WHEN PERSONAL CONDUCT BRINGS THE SPORT INTO DISREPUTE

 WHEN PERSONAL CONDUCT BRINGS THE SPORT INTO DISREPUTE

Reports emerging from Kolkata’s racing circuit regarding an alleged altercation involving a licensed trainer have sent shockwaves through the fraternity. If even a fraction of what is being discussed in racing corridors is true, the episode represents a deeply disturbing breach of professional ethics and a serious embarrassment to Indian horse racing.

Horse racing is not merely a sport; it is an industry built on trust, integrity and public confidence. Trainers are custodians of owners’ investments, role models for young professionals, and representatives of the turf in the public eye. Any allegation of financial exploitation, misuse of borrowed funds for betting, or personal betrayal, if proven, strikes at the very foundation of that trust.

Even more alarming is the suggestion that a private dispute spilled into a public racing environment, allegedly culminating in a confrontation at the stables. Racing premises are places of discipline and decorum—not theatres for personal drama. Such scenes, if allowed to occur unchecked, reduce the sport to ridicule and hand ammunition to its critics.

The racing industry already battles issues of credibility, transparency, and public perception. It cannot afford licensed professionals whose alleged off-track behaviour mirrors recklessness, moral irresponsibility, or financial indiscipline. Whether on or off the track, those privileged to hold licences are expected to uphold minimum standards of character and restraint.

Equally important is the role of authorities and regulators. Silence or inaction in the face of such episodes—real or alleged—only fuels cynicism. If complaints exist, they must be examined dispassionately. If misconduct is established, accountability must follow, irrespective of status or connections.

Horse racing in India does not suffer from lack of talent; it suffers from tolerance of behaviour that would be unacceptable in any other professional sport. The time has come to draw a firm line: personal conduct that disgraces the turf has no place in the saddle, the stable, or the weighing room.

The sport deserves better.

The public deserves better.

And the many honest professionals within racing deserve not to be tarnished by the alleged failings of a few.

PLAYERS AS REFEREES: HOW OWNER-STEWARDS ARE POISONING INDIAN HORSE RACING

OWNERS IN THE STEWARDS’ BOX: THE ORIGINAL SIN OF INDIAN HORSE RACING

Horse racing does not get corrupted gradually. It gets corrupted instantly—the very moment a racehorse owner is allowed to sit as a Stand Member, Club Member, or worse, a Sitting Steward.

This is not a grey area. This is not a “perception problem.” This is a structural conflict of interest, and it strikes at the heart of sporting integrity.

You cannot be player and referee in the same arena. Yet Indian horse racing continues to pretend that this basic principle of governance does not apply to it.

---

THE FATAL CONFLICT

A racehorse owner’s interests are simple and absolute:

• Their horses

• Their trainers

• Their jockeys

• Their betting positions

• Their long-term stable economics

A steward’s duty is equally absolute:

• Impartial enforcement of the Rules of Racing

• Fearless interrogation of suspicious rides

• Protection of the betting public

• Preservation of the sport’s credibility

These two roles are mutually exclusive.

The moment an owner occupies a steward’s chair, every enquiry becomes compromised:

• Is the jockey being questioned because the ride was bad — or because it hurt a rival?

• Is an enquiry dropped because it might implicate a friendly trainer?

• Is a “benefit of doubt” granted because tomorrow it could be their horse in the dock?

Even if the steward-owner acts honestly, the damage is already done. Justice must not only be done — it must be seen to be done. And in this setup, it never is.

---

SILENCE, SELECTIVITY, AND CONVENIENT BLINDNESS

Ask any seasoned punter, professional jockey, or backstretch worker and they will tell you the same story:

• Certain stables enjoy remarkable immunity

• Certain trainers are “never available” for questioning

• Certain jockeys repeatedly escape meaningful scrutiny

• Certain favourites fail so spectacularly that explanation becomes impossible

Yet enquiries are either cosmetic or non-existent.

Why?

Because no steward wants to pull a thread that might unravel their own network.

Indian racing has perfected the art of selective outrage:

• Minor offenders punished swiftly

• Outsiders made examples of

• Insiders protected by procedural fog

This is not incompetence.

This is design.

---

THE PUNTER PAYS THE PRICE

Horse racing survives on one fragile pillar: public trust.

When punters believe:

• Results are manipulated

• Rides are choreographed

• Enquiries are theatre

• Stewards are conflicted

They walk away.

And they are walking away.

Empty stands, shrinking pools, collapsing credibility — all while administrators scratch their heads and blame “market conditions” or “changing entertainment habits.”

No.

The reason is simpler and more brutal:

People do not bet on a rigged courtroom.

---

GLOBAL NORMS, LOCAL FARCE

In serious racing jurisdictions worldwide:

• Stewards are independent professionals

• Owners are barred from governance roles

• Cooling-off periods are mandatory

• Conflicts are disclosed and enforced

In India?

Owners sit in judgment over a sport in which they have millions at stake.

This is not tradition.

This is institutionalised conflict.

---

THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

If Indian horse racing wants even a chance at redemption, the reforms must be uncompromising:

1. Absolute ban on racehorse owners being Stand Members, Club Members, or Sitting Stewards

2. Independent, professionally trained stewards with fixed tenure

3. Full public disclosure of conflicts of interest

4. Transparent, reasoned enquiry reports made public

5. Accountability for stewards — not immunity

Anything less is cosmetic surgery on a terminal disease.

---

FINAL WORD

Horse racing does not die because of bad horses, bad jockeys, or even bad administration.

It dies when governance is captured by self-interest.

As long as owners sit in the stewards’ box, Indian horse racing will remain what it tragically is today:

A sport where outcomes are questioned, integrity is doubted, and the honest punter is the only guaranteed loser.

This is not reform versus status quo anymore.

This is integrity versus extinction.

A.SANDESH & THE BEZALEL FARCE — A CASE THAT DEMANDS EXEMPLARY JUSTICE

A.SANDESH & THE BEZALEL FARCE — A CASE THAT DEMANDS EXEMPLARY JUSTICE

What unfolded in the final race at Mahalaxmi on 21st December 2025 was not merely a defeat of an odds-on favourite — it was a public mockery of racing integrity played out in full view of thousands.

Jockey A. Sandesh, astride BEZALEL, rode in a manner that can only be described as bewildering, defensive, and inexplicably passive. At a time when urgency was demanded, the so-called champion rider appeared ALL AT SEA — producing just three perfunctory whips out of the eight permitted, never once asking the horse a serious question when the race was still within reach.

To the naked eye — and to any honest racing professional — BEZALEL was openly hooked. There was no vigour, no conviction, no attempt to win commensurate with the weight of public money invested. Even a toddler could sense something was amiss.

An Enquiry has been opened, but let it be said plainly:

This is not a borderline case.

This is not a “judgement error”.

This is not a matter to be buried under routine explanations.

This was DAYLIGHT ROBBERY of punter faith.

The RWITC once prided itself on being uncompromising — errant jockeys were sent on a leather hunt, not offered soft landings. That legacy is now on trial.

If this case is allowed to pass with a slap on the wrist, then the message is chillingly clear:

👉 On-money favourites may be stopped with impunity

👉 Punter money is expendable

👉 Integrity is negotiable

This enquiry must not merely exist — it must bite.

Anything short of exemplary punishment will confirm what the common punter already fears:

that justice in Indian racing is selective, timid, and afraid of big names.

The sport cannot survive another Bezalel.

The public deserves answers.

And this time — justice must be seen, not just spoken of.

INDIAN HORSE RACING: A SYNDICATE MASQUERADING AS A SPORT

Indian Horse Racing: A Syndicate Masquerading as a Sport 

Indian horse racing has ceased to be a sport. It is now a closed syndicate, run by invisible hands, where the punter is nothing more than prey. The system is so brazen that deception is no longer hidden—it is performed in plain sight.

Every other race day delivers the same farce: odds-on favourites imploding, form books rendered useless, and “explanations” so insulting that they assume the betting public to be intellectually vacant. *This is not competition. This is theatre—scripted, rehearsed, and monetised.* 

What makes the rot incurable is the total abdication of authority.

The Stewards, entrusted with safeguarding integrity, have reduced themselves to rubber stamps in blazers. There is no appetite to interrogate, no courage to question repeat patterns, and no urgency to protect the sport. Inquiries are conducted only to create the illusion that something was done; conclusions are pre-decided; files are closed, and silence restored.

At the centre of this decay stands a powerful trainer in Western India, operating with such impunity that the damage inflicted on racing’s credibility appears deliberate. Results defy logic with numbing regularity, yet scrutiny never follows. In any functioning jurisdiction, such a record would invite relentless investigation. In India, it invites protection.

Inside the administration, the truth is neither hidden nor denied—it is managed.

Half the establishment feeds off the system, directly or indirectly. The other half—spineless, compromised, or intimidated—watches in mute acceptance as the sport bleeds. Governance has been replaced by collusion, regulation by selective blindness, and leadership by convenient amnesia.

The consequences are catastrophic.

Honest professionals are suffocated.

Genuine owners are driven away.

The punter—whose money sustains this ecosystem—is systematically fleeced.

Indian horse racing is not dying because of lack of horses, jockeys, or fans. It is dying because corruption has been normalised and accountability deliberately dismantled.

This is not decline.

This is capture.

And unless the cartel is confronted—by fearless stewards, independent oversight, and public exposure—the sport will continue its march towards irrelevance, remembered not for its champions, but for the confidence with which it cheated its own people.

 EXCITING INDIAN 2000 GUINEAS ON THE CARDS

The spotlight shifts to Mahalaxmi on Sunday, December 21, as the prestigious Grade 1 Indian 2000 Guineas, the second Classic of the Mumbai racing season, takes centre stage. Even in the absence of a title sponsor, the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) has ensured that the race will lose none of its traditional grandeur, promising a spectacle rich in quality, competition, and excitement.

Adding to the festive atmosphere, RWITC has announced a free contest of skill for racegoers, with an attractive total prize pool of ₹25 lakh. Entry forms will be available at the Members’ and First Enclosure gates, where participants will be required to predict the winner of the Classic. The top three selections will be rewarded handsomely with ₹15 lakh, ₹5 lakh, and ₹2.5 lakh, while a further ₹2.5 lakh has been earmarked for consolation prizes.

Contested by three-year-old colts, fillies, and geldings over the metric mile (1,600 metres), the Indian 2000 Guineas marks the first leg of the coveted Indian Triple Crown, followed by the Indian Derby and the Indian St. Leger. A select field of ten promising sophomores will line up for honours, competing for a total prize money of ₹75 lakh, with the winner set to pocket a handsome ₹45 lakh.

Heading the list of contenders is Zacharias, the high-class colt from Pesi Shroff’s powerful stable. The Pune Derby winner has been turning heads in his morning trials and, with champion Irish jockey Oisin Murphy likely to be in the saddle, Zacharias shapes as a formidable favourite.

Western Star, the unbeaten colt trained by Narendra Lagad, brings an aura of invincibility into the Classic. Sharp in his recent victory and equally impressive in subsequent track work, he is expected to play a major role, provided he sees out the metric mile.

From Adhirajsingh Jodha’s yard, Baychimo arrives with solid credentials, having won three of his four starts. His authoritative victory over Rosario in an open handicap underlined his class and resilience. Stable companion Sovereign King, the Bangalore Colts winner during the summer, failed to stay the Derby distance of ten furlongs behind Fynbos but has since shown marked improvement in mock races and morning trials, suggesting he could be a strong late challenger back at a mile.

Completing a highly competitive line-up is Big Bay, trained by Malesh Narredu. The winner of the Poonawalla Breeders’ Multi-Million, Big Bay has rediscovered his best form with a decisive win over Eagle Day and looks a lively outsider capable of springing a surprise.

With a blend of proven performers, exciting improvers, and Classic aspirations on the line, the Indian 2000 Guineas promises a thrilling contest that is sure to keep racing enthusiasts on the edge of their seats until the final stride.

 

‘ONE TO CHERISH’ PERISHES — AND WITH HIM, MYSORE RACING COLLAPSES

Suraj Shaw-trained ONE TO CHERISH has succumbed to Glanders, and with his tragic demise, the curtain has effectively fallen on the Mysore Winter Racing Season 2025–26.

Disturbing reports suggest that the horse was already ill upon arrival at the Mysore Race Club. The exact date of his entry into the station remains unclear. If these reports hold true, the responsibility squarely lies with the Club’s Veterinary Department, whose alleged lapse in enforcing bio-security protocols has proved devastating. This single failure has plunged owners, trainers, jockeys, and stable staff into deep uncertainty about their immediate future.

Ironically, the very Glanders containment protocols enforced by the race clubs have resulted in a self-inflicted wound. What was meant to safeguard racing has instead brought it to a grinding halt.

As matters stand, racing at Mysore and Bangalore is unlikely to resume before May 2026. Hyderabad now hangs in the balance, with its fate dependent on the outcome of the next cycle of testing. Should results prove favourable, racing there may recommence sometime in January 2026 — and that too remains far from certain.

The cost of complacency has been severe. Indian racing is once again paying the price.

FINGER'S CROSSED @ MYSORE RACE CLUB: Glanders Test to Decide Racing’s Fate

 

Fingers Crossed at Mysore: Glanders Test to Decide Racing’s Fate on MONDAY - 15th December 2025

The Mysore Race Club (MRC) is anxiously awaiting the final outcome of glanders testing that will ultimately determine whether racing can resume at the centre next week. With Indian racing already reeling under the shadow of bio-security scares, Mysore now finds itself holding its breath as the final report on a single horse could decide the immediate future of the season.

The concern revolves around the two-year-old bay colt One To Cherish, from whom multiple samples were sent to the National Research Centre for Equines (NRCE). In all, four samples were dispatched for testing, and results received on Friday brought partial relief, with three samples returning negative for glanders.

However, the process is not yet complete. A final confirmatory test is currently being conducted using the paired serum sample and nasal swabs, taken in triplicate, from One To Cherish. The definitive result is expected to be declared on Saturday, or at the latest by Monday morning.

The outcome is being watched closely not just by Mysore stakeholders, but by the wider Indian racing fraternity, especially in light of recent disruptions at other centres. A negative result would provide much-needed reassurance and momentum, while an adverse finding could trigger further delays and heightened bio-security protocols.

For now, Mysore waits — fingers crossed — as the final laboratory verdict holds the key to whether the thud of hooves will return to the track next week, or whether racing will once again be forced into an unscheduled pause under the looming threat of glanders.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GLANDERS OUTBREAK CATASTROPHE IN INDIAN RACING?

 

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GLANDERS OUTBREAK CATASTROPHE IN INDIAN RACING?

Let’s stop sugar-coating it — the Indian turf authorities themselves have engineered this disaster. Through negligence, indifference, and a stunning lack of professional accountability, they have dragged the sport into a biosecurity crisis of their own making.

The Glanders outbreak didn’t “happen.”

It was allowed to happen.

Allowed by clubs that refused to treat a fatal, protocol-bound disease with the gravity it demanded. Hyderabad has already been decimated, and the remaining centres are shamelessly lining up to repeat the same mistakes, sleepwalking into chaos.

This is what happens when race clubs operate with prehistoric administrative structures, outdated veterinary oversight, zero crisis-readiness, and committees more interested in politics than protection. The warning signs were blinking for months — yet the response was textbook incompetence: delay, denial, and total dereliction of duty.

Indian racing today suffers not because of the disease,

but because of the disease of mismanagement.

Where were the emergency action plans?

Where was the strict biosecurity grid?

Where was the centralised command to enforce testing, quarantine, movement restrictions, and scientific protocols?

NOWHERE.

Because the people entrusted with safeguarding the sport treated this crisis like an inconvenient paperwork issue instead of a potentially season-ending emergency.

This isn’t a failure —

it is a collapse of governance.

Indian racing needs professional, no-nonsense officers with decades of on-ground racing and veterinary experience — not figureheads who vanish when the sport needs leadership. Protocols exist to be enforced with military precision, not interpreted casually by committees with no skin in the game.

It is outrageous that clubs need to be “reminded” to stay prepared for outbreaks.

Preparedness is their first responsibility.

Competence is their minimum requirement.

Yet we are staring at a system so porous and complacent that it wil

lingly walked into a biological minefield.

Make no mistake:

this Glanders crisis is not an accident — it is the direct consequence of racing authorities failing Indian racing at every level.

If the sport wants to survive, nothing short of a total administrative overhaul will suffice.

 

---

INDIAN HORSE RACING IN RUINS: A SPORT BLEEDING FROM EVERY VEIN

Indian horse racing is collapsing—not gradually, not quietly, but in a terrifying freefall that threatens to wipe out one of the country’s oldest and most storied sporting traditions. What we are witnessing today is not a crisis of a single club or a single season. This is the total unravelling of the ecosystem.

The sport is bleeding from every vein, and the wounds are deep.

---

Bangalore Brought to Its Knees

Glanders has struck the Bangalore Turf Club, and with it, the last hope of salvaging the 2025–26 Winter Season.
The mandatory 90-day shutdown means one thing:
the season is dead before it even began.

But disease is only half the story.

BTC is a house without a roof, a ship without a captain.
The administration has never been weaker, never been more directionless. Critical positions are filled with individuals lacking the experience, the grounding, and the knowledge required to manage racing operations even in normal times—leave alone in a biological emergency.

The result?
Panic. Confusion. Paralysis.

Off-course betting may limp on, but it is a consolation prize handed to a sport that has been stripped of its dignity. The club’s very fate now hangs in a delicate, dangerous balance.

---

Hyderabad in Suspension: Hope Fading Fast

The Hyderabad Race Club, struck 45 days ago, remains under the same suffocating blanket of Glanders protocol. Racing has been suspended indefinitely. January’s third week may bring relief, but only if every single horse tests clean.

Even then, only five weeks of racing can be salvaged in desperation.

The anxiety across stables is palpable. Horses standing idle. Trainers staring at empty calendars. Owners counting losses that run into lakhs—sometimes crores. The silence in the stands mirrors the silence in the barns.

A centre once known for passion and precision now waits helplessly, praying for negative test results that will determine its future.

---

Chennai: A Casualty of Politics, Not Disease

While disease rages in Bangalore and Hyderabad, Chennai’s Madras Race Club is fighting a completely different demon—political deadlock.

No outbreak.
No infection.
No biological threat.

Yet racing has ground to a halt.

Years of friction between the club and the state authorities have now metastasised into a full-blown shutdown. Chennai’s silence is not medical—it is political. And in many ways, it is even more dangerous, because there is no timeline, no protocol, no clear route back to normalcy.

Indian racing is not just dealing with illness—it is dealing with institutional suffocation.

---

A Perfect Storm of Disaster

Three major racing centres crippled.
Dozens of race days cancelled.
Lakhs of livelihoods destabilised.
The betting industry suffocating.
Breeders left stranded.
Owners losing confidence—some walking away for good.

And hovering over everything like a death sentence:
the brutal 40% GST on betting transactions.

This tax has already driven punters away, hollowed out tote collections, and pushed clubs to the brink of insolvency. Now, with racing suspended or reduced across multiple states, the damage has accelerated, threatening to become irreversible.

The sport cannot breathe.
The clubs cannot earn.
The workers cannot survive.

---

The Human Cost: The Pain Behind the Panic

Behind the headlines lies a quieter tragedy—one unfolding in the stables, in the paddocks, in the staff quarters.

Stable hands with no daily wage.
Riding boys with no work.
Jockeys with no mounts.
Trainers with bills they cannot pay.
Owners staring at spiralling costs for horses who are not racing and cannot travel.

These are men and women who have given their entire lives to the sport—now left watching it crumble in front of them.

Their voices are shaking. Their futures uncertain. Their fears real.

---

THE DARKEST DAYS HAVE ARRIVED

This is not a warning. This is the reality.

Indian horse racing is in its darkest hour.

Not since independence has the sport faced such complete destabilisation across so many centres simultaneously.
Not since the days of wartime blackouts have racecourses gone silent for so long.
Not since the advent of organised racing has the entire structure felt so fragile, so vulnerable, so close to breaking.

If immediate action is not taken—if leadership does not rise from the ashes—if unity does not return to the turf clubs and the authorities—

Indian racing may never fully recover.

The dominos are falling.
The clock is ticking.
The sport is bleeding.

And unless someone steps forward to stop the hemorrhage, history will look back at this moment—the winter of 2025–26—as the moment Indian horse racing slipped into darkness.

BTC IS ON THE BRINK - 'DIVINE INTERVENTION' needed

 

BTC Is on the Brink — and Only 'Divine' Intervention Can Save It

The Bangalore Turf Club is in freefall. Government heat, financial decay, and a total leadership vacuum have pushed this once-respected institution to the worst crisis in its history.

Successive chairmen have failed the club, but the current regime has taken the collapse to a new low. Chairman Shivashankar has ceded control to the infamous DUBIOUS BROTHER'S whose private office now functions as BTC’s shadow headquarters. Decisions are dictated, outcomes engineered, and the elected committee stands reduced to mute spectators.

The forced removal of the Secretary and the Chief Stipendiary Steward has ripped out the two pillars that uphold administrative continuity and racing integrity. The Stipendiary Steward may have been rightfully removed, but the aftermath has been even more destructive: the mantle of race supervision has been handed to completely inexperienced individuals, turning a sensitive, technical, high-stakes responsibility into an amateur experiment. Racing is now being monitored by people with neither the expertise nor the authority required — a recipe for chaos.

BTC is now running on ad-hoc decisions and critical guesswork, with racing supervision all but paralysed.

This is not rumour—it is on record. Senior members like Sydney Moses have formally written to the chairman, warning that the supervision of racing has "IS IN COMPLETE DISTRESS” raising an even bigger scandal: stewards themselves indulging in betting, shattering the sanctity of their quasi-judicial role and exposing deep nexus with bookies and big punters.

As if governance rot wasn’t enough, the spectre of glanders threatens the winter season. Horses kept in isolation were unbelievably attempted to be raced. This is the same reckless negligence that destroyed Hyderabad’s calendar — and BTC seems ready to repeat that disaster.

Yet the membership, long dominated by captive electorates and inherited loyalties, offers no BLOCKADE. With no passion and no experience for the sport and no appetite for accountability, they watch in silence while the club’s reputation—and value—plummets. A membership priced at nearly ₹30 lakh has zero takers, because BTC today offers little more than a broken clubhouse and a broken system.

Inside the administration, a toxic culture thrives. Want a licence? Want work cleared? There are only three doors:

THE BROTHER DUO, government pressure, or outright inducements. Merit is not just ignored—merit is punished. Manipulation, influence, and patronage are the new currency of BTC.

And all this while, the forensic audit ordered by the government—laden with damning findings—lies untouched. Stakeholders have pleaded for action. The audit was meant to clean house. Nothing has been done.

The situation is now beyond self-correction.

Government intervention is no longer a threat—it is the last hope.

BTC stands at the edge of an abyss.

Only decisive reforms, professional governance, strict integrity enforcement, and firm external oversight can rescue what remains of a once-proud institution.

Without that, the Bangalore Turf Club will not survive. SHADOWED PERSONALITIES NEVER HELP ANY INSTITUTION /SPORT