Celestial Way should have a bold show in the Guineas

The small made daughter of Orpen, Celestial Way waged a stiff battle and managed to edge past Aristos in the dying moments of the race to win the 1400 metres Rajyotsava Trophy, a terms race for three-year olds and over, the main event of opening day’s races of the Bangalore Winter Season on Friday. Celestial Way was taking a quantum jump in class as she was taking on higher rated horses but this race served as a perfect lead up race for the forthcoming Bangalore 1000 Guineas. The Kunigal Stud Farm produce, Celestial Way vindicated the confidence of her trainer Padmanabhan by her splendid performance and she has thus advertised her readiness to make an impact in the first classic of the season.

Aristos, who had won a seven furlong race at Mysore in record timing, was certainly no pushover. Since jockey Suraj Narredu who had the option to ride either of them, had chosen Celestial Way, the latter attracted more attention in the ring though close to race time Aristos too came in for spirited support, with the odds shooting up on the favourite.

Aristos led as the field settled down for the seven furlong trip, with Diamond Hunter and Celestial Way racing behind while Star Presentation lost considerable ground at the start.
Rounding the final bend, jockey Suraj Narredu perhaps made an error of calculation when he waited a wee bit longer even as Ryan Marshall spurted away on Aristos to open up a useful lead of over three lengths. Suraj, however, made for that momentary lapse by riding out the filly with the all resources at his command to get the nod in the closing strides of the race. The winner clocked an exceptional timing of one minute 26.42 seconds considering the penetrometer reading of 5 cms. Timeless Treasure ran on to finish third.

Trainer M P Mahaesh was in the limelight with a good double and jockey Suraj Narredu was the one who guided both these winners. Systematic who had found one better on three occasions, was backed down spiritedly to win the 1400 metres Kolar Plate but the task did not turn to be easy as the odds indicated. Arabian Prince put up stiff resistance but in the end, Senator proved to be better. There was support for Glitterato to spring a surprise but he ran a disappointing race. Native Talent ran on to finish third.

Senator, who had run poorly in the past, was running for the first time after being gelded. Since the progeny of Steinbeck hadn’t done anything noteworthy, Ganapathy’s First of a Legend came in for spirited support to end up as on money favourite. But in the event, Senator who had the first run on his opponent skipped away at the top of the straight and then held on gallantly to win from the favourite. Sherman was stranded in the gate.

Cart Wheel was backed down spiritedly to win the Kunigal Trophy (Div I). Phoenix Reach, who had all the credentials having run consistently during the summer season, was ignored in the betting ring despite the progeny of Young Senor showing out in the paddock parade. Sunny Baba made the entire running till the final 300 metres at which point the race took a dramatic turn. Phoenix Reach who had raced in the rear group, quickly made ground in the straight on the wide outside and overhauled the opposition in the final furlong to win in fine fashion. Though handily placed, Cart Wheel could not pick up speed and was even displaced form the runner up berth by a late rallying Jersey Pride. Marcegalia, who had the benefit of a race run at Mysore, led all the way and then left the opposition stranded in the closing stages of the race to win as he pleased, the lower division of the race. River Island showed some spark while finishing second ahead of fancied Alcmene who is somehow not living up to the expectation generated by her performance as a three-year old. Astounding Blue closed with a rush but missed the third spot narrowly.

Mercutio was the favourite to win the 1100 metres Inauguration Plate but close to race time, Spark of Speed came in for some sustained support. However, both these runners were not in contention as Step In Style, from a forward position, drew clear in the final two furlongs to win in impression fashion. This was the first leg of the double scored by the trainer-jockey duo of Ganapathy and Prakash who were later in the day successful on Phoenix Fire. Stormy Affair was a well beaten second ahead of Pearl of Bangalore.

The presence of turf baron Dr M A M Ramaswamy after a longish absence of close to two years from the Bangalore track, saw inspired betting coming on Blue Dew but the well bred daughter of Placerville was sluggish at the start and was a lost cause well before the race came on the boil. Alluring who traveled within herself in the front, burst clear of the opposition to win in splendid fashion from Snow Dew.

Lesser fancied Nearco Master trained by Samar Singh, raced keen and broke into a useful lead on turning for home which held him in good stead as favourite Give Me The Money came home with a flourish. Jockey Ryan Marshall who got into problems early on by getting squeezed out form a prominent position, tried to win the race in the Stewards room by lodging what appeared to be a frivolous objection against the winner which was thrown out in quick time.

Gypsy Magic should win despite the tough ask

Gypsy Magic stormed home in her last run in the Bangalore Summer Million, getting the better of Fleet Indian who subsequently went on to win the Mysore Derby. As such, Gypsy Magic, despite having to concede weight to some good type of horses like Bourbon Bay who has beaten her in the past and Oban, should manage pull it off.

Cruising on all counts appears a good bet in the Air Force Trophy. But Cruising has raced so many times after her impressive over sprint but over longer trips. She has been brought back to the same trip. However, she has a threat emanating in the form of One Track Minded who was a smashing winner at Mysore in her last start.

Though Captivating is running over a sprint for the first time, she should prevail on her class. If she falters for any reason, Edmondo will be the beneficiary. Edmondo has shown improvement after being slapped with blinkers.

Raptor Force and She’s A Lady are worth a consideration. The latter has been fancied ahead of Calypso Star if only because the latter has always proved to be troublesome at the gates.

Systematic should be a good bet

M P Mahaesh trained Systematic found one better on three occasions. The small made talented daughter of Steinbeck has plenty of ability and she should break the jinx in the 1400 metres race that she is entered on the opening day of Bangalore Winter races. The highly rated Arabian Prince, despite running over a shorter trip, may make things exciting.

Celestial Way is being thrown to the deep end. She has a fight on her hands. Aristos won a seven furlong race at Mysore in record timing in impressive fashion despite having to change course at a crucial stage of the race. However, Suraj Narredu has preferred to go with Celestial Way. The speedy daughter of Orpen, Celestial Way was a smashing winner over an identical trip in summer. Celestial Way was an orphan foal and such horses generally take longer to come out of the trauma of having lost the mother at birth. Celestial Way’s run at Mysore was below par and if one ignores that run as not reflecting the potential of the got abroad filly, she deserves following even though she is taking on seasoned performers like Aristos and Diamond Hunter.

It is a toss up between Marcegalia and Alcemene in the Kungial Trophy (Dv II) while a similar scene awaits race goers in the upper division of the same race where Phoenix Reach and Cart Wheel are closely matched.

Senator, who is running after being gelded, may be seen in better light.

Winter Season to take off on Friday

The Bangalore Winter Season which is extended by two days will be a 34-day affair and will start n earnest from Friday. Though there is uncertainty about the lease of race course premises being extended by the government beyond December 31, 2009, there should be no problems in seeing through the winter season.

The Managing Committee of the club moved a resolution Monday evening to withdraw the case filed against the government in High Court but it may take a while for one to get a clear picture as the members of the club are opposed to such a move, having authorized the club to take the matter to the court to protect the interests of the club and get a good bargain in terms of the extent of land allocated and the financial help from the government.

The winter season has an exciting quality to it if only because of the induction of fresh batch of horses into racing. The two-year olds which will be making their debut in racing have always provoked added interest in the season if only because of the exercise of finding out the future classic prospects. This year the number of two year olds that are stationed at this centre is little higher than last year. However, there is fear that since the two-year olds moved late into the stables of Bangalore Turf Club rather late due to construction of stables, the races meant for these horses may not attract good quality horses in the early part of the season. However, as the season warms up, the number of juveniles taking part should steadily increase.

Unlike in the past when only a few stables commanded top brand horses, this year horses seem to be well spread out. Ganapathy has had a lean season in the last one year but his two-year olds appear to be in forward condition and give hope of a revival of fortunes. The Byramjis too have a decent lot. Trainers Irfan Ghatala and Arjun Mangalorkar also have good collection of youngsters and both these trainers are expected to hog the limelight. Trainer Padmanabhan has always been in the limelight year after year, getting the maximum out of his horses.

The winter season sees the migration of quite a few good three-year olds to other centers. Bangalore Derby winner Kingfisher Derby winner Aboline will be campaigned in Kolkata and he will straightaway run in the Calcutta 2000 Guineas and thereafter in the Derby. Depending on the quality of his performance, he will be either sent for the Indian Derby or brought back for the Bangalore Winter Derby says Arjun Mangalorkar. The other Kunigal Stud Farm produce Sans Pareil and Arabian Prince will also be campaigned at Kolkata. Darius Byramji trained Alviano who recorded a smashing win in Summer, beating a good lot of quality horses, has had his share of problems but he is the one watch as he has displayed great potential.

Trainer Padmanabhan has some exciting three-year olds under his care. The progeny of Hawk Wing, Becket has won both his outings in tremendous fashion despite missing out action for two seasons due to a setback. He is sure to dominate the races wherever he is campaigned. Messalina who ran a close second in the Mysore Derby, Gypsy Magic and D’Artagnan are horses which belong to the elite league. Classerville and Red Renegade are reasonable performers who can make their mark in regional classics. Among the older lot, Dancing Dynamite, Palazzio’s Sun and Rhapsidion Snow will surely win their share of races though the last named may be retired sooner than later.

Trainer Prasanna Kumar had a good summer season and since he skipped the Mysore Season, his horses are in the right mark to make a big impact. Neil Darashah has judiciously placed his horses to get remarkable results and he is another trainer worth following. He has a decent lot of youngsters who should win their share of races.

Traditionally, horses bred at Kunigal Stud Farm have dominated the juvenile races in the early part of the winter season. It remains to be seen whether the supremacy extends to this year as well. Judging by the progress of the progeny of Burden of Proof in the track work, such an eventuality is very much on cards.

The presence of foreign jockeys should add competitive element to racing.

Bangalore Turf Club does a reverse flip

The Bangalore Turf Club managing committee did a swift reverse flip on Monday under pressure from government nominees to move a resolution to sign the agreement for lease of land at the disputed Chikkajala tank bed area and also to withdraw the case filed in the High Court against the government’s move to evict them from the existing premises at the expiry of the lease on December 31, 2009. The High Court had heard BTC counsel on Monday and had posted December 14 as the next day for hearing after issuing notices to the government departments.

A meeting of the Managing Committee was convened on Monday to discuss the problems arising out of the reported outbreak of equine disease in the army breeding establishments at Uttar Pradesh and the subsequent ban imposed on movement of horses and personnel to North India, especially UP. However, the elected members of the managing committee were taken by surprise when Principal Secretary to the Finance Department and the Police Commissioner who are ex-officio members on the committee arrived at the meeting and told the members that they had to take up the matter of signing the lease deed immediately and also withdraw the case from High Court.

Though the resolution was not listed on the agenda, the same was moved with Chairman Vivek Ubhaykar, Dr Srinivasa Gowda, Kiran Basappa and Kumaraswamy opposing the resolution while all the government nominees along with elected committee members Sydney Moses, Harindra Shetty, Ronald Pinto, Kenneth Pinto and Lokesh voting in favor.

The decision of the managing committee has raised a huge furore and BTC members are up in arms against the decision. The members are planning a suo moto emergency meeting of the General Body to vote out the committee members who acted against the interests of the club. It may be recalled that the BTC General Body had authorized the Managing Committee to approach courts for redress and that their contention is that any change in decision with regard to the legal suit had to go back to the general body. The resolution moved is termed illegal as the government nominees also voted when they were interested parties and that the Managing Committee had exceeded its brief.

While the majority of members have no dispute about building a new race course, all that they are demanding is that the land given should be free of any encumbrance and that the government should help financially and give enough time for the new infrastructure to come up. By signing the lease for land at Chikkajala, the members fear that they would be compromising the interests of the club because they will lose hold over their present venue as the government may go back on its verbal assurance after the lease formalities are completed. The government has not given anything in writing about extension of the lease and in fact, the Public Works Department has been repeatedly sending notices to the club to vacate on the scheduled date. The court option is to protect the interest of the sport and the club in the long run. Given the fluid political situation, if there is any change in the scenario, the new government is not duty bound to honor a verbal commitment.

Ever since Yeddyurappa came to power, he has been eyeing the race course land and has gone out of the way to assure the club that he would do anything for them provided they comply with his wish of signing the lease for new land and relocate as early as possible. The Chief Minister has stated that he would like to develop the race course land as a beautiful park with a 200 plus storey structure meant as a tourist attraction. The BTC land is estimated to cost over Rs 10, 000 crores at present market value and the land that is being offered in exchange is less than Rs 100 crores, with the onus on developing the infrastructure at a cost of over Rs 350 crores falling on BTC which at present is starved of funds.



The jinx of race course

The race course is located in the heart of the city at a place originally know as Malenahalli. The extent of land is little less than 80 acres. The turf club has been asked to relocate citing traffic congestion as early as 1930s by the then Municipality. . Later successive governments since the 60`s have made attempts to get the race course shifted.

Originally, the Jakkur Air Strip was identified as suitable for race course. Later the tank bend at Jakkur was finalized but before the formalities could take place, Bangalore received the highest rainfall in the history of the city in the late 80’s and the whole place got filled up with water and the plan to acquire this land was shelved.

Interestingly, right from the time B D Jatti was the Chief Minister, there have been attempts to shift the race course. Devraj Urs, Ramakrishna Hegde, S R Bommai, Veerendra Patil, S M Krishna were unsuccessful in shifting the race course as they did not complete their full term. The then governments had not only offered land but also indicated its willingness to help financially. Deve Gowda was the only Chief Minister who did not make any move to shift the race course.

Now Chief Minister Yeddyurappa has been unsparing in his efforts. The government has run into rough weather and if by chance, this government goes, the jinx of race course affecting the tenure of Chief Minister’s meddling with race course land will haunt anyone to even think of consider shifting the race course in future.

High Court posts BTC petition to December 14

The Karnataka High Court on Monday heard the Writ Petition filed by Bangalore Turf Club against being evicted from the existing premises on December 31, 2009. The government of Karnataka had served notice to the Bangalore Turf Club to vacate the existing premises at the expiry of lease deed and had made it clear that it is not considering any extension of time. The High Court has posted December 14 as the next date of hearing. The court has issued notices to the government to file its reply in three weeks time.

The Government of Karnataka had issued repeated notices to BTC to comply with its notice. The government had agreed to allot about 95 acres of land at Chikkajala which is being disputed as tank bend and the existing rules exclude use of tank bend for racing or commercial activity. The BTC Special General Body had authorized the Managing Committee to approach court for redress.

Secretary of Karnataka Racehorse Owners’ Association Arvind Raghavan said that the High Court has said that it would apply its mind about giving an interim order after considering the reply of the government and rejoinders filed by the counsel of the club..

The turf club has contended that as per the documents recently discovered by them, the existing race course was built on the land which was given as government grant for conducting race activities in the year 1863 and the terms of the grant were codified by the Government Order of 1915 and registered agreement of 1923., both of which clearly stated that the then Race Committee and presently the BTC, shall be entitled to remain in possession of the existing premises till racing activity is conducted there. As such, the turf club had a right over the land as a grantee and they cannot be construed as lessee which is the basis for the government’s direction to shift it from the existing land as per the lease deed forced on the club.

The BTC has prayed the High Court that the club had intention to shift to a new venue if they were given a bigger chunk of land which is free from any litigation. BTC has also requested the High Court to direct the government to give the club three to four years to build a new race course from the date of allotment of a suitable land.

No outbreak of any equine disease in Northern India

The NHBSI and NRCE have made it clear that there is no outbreak of any infectious disease pertaining to breeding establishments in Northern India. The NHBSI President F F Wadia has issued two clarifications in two days, stressing that there is no need to take any panic reaction and the situation is as normal as it was a few days ago. His clarification is a clear signal to turf clubs in the country which had issued advisory against traveling to breeding establishments in Northern India to withdraw the same before it could cause further harm to the interests of breeders.

The confusion and panic was the result of the letter written by Secretary of National Horse Breeding Society of India Shivlal Daga about the possibility of a contagious disease having affected army’s breeding establishments. The panic is still to die down despite the clarifications issued by both NHBSI and NRCE. The turf clubs are yet to act on the clarifications and as a result, owners and trainers intending to visit stud farms in these areas for purchase of yearlings have been grounded at their own home centers.

Dr F F Wadia has already said that there is no need to panic and that as per reports obtained through NRCE, there is no outbreak of any disease anywhere in Northern India which could cause turf clubs to take extreme steps of preventing any type of contact. Shivlal Daga has also clarified that he had only advised the clubs to keep the horses coming from Northern India in quarantine for a few days before allowing them to integrate into local population. However, his first letter has generated a huge controversy and many breeders have been critical of Daga for issuing an advisory without even getting detailed report from NRCE..

While the turf clubs last year could be faulted for being slow to react to equine influenza outbreak which consumed most of the winter season last year, this time out they have gone on the overdrive. Barring Royal Calcutta Turf Club which has withdrawn the advisory, the Bangalore Turf Club and Hyderabad Race Club are yet to act following the clarifications received by them. The HRC is expected to meet later in the day to decide on the issue while Secretary of Bangalore Turf Club, Nirmal Prasad said that their club would take up the issue on Monday..

In the meanwhile, trainer Bezan Chenoy who was on his way to the Airport to reach Delhi had a cancel as he was told by other professionals about the advisory issued by BTC and HRC. The RWITC, however, has not issued any guidelines.

Ameeta Mehra of Usha Stud Farm has said that the confusion caused by the letter written by Shivlal Daga had thrown things out of gear and the subsequent clarification has not helped.