The enduring charm of the Bangalore Derby

 

Glanders has moved beyond a single source

By Sharan Kumar

 

What began as a contained outbreak linked to a single stud farm has now widened, exposing serious gaps in tracing, accountability and response. Until recently, all positive cases could be traced back to one facility in Coimbatore, offering a fragile sense of control. That comfort has now vanished. Horses from another stud farm are reportedly showing symptoms, throwing the narrative into disarray and underlining how far the infection may already have travelled. With fresh positives across multiple centres, repeat samples from unexpected quarters and no clear transmission trail, Indian racing faces a hard reality: the crisis is no longer about isolated cases, but a systemic failure in containment and oversight.

 

With two more horses testing positive at Hyderabad, hopes of racing resuming there before the regular monsoon season in July now appear remote. Hyderabad, in fact, has recorded the highest number of glanders cases so far, with repeated movement of horses between the racecourse and the Coimbatore stud farm further complicating matters. One more positive at the stud farm only tightens the knot.

 

What remains conspicuously absent is any serious effort by turf authorities to establish the source of the infection, the timeline of its spread, or whether glanders was prevalent long before it was formally acknowledged through the National Research Centre on Equines. These are not academic questions. They go to the heart of containment, accountability and recovery.

 

The pattern is hard to ignore. All horses that tested positive in Bangalore, and the lone case in Mysore, originated from the Coimbatore stud farm. The same applies to Hyderabad. Whether the integration of non-thoroughbreds into Hyderabad stables set off the chain of events, eventually culminating in a mare carrying the infection back to the stud farm, remains a question nobody seems keen to ask, let alone answer.

 

The narrative, however, has acquired a fresh and unsettling twist. In the latest round of testing, the National Research Centre on Equines has sought repeat samples from five horses from Bangalore. One of them is an older horse housed at the Bangalore Amateur Riders Institute, a detail that sits uneasily with the earlier assumption that the problem was confined to young stock from a single source.

 

More significantly, one of the repeat samples has been sought from a two-year-old based at a stud farm in Punjab. This development underlines a sobering reality: glanders is no longer a problem confined to three racecourses or a single stud farm. The implied geographical spread raises serious concerns and makes the situation undeniably alarming.

 

That said, other possibilities cannot be ruled out. It is conceivable that common veterinarians attending multiple facilities, shared syces, or lapses in biosecurity at some stage may have led to contamination. At present, however, these remain matters of conjecture rather than established fact. The absence of a clearly identified transmission trail only deepens the uncertainty surrounding the outbreak.

 

The horses concerned belong to trainers Inayathulla, Dominic, Irfan Ghatala and Darius Byramji, while one horse, whose sample has also been flagged for retesting, happens to be a gift to BARI. In a sport that thrives on irony, that particular gift has now turned into a curse, further blurring what was already a troubling picture.

 

As highlighted by an international expert during a recent webinar, the incubation period for glanders can extend up to six months. This creates a deeply uncomfortable reality: a horse may be infected, test negative initially, and surface as positive much later. In that context, the disease is unlikely to have arrived overnight. It may have been simmering, unnoticed or unacknowledged, for months.

 

The movement of two-year-olds from stud farms to racecourses has now been halted, further paralysing an already fragile system. In Bangalore, results for the entire stable population are in, but repeat samples have been sought for five horses. Experience suggests this is rarely reassuring. Horses have already been put down at Hyderabad, five in Bangalore and one in Mysore. Mysore has tested all its stabled horses, with results awaited.

 

The situation is becoming increasingly tricky. Turf clubs must immediately isolate horses originating from the Coimbatore stud farm, subject them to repeated testing, and only then consider reintegration. More importantly, authorities have to explore practical ways to retrieve the situation and restart racing, rather than remaining frozen until every last sample returns clear. At some stage, a call has to be taken.

 

Resetting the clock by another three months each time a fresh horse tests positive risks turning the process into a never-ending loop. For decades, Indian thoroughbreds remained free of glanders even when the disease was considered endemic elsewhere. That this protection has now been breached points squarely to a collective drop in guard.

 

What is most disconcerting is the absence of accountability. No agency, authority or individual appears prepared to own responsibility for the mess, leaving the sport to pay the price for failures that were entirely avoidable.

 

Complete eradication, at least in the short term, appears unrealistic. Glanders is endemic in India, and the possibility of sporadic positives cannot be ruled out. The more pragmatic objective should be containment: keeping horses at turf clubs safe through stringent biosecurity and repeat testing.

 

One final and uncomfortable issue demands attention. Reports from affected centres suggest that some trainers have left matters entirely to jamadars and stable staff, remaining absent from the racecourse. This is unacceptable. Trainer attendance must be made compulsory. The responsibility for identifying symptoms, reporting concerns and ensuring compliance rests squarely with the trainer, alongside the jamadar and stable staff. Crucially, stable staff are the most exposed and vulnerable, and must be properly trained and protected to ensure they do not themselves become victims of the disease.

 

The issue acquires an added dimension when viewed against developments elsewhere. In May 2025, six human cases of glanders were confirmed in Siquijor in the Philippines, prompting authorities to activate a One Health Task Force to contain the outbreak. While no deaths were reported, it marked the first documented instance of human infection in that region. For Indian racing authorities, this presents a fresh headache. Until now, glanders in India has largely been viewed through an animal-health lens, a distinction that can no longer be taken lightly as the disease spreads and scrutiny intensifies.

 

 

In a crisis of this magnitude, delegation without oversight is not management. It is abdication.