to be cancelled.

Further negotiating was seemingly headed nowhere when all of a sudden the club did a volte face and acceded to most of the demands made by the owners and trainers associations. Did the threat that the government would move to cancel their licence to race should a second week go by without the summer season starting force BTC’s hand or was there something else behind their sudden decision to concede to demands that had been on the table for over a month? Whatever the reason the club did not emerge from this mess with any credit and neither did the owners or trainers.
All sections seemed to have forgotten the larger picture and were instead focussing their energies on petty issues that could have easily been resolved through dialogue.
The season is underway now but an undercurrent of uncertainty is palpable. The BTC lacks leadership and coherence at its highest level and this is affecting morale right through its ranks. At the time of this article the Special Lleave Petition to the Supreme Court has not yet been filed and the time left for such a move is quickly ticking away.
Whether racing, which has had a history of over 180 years in this city, continues beyond September 22 this year will be known in the coming months.

Editors Note

The ongoing spate of events that have been brought to light in this article highlight the current state the Bangalore Turf Club finds itself in. As time runs out it may be too late to play a blame game, but it’s never too late to set aside egos and personal agendas and work as one unified body to protect the heritage of racing in Bangalore. The combined effect of closure would be catastrophic for the industry on a national basis. The livelihood of thousands is at stake. Is it not more important to look at the complete canvas and with the support of the other race Clubs project a unified appeal for survival?

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