The Mumbai Racing Season 2016/17 - by Vivek Jain, Chairman, RWITC.
Posted on - 18 Nov 2016
The Mumbai Racing Season 2016/17: by Vivek Jain, Chairman, RWITC.
PRIZE MONEY
The advertised prize money, for the Season, is about Rs.19 crores as against about 23 crores last year (including the spend on The Asian Conference weekend). However, after adding performance bonus, sweepstakes and the extra payout for divided races, the actual disbursement will be much higher. The stakes are lower due to (a) 4 fewer race days, (b) reduction in guaranteed stakes in graded races, (c) reduction in added money in graded races, (d) discontinuance of double stakes races.
The 39 days Season will end this year on April 16, a cutback of 4 days in April.
INTERIM CUT BACK IN STAKES BY 50%
Due to the serious cash and liquidity crunch arising out of the demonetisation ruling, the Committee as an emergency financial force majeure has decided to pay 50% of the advertised stakes till end November. This will be reviewed after the first four race days. We hope to introduce credit/debit card facility to encourage tote betting.
THE METRO PROJECT
The MMRCL promoted Colaba – Bandra Metro project has started and will not endanger racing, except in a limited way of reducing the number of horses over 1200 and 1400m to 14 and starting the 1600m races from the backstretch. The RWITC has decided to support the project which is very good for the city.
SPONSORSHIPS
The Club maintains its leadership position in attracting record sponsorships and alliances, and the season ahead will be no exception. Contributions are at Rs.9.11 crores, with virtually each weekend of racing featuring a sponsored race. This is commendable when corporate budgets are tight, especially in the current environment. In addition to the lavish prize money, the bigger days will be promoted, as always, as carnivals of leisure, entertainment and prizes, adding to the lure of the day.
THE INDIAN DERBY WEEKEND
The Indian Derby Weekend is the biggest in Indian Racing. The race will again cross the 3 crore mark in prize money, making it one of the richest sporting events in the country, and promoted with pomp and splendour.
United Spirits, our long time sponsors, with our new partner United Breweries will once again co-host The Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby powered by Signature. This is the first co-branded Indian Derby in historyand we remain ever thankful to both UBL and USL for their association.
For the first time ever, every race on the Derby Weekend will offer stakes of Rs.1 million and over, making it truly a red letter day of racing.
THE RACING PROGRAM
As always, the racing program is replete with top quality races with five Grade 1 races and in addition to these races, as many as 32 races will have prize money in excess of Rs.1 million. Many Million races have been framed in the handicaps to equitably distribute the sponsored stakes. Once again RWITC leads the way in having quality racing throughout the long Season.
FIRST TIME SPONSORS
The Club has a record number of first time sponsors across all segments, whose contribution is a cumulative Rs.75 lakhs plus. This is commendable as it is always difficult to draw new entrants to support horse racing.
ALLIANCES
The Club has always viewed media and hospitality as its partners in the promotion of the sport. Hence, in the media space, partnerships with Mid Day, Forbes, Hello!, G2 will give the Club visibility in their papers and magazines. We have a new TV partner in ET Now and are in talks with another news channel. Our existing dental care partner is Dentzz. Dentzz will offer significant discounts to RWITC members at its range of clinics and in addition sponsor a million race. Hospitality partners in Ananda, Sofitel, Samode, Naturovile are new entrants. ITC hotels will come on board for the first time for Sunday brunches and other offerings for members.
CLUB DAY AT THE RACES
For the second year in a row, eight premier Clubs will partner the RWITC in a day reserved for sporting Clubs in Mumbai. Willingdon Club, NSCl, Otters, CCI, Acres Club, Bombay Presidency Radio Club, Bombay Gymkhana and Malabar Hill Club will each sponsor a trophy and we hope to extend an invitation to their entire membership, drawing a new attendance to the sport . This will build reciprocity between premier Clubs in the City. The race is scheduled for February 23, as part of evening racing.
FOOD, THEATRE & FASHION FESTS
To bring an added dimension to our races we will have a large number of food, fashion and theatre festivals on our racing days. We start with the Stylecracker weekend on November 26-27 and again on April 8-9, with a young fashion exhibition. A Food fest with Eat India mid December, another food fest on the Indian Oaks Day with Trinity Entertainment and the huge Design One exhibition in February are some of the highlights. The first ever Stylecracker Night market is scheduled for February 18-19. The popular Christmas Fest by the Indo-German will be held on the first weekend of December, preceded by a one day Oktoberfest.
THE PRITHVI THEATRE FESTIVAL
We will bring back the Prithvi Theatre Festival to the Turf in early March. Audi, who were partners to this great idea last year are once again potential partners and in addition, Audi will sponsor two races including a million, in the middle of March.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
The Club has made corporate social responsibility a focus area, and as last year, we will be associated with several NGOs mostly on race days to help a range of noble causes. The Mumbai Season has The Indian Cancer Society, The Sahachari Foundation, The Rotary and Lions Club, and the Fight Hunger Foundation,to name a few, as our partners of worthy causes, with others in wait.
Two full racing days are being dedicated to charity, the opening day for The Rotary and to The Lions Club the third Sunday of February,. A race will be named after associates of these Clubs, who will raise crores for charity. We remain a leader in our support to CSR on such a large scale.
MEMORIAL RACES:
We wish to pay homage to those members who passed away and were contributors to the sport, as owners, breeders or trainers. We continue to stage these races and have added a few to recognise these members’ involvement with the sport.
EVENING RACING:
Last year the first full Season of night or evening racing was an instant success. The good news is that about 21 days of evening racing has been scheduled once again during the season. The first day of evening racing is scheduled for November 24th. The Club has invited bids for the title rights of evening racing, but has finalised partners for F&B and entertainment with Nirah Hospitality for F&B and Switch Media for events. This year evening racing will be on all Thursdays and a few on the weekend –mainly in April. Our menu of F&B, entertainment and a carnival atmosphere in a “Sundowner” setting, with races between 5 to 8pm, should draw a big attendance. Branded as “The Moon Dust Evening Carnival” it will be one of the shining stars of the Season.
