RWITC moves into top gear at the first lap - By Vivek Jain
Posted on - 28 Nov 2015
RWITC moves into top gear at the first lap
By Vivek Jain
The Mumbai season, off to a slightly delayed start, moves into top gear at the very first lap, with a huge lifestyle cum racing weekend ahead. With the delay in movement from Pune and the weather change possibly resulting in poor fields, there is a good case to start racing in Mumbai only by the third Sunday of November in the following year.
Stylecracker, a first time entrant to the races, hosts its grand Stylecracker Burough, a fashion exhibit targeted at the young fashionistas at Mahalaxmi with a sprinkling of food, music and games to boot over Saturday and Sunday. And they play host to the season’s first million race on Sunday, for three year olds with a good field of 15. Expected footfalls are over 10,000 and will expose the young and trendy to our sport- the right target audience, one may add.
Kicking off the events calendar at the RWITC yesterday was an intimate, classy affair hosted by the internationally famous Hermes of France at their South Mumbai store. Exhibiting a horse centric show of rare paintings, sculptures and horse heads, it drew a motley but select attendance, at a cocktail hosted exclusively for the RWITC. We hope it is a fore runner for a greater association with Hermes. Playing the perfect host was the elegant Aurelie Khattau, Country Head of Hermes in India, and married to a member of the Club.
Close on the heels of the Burough will be the hugely popular IGCC sponsored Christmas and Oktoberfest, a feast for families and the beer hungry, again in the background of a fully sponsored card on the first Sunday of December with two million “challenges” over a sprint and a trip. It should be a huge day of superlative racing, which is by then expected to get into full stride and a glorious family event in the backdrop.
We then come to the first classic weekend which is the Indian 1000 Guineas Day with another first entrant in Eat India, who will also host the season’s first food festival with a range of restaurants- the first of more to follow. We have two more offers in hand for high end food fests on racing weekends, which will bring in new entrants to the Turf, we hope.
The list is virtually endless as the season unfolds with top gear racing and festivals galore.
But the big story is the finalization of The Indian Derby sponsorship, with a joint association of the two liquor giants USL and UB Ltd. A closure to a huge overhang for the RWITC. But more on that later in the week!
