Why BTC Needs a Regulatory Vet, Not Excuses By Sharan Kumar The glanders shutdown has laid bare a fatal governance gap at the Bangalore Turf Club. What should have been a tightly regulated biosecurity response degenerated into delay, discretion and internal confusion. At the centre of the mess is the absence of an independent Regulatory Veterinary Officer. This crisis is not a medical accident but an administrative failure, made worse by entrenched interests, a toxic work culture and resistance to oversight. Had a regulatory vet been in place, this situation would not have spiralled. Suspicion of a notifiable, zoonotic disease would have automatically triggered mandatory protocols. There would have been no scope for individual discretion, delayed judgment calls or internal debate masquerading as caution. Regulation would have trumped opinion. Instead, the system relied on a Chief Veterinary Officer who combined the rol...
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Glanders Outbreak Exposes Deep Fault Lines By Sharan Kumar The NRCE’s confirmation of glanders in a Bangalore-based juvenile has forced a total shutdown of racing across the southern circuit, laying bare long-ignored weaknesses in veterinary oversight and biosecurity. With Bangalore, Mysore and Hyderabad all under suspension, the sport faces severe financial strain as owners, trainers and clubs absorb mounting costs without racing revenue. Repeat tests every 20 days will dictate the future, with even one new positive threatening an extended blackout. Glanders has not merely halted racing; it has exposed the soft underbelly of an industry that long believed outbreaks happened only in other stables, other districts, other states. The NRCE’s confirmation of glanders in the juvenile Jerom (Arod out of Paramour) has triggered the mandatory three-month shutdown, with repeat testing every 20 days and the grim caveat that even a single n...
Glanders Exposes Racing’s Weak Links By Sharan Kumar Racing is navigating one of its roughest patches in decades, and this crisis demands transparency, not half-truths. One positive at Mysore and five positives in Bangalore have triggered the alarm, with final confirmation from NRCE now awaited. Yet turf clubs must go beyond waiting for reports, they must openly trace the root cause of the outbreak and stop burying uncomfortable facts. Chennai is already shut due to government hostility, while Hyderabad , Bangalore and Mysore have frozen racing because of glanders. If NRCE confirms the findings, winter racing could collapse everywhere except Mumbai and Kolkata , where the clock is ticking ominously. Only full cooperation can contain the crisis, and to eliminate every shred of doubt, India should seek reconfirmation from a reputable lab in England before charting the sport’s next steps. According to information available, the trouble trail...
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A Decisive Mandate to Navigate Demanding Road Ahead By Sharan Kumar The verdict at the KSCA polls could not have been clearer. The members voted overwhelmingly for change, handing former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad and his “Game Changers” team a sweeping mandate that leaves no ambiguity about what the cricketing fraternity expects: renewal, transparency, and forward momentum. Prasad, who defeated K. N. Shanth Kumar by a margin of over 150 votes, now helms a Managing Committee composed almost entirely of his own slate, an unmistakable signal that the electorate wanted a clean, disruption-free runway for the new leadership. Former cricketers Sujith Somasundar and Avinash Vaidya take up key positions, while B. K. Ravi is the lone representative from the opposing camp to secure a slot, winning the post of Joint Secretary. In a telling political shift, long-time Brijesh Patel loyalist Santosh Menon had switched camps earlier and went ...
KSCA Polls: One Team Brings Experience; the Other Promises to Figure It Out Later By Sharan Kumar The elections to the Karnataka State Cricket Association are heating up, think of it as an IPL auction where one side knows what they’re doing and the other is still googling “how to build a team.” On one side, we have the Brijesh Patel–backed brigade, fielding K. N. Shanth Kumar for President, a man whose résumé doesn’t just speak; it practically waves its credentials. Shanth Kumar hails from a family that didn’t just promote sport, they carried it on their backs when sponsorship was harder to find than a Bangalore pitch offering bounce. His father K N Nettakallapa personally funded events when raising money for sport was equivalent to winning a Test in Hobart with one wicket in hand. Add to that the Deccan Herald's legacy of championing sport, and you know the pedigree is real, not manufactured for campaign time. And then ...
Glanders Blow Pushes Indian Racing to the Brink By Sharan Kumar Disaster has struck Indian racing yet again, this time in Bangalore, where five horses have tested positive for the dreaded glanders, forcing a government-mandated three-month shutdown. As if nature’s blow wasn’t enough, human negligence and administrative chaos have eagerly joined the party, pushing the sport deeper into despair. With Hyderabad already crippled and Chennai buried, Indian racing now battles on multiple fronts, disease, incompetence, and a tax regime determined to finish the job. Glanders, caused by the nasty Burkholderia mallei , is not your routine stable sniffle. It is a highly contagious, often fatal, Category A zoonotic disease that can threaten horses, mules, donkeys, and, if fate is feeling particularly cruel, even humans working around them. The moment it surfaces, the rulebook is brutally clear: lock down the centre, quarantine everything that whinnies, and su...
BTC’s Bold Resolutions on a Legless Stool By Sharan Kumar The Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) has passed a series of resolutions at its Extraordinary General Meeting held on Saturday, each laden with ambitions of relocation, continued occupation, financial concessions, and administrative authorisations. On paper, it looks like a club attempting to take charge of its destiny. But scratch beneath the surface, and the exercise begins to resemble a grand illusion of authority, one that the Government of Karnataka is unlikely to entertain. For decades, BTC has functioned under the belief that its heritage, influence, and contribution to the city’s social life give it a certain bargaining power. That belief may have felt true in a different era. But in 2025, with no lease on the land it occupies, no legal claim over the 60+ acres on Race Course Road, and a complete dependency on the government for its license, utilities, and operational permissions, the club ...