As we reach the end of Indian Racing’s lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has effected the sport worldwide, one can’t but help look towards the future with a forced optimism. Our various race clubs are coming out with their fixture lists and on October 18th Bangalore Turf Club conducted 8 Mock races with full fields which hopefully was a dress rehearsal for the real thing scheduled in the garden city for the 1st of November. While India gears up to start racing again, it’s pretty obvious that once again the Clubs are missing the forest for the trees. I have always maintained that it’s ..read more

After the havoc wreaked by Covid-19 on the world as a whole and on the sport of racing too, we’re starting to adjust to the new normal. Japan and Hong Kong once again showed how far ahead of the world they are, in that they hardly lost a fixture to the pandemic and their handles continued to soar at stratospheric levels. Both Europe and USA too have been able to continue racing behind closed doors since June in the former’s case and without a break Stateside. Meanwhile in what could be the most backward racing jurisdiction in the world; India, there’s a glimmer of hope that we could start raci ..read more

After the havoc wreaked by Covid-19 on the world as a whole and on the sport of racing too, we’re starting to adjust to the new normal. While Japan and Hong Kong once again showed how far ahead of the world they are, in the sense that they hardly lost a fixture to the pandemic and their handles continued to soar at stratospheric levels. Europe and USA have also been able to continue racing behind closed doors since June in the former’s case and without a break Stateside. Meanwhile in what could be the most backward racing jurisdiction in the world; India there’s a glimmer of hope that we could ..read more

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc in every sphere of life both social and economic. The racing industry is no exception, the Kentucky Derby and the other Triple Crown races have been postponed from the summer to autumn. The English Classics have been postponed indefinitely. Amidst all this are jurisdictions which have shown the world how racing can be run in a Post-Corona world. Japan and Hong Kong which are the world standard in horse racing and the racing business have continued racing behind closed doors. As I pen this, Happy Valley in Hong Kong has started to allow spectators on tonight’s racing ..read more

The first Sunday of February beckons and all roads literally and figuratively lead to Mahalakshmi in Mumbai for The Indian Derby. While the purse on offer has nearly halved it has done nothing to dim the prestige of what is arguably India’s biggest race to win. Every regional Derby winner barring Ooty is there in the field which might just be the first time that has ever happened. Since most columnists will give you their opinions I may as well put out a preview and a description of every runner, since I spend a lot of time on long flights and road journeys at this time of the year. With 20 ru ..read more

It’s been a long time since I wrote, it might have been writer’s block or just generally being depressed at the current state of affairs in our sport. Didn’t know what to write about but thought the general disconnect the Clubs have with the public would be a good subject to touch upon. One of the phenomenons of the past decade has been the rise of Social media. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and many more such apps where absolute nobodies have become,”influencers” from pretty much nothing to getting tickets to fight elections from major political parties as a result of the ..read more

As the racing season winds down for the year one thing is very apparent things aren’t going well for Indian racing at all. As the insane tax of 28% on betting cripples our already poorly run pro- amateur racing,”Clubs” the first casualty is always stake money that they pay out. I’m a big critic of this but in the current environment we all have to feel the pain, it’s simply put a manifestation of an uncaring and incompetent government and an incompetent administration as far as running racing goes. That apart tough times sometimes mean that for the sake of survival change is the need of the ho ..read more

A very intriguing and interesting race for the Invitation Cup will take place on Sunday the Fourth of March at Calcutta. A compact field of ten will face the starter, with no standout 4 year old emerging after all the regional Derbies or the Indian Derby this could well be the year for the elder generation to strike a blow after drawing a blank since the race was opened to older horses. The weight for age terms are far more balanced now instead of the farcical five kilo difference of previous years, now the difference stands at 2 kilos with Fillies enjoying a further kilo and a half sex allowa ..read more

The first Sunday of February means Indian Derby Day as RWITC hosts the one race annually that actually brings in casual fans through the turnstiles. This year the prize money on offer has taken a real dip and the winner will take home over a Crore less than what Desert God earned in 2016. Whatever the reasons may be this is not a good development and one hopes to see the Derby purse go back to what it ought to be, exponentially higher than any other race run in India. That said, let’s face it we all race for glory, the money is good and all that but every owner dreams of winning THE Indian Der ..read more

Indian racing goes through a torrid period under the new GST regime, from an average tax of 8% on turnover our learned government has slammed us with an exponential increase to take it up to a crazy 28%. Further to that they’ve decided to tax the sale of horses at 12% something that ought to net the Indian Government a princely Rs. 5 Crores or so annually in a country where revenue collection runs to over Rs. 8500 Billion per month. The GST regime which was supposed to simplify life has further complicated matters. My home state of Punjab has seen a drastic decrease in revenues and hopefully o ..read more