Elections
to the Managing Committee of the Bangalore Turf Club are due in the last week of September. The last one-year has been singularly unimpressive, with no bold initiative being taken to lift the sport of racing. Thanks to the fact that sometime during the last decade the then
Managing Committee set the club on the right course by strengthening the totes, the
money that it is generating has helped the club to run the affairs smoothly though the managing committee, has lost its focus and is more concerned with non-issues.
The turf club promised that it would appoint a committee to look into the licensing condition of the trainers and come to an acceptable solution sometime in the month of May but nothing has
happened in this regard. It may be recalled that the start of the Summer Season was marked by a strike by the trainers who protested against a newly introduced clause in the
licensing condition that the professionals would be responsible for all the statutory obligations arising out of the persons they employ to carry on their activities namely the syces, the jamadars and others. Subsequently, the strike was resolved, with the club issuing temporary licenses, with the promise that a committee would be formed comprising members from
trainers association, owners association and representatives of the club. However, no committee has been formed thus far and the committee is sweeping the problem under the carpet by postponing any decision by extending the temporary license granted to the trainers by three months.
In the meanwhile, the committee is busy on deciding what action should be taken on a racing official whom a member of the club assaulted. The said member was suspended for three months but the members would not be satisfied if no action is taken on the official for complaining against the member, which reached the columns of the newspapers as well. The committee has
had several meetings thus far and spent more time that it would on a matter concerning racing. In BTC, it appears that the victim as well as the culprit gets the same treatment!
The new committee would be elected soon and the same old faces will be seen at the helm. As such one cannot expect any miracle to happen. The PF issue of syces will not be solved in a hurry while the trainers continue with temporary licenses while the managing committee busies itself with non racing issues that hurt the sport of racing. No importance would be given to attending to the problems relating to stables, equitable distribution and such other issues which are of crucial importance for the survival of the sport.
Adhocism has come to the rule the affairs of the Bangalore Turf Club.
