B R Sharan Kumar

  Crisis Exposes Racing’s Planning Paralysis   By Sharan Kumar     Indian racing is trudging through one of its most dismal phases, and the crisis has revealed an uncomfortable truth: the system is running on habit, not imagination. At a moment demanding bold national thinking, administrators have offered caution, confusion, and a painful lack of planning. The result is that the Indian classics, once the country’s proudest racing statements, now resemble local events wearing oversized titles.   Only two major centres are active, yet even this limited window hasn’t stirred Mumbai into the leadership role it once embraced. Winter racing should feel like the season stretching its limbs after a long sleep, but instead it drifts in half-awake. Sunday’s Indian 1000 Guineas is an unmistakable example. Outstation contenders, already stabled in Mumbai, were belatedly told they could not run due to fears of glanders. The horses had been in place for days; th...

    Kavya Rewrites Guineas Script with Stunning Win   By Sharan Kumar   Racing once again reminded everyone that reputation counts for little once the gates fly. The Gr 1 Indian 1000 Guineas, the first classic of the Mumbai season, held on Sunday, was expected to be a coronation for the accomplished Fynbos, instead saw the script turned firmly on its head. Against the run of logic, form and popular belief, M K Jadhav’s Kavya, ridden with icy assurance by David Allan, seized her moment and stunned the favourite, underlining yet again that classics are never won on paper.   That truth played out vividly. Pesi Shroff’s Fynbos, armed with two classic wins and a reputation that arrived well ahead of her, towered over the opposition. With outstation challengers kept out due to the glanders scare in Bangalore, this was meant to be a coronation rather than a contest. The cake was baked, iced and ready to be sliced.   Except racing, in its infinite...

  Autocracy at the Helm Pushes BTC to the Brink   By Sharan Kumar   There has been a steady and disturbing stream of letters from senior functionaries of the Bangalore Turf Club , men with decades of experience on the Managing Committee, all pointing to the same uncomfortable truth: the Club is drifting into a governance crisis of its own making. These are not casual complaints or personal vendettas, but repeated red flags warning that unless corrective action is taken immediately, racing at Bangalore risks acquiring a reputation that may prove difficult, if not impossible, to reverse   At the centre of this turmoil is Steward Uday Eswaran , whose conduct has increasingly come to symbolise the club’s slide from collective governance to personalised authority. His aggression towards officials and colleagues alike is no secret. He made no attempt to hide his intent when he declared that upon his re-election he would ensure the removal of Secretary Kiran , ...

      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...

      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...