The fact that Bangalore, Pune, Mysore and Hyderabad have followed suit during the period, which, obviously, gave the racing, centers a thick edge over those still lacking facilities, the observations of the RCTC secretary are quite valid. When RCTC goes live from Wednesday, Chennai would be the only full-fledged centre without uplinking facilities. RCTC’s main concern is, however, the dwindling number of horses racing at Kolkata despite all efforts like sales of yearling, Breeze ups and subsidies to owners and trainers for getting horses from other centres.
Local owners have also welcomed the step of live telecast. “Even if we are out of the city, we may hop down to the nearest metropolis which downlinks our racing to see our wards running,” said Gautam Sengupta, an owner whose pressing business commitments requires him to travel out of Kolkata regularly. The venture may also see outstation owners sending their wards regularly for racing in Calcutta.
Shelling out a chunky amount of Rs 40 lakh was, of course, not so easy but a substantial bank loan has solved RCTC’s problem to a great extent. Downlinking fee of the Calcutta racing by other turf centers is one avenue that may help RCTC towards repayment of the loan but that is not the bigger issue. Racing in this city needed a boost and the live telecast may just do so. Mysore, Chennai and Hyderabad are RCTC’s regular clients while Mumbai and Bangalore take the RCTC racing occasionally because of the crowded race programme.
“The equation may change for the better with Mumbai and Bangalore in the coming winter. Outstation owners who send their wards to race in Calcutta have been shying away in view of the right feedback about the performance of their wards. This factor, hope, takes care of their grievances,” added Parakh.
