A FEAST AHEAD FOR THE RWITC - By Vivek Jain

At the sun sets on 2015, The RWITC, gears up for a power packed New Year.  While the appetizers have already been served, a veritable feast awaits our members and racing enthusiasts.

A few highlights so far:

• The Style Cracker Weekend, The Indo German Christmas Fest and the Eat India food festival, gave the season just the right momentum at the very start, by making a beginning to bring in a new atmosphere to the Turf;
• From the racing angle, the highlight in December was the stamping of the all conquering colt, Quasar, as one of our greats who became the highest stakes earner in the history of Indian racing, a feat that will shortly be recognized by the RWITC at a formal ceremony; and the other is that of one of Western India’s leading sporting owners Shapoor Mistry’s stud farm, the legendary Manjri , occupying the top two positions in The Indian 2000 Guineas - a real credit to his farm’s sire Phoenix Tower, who goes from strength to strength.
• Happily, the Eat India Company are likely to shortly sign up as sponsors of The Indian 2000 Guineas for the next three years.

In the season ahead, and you can look forward to:

• The introduction of Evening Racing, accompanied by food, fashion, music and festivals, to light up several weekends. Kudos go to Zavaray Poonawalla for his magnanimous contribution as title sponsor. Racing under the stars is billed for a January 9 start. The Working Group of Zavaray Poonawalla, Geoffrey Nagpal, Riyad Oomerbhoy and Sanjay Shah are working tirelessly to make the first season of evening racing a grand success;
• The Asian Racing Conference, which the RWITC will host on behalf of India, will be held, between January 24-28, and returns to the country after nearly 20 years. Kicking off with an all-sponsored race day with four international contributors in the presence of Princess Zahra Khan, the week will unfold with business sessions at The Trident covering every subject of importance to the industry and three top notch social nights which will bring the sounds and fragrance of India alive in a heady mix of entertainment, food and music in unmatched ambience; topped off by a curated visit to The Poonawalla Farms; registrations are open.
• Close on its heels will be the mammoth Indian Derby Weekend, to be co sponsored by United Breweries and United Spirits, in the first co branded Derby in history, and which will be staged with the usual pomp and pageantry befitting this iconic race;
• To continue our theme of festivals we have planned a mega Great Food Show in association with a Times of India affiliate, a Shopping Extravaganza, a repeat of the Prithvi Festival, a first ever Beer Fest, and the return of The Style Cracker fashion fest in April;
• We are hosting unique race days dedicated to Ivy League colleges of the US and another in honour of the premium sporting Clubs in  Mumbai, both first time endeavours to bring the magic of racing to a new audience;
• To imprint our drive to support social causes, we will partner with The Sahachari Foundation, The Lions Club and The Indian Cancer Society under our new umbrella, RWITC CARES!
• And to expand our worldwide footprint, we have recently signed with The Sportsman Media Group based in Germany, for the first ever telecast of our races worldwide, to showcase the growing stature of Indian Racing globally; and which will also bring our club significant revenue.

We hope all of this will whet the appetite of even the un-interested and of course the die-hards to come racing, and to Mahalaxmi, for what we hope will be truly a  grand few months ahead!