B R Sharan Kumar

  Elpenor wins Poonawalla Million in breath-taking fashion Sulaiman Attaollahi trained Elpenor won the Gr 1 Poonawalla Breeders’ Multi-Million, a terms race for three-year-olds, the biggest race for first season runners, in breath-taking fashion at the Mahalakshmi on Sunday. The progeny of Elpenor unleashed such a devastating turn of foot that it had the entire opposition stranded. Elpenor cut a fast timing of one minute 21.542 seconds with jockey Suraj Narredu not having to go all out.   By Sharan Kumar Sulaiman Attaollahi trained Elpenor won the Gr 1 Poonawalla Breeders’ Multi-Million, a terms race for three-year-olds, the biggest race for first-season runners, in breath-taking fashion at the Mahalakshmi on Sunday. The progeny of Elpenor unleashed such a devastating turn of foot that it had the entire opposition stranded. Elpenor cut a fast timing of one minute 21.542 seconds with jockey Suraj Narredu not having to go all out. Suraj thus fulfilled his long-standing...

  Dress as you feel says British Jockey Club, drops regulations By Rolf Johnson   I would feel I was undressed if I went racing without wearing my Indian Invitation Cup necktie, brown with the insignia of each Indian race club picked out in gold. India’s aristocracy were ‘posh’ well before the British took their voyages back and forth to the Empire. That travel had to be First Class -  P ort  O ut,  S tarboard  H ome and the word was added to the English language.   The British Jockey Club has relaxed its Rules on Dress Codes, except at Royal Ascot and the Queen Elizabeth Grandstand on Derby Day when morning suits with waistcoats and top hats remain obligatory. Now nearly anything goes and ‘Posh’ is a dirty word. Is it old-fashioned to regret decline in standards, or must we acknowledge that times have changed and people must be permitted freedom of choice? You judge.   “C’mon Dover! Move your bloomin’ arse!” blew the cover of common...

  Turf Clubs should give serious attention to glitches By Sharan Kumar Ever since the turf clubs in India stopped using the satellites for telecasting races between centres and went for the P2P system of communication to relay races through the internet to cut costs, there have been many glitches. The streaming is not continuous and often, there is a shocking delay, with some racecourses getting the relay well after the race has been completed.   Recently the Madras Race Club had to refund all the bets of the last race of Mumbai racing because the relay of races did not sync with real-time. Even at Kolkata, the relay of the last race of Mumbai racing was yet to start but the race had been completed.   Our Kolkata correspondent reports: `` The Mumbai inter-venue betting in RCTC, witnessed a strange operation of live streaming of the last event starting much after the race results became common knowledge, through private channels. The RCTC bookmakers got a ...

    Racing handicapped by addiction to betting   By Rolf Johnson   The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has just handed out a record ban to trainer Ronan McNally – 12 years for “running horses in order to obtain handicap marks not reflective of their ability”. This crime has always been ‘part of the game’ because addiction to handicaps and the betting on them is all that ensures survival of many. Here are some reflections on what some call an ‘art’; others call a ‘science’; and others call the besetting sin of the sport of horseracing - handicapping.   Admiral Rous (1795-1877) held inflexible and rarely questioned opinions. Through strength of character and selfless study of all matters racing he was anointed ‘Dictator of the Turf’ formulating the principles on which handicapping racehorses is based. Yet he himself insisted: “Handicaps are a boon to bad horses with no other prospect of success.”   Before taking up the position of officia...

  Indian Derby offering King's Ransom!   By Sharan Kumar The Gr 1 Indian Derby will be run on Sunday, February 5 with all the attendant glamour and glitz. Trainer Pesi Shroff will be there to extract his Kings Ransom by attempting to win the most coveted event in Indian racing for the third time in a row. He is taking no chances and he is also coming with supernatural powers to extract a King's Ransom! The Indian Derby has an aura of its own which has not diminished with the passage of time. Sponsor or no sponsor, the Managing Committee of Royal Western India Turf Club is leaving no stone unturned to make the event as spectacular as possible promising an evening of ``drinks, food, music’’ and exciting action on the race track. The day’s racing will start in the afternoon with a couple of races being scheduled to be run under lights, with the party continuing for the guests late into the night. The Indian Derby is a social event as much as a racing event which is why ...

  Big setback for online betting on horse racing By Sharan Kumar   The online betting operations on horse racing in India have suffered a setback with many payment gateways withdrawing their services.  Razorpay, India’s leading payment gateway provider has informed the online platforms that the UPI payment option will be discontinued from December 31 due to regulatory changes, according to information available in the public domain.   The change is reportedly due to NPCI directing payment gateway service providers to stop using the UPI platform for facilitating payments related to online betting. As its against law   After this post was published, the Razorpay corporate communications team reportedly stated that their message was erroneously sent out to a few gaming merchants. The payment platform has clarified that operations will continue as usual.   However, the turf clubs in India which conduct online betting operations have put out a ...

  There can never be another Frankie   This Is Your Life, one of British television’s most popular programmes until it closed in 2003, in November 1998 featured Frankie Dettori. Friends, family and celebrities clambered on stage to embrace and pay homage to the star of the show who always had to be ‘safe’ enough to have their CV exposed.  Frankie qualified, just: one of the ‘friends’ was the fabled, occasionally notorious, professional punter Barney Curley.     By Rolf Johnson   This Is Your Life, one of British television’s most popular programmes until it closed in 2003, in November 1998 featured Frankie Dettori. Friends, family and celebrities clambered on stage to embrace and pay homage to the star of the show who always had to be ‘safe’ enough to have their CV exposed.  Frankie qualified, just: one of the ‘friends’ was the fabled, occasionally notorious, professional punter Barney Curley.   Some would say in 1998, when Detto...