Despite postponement of the season’s opener this Friday, there has been much to cheer for the sport and the RWITC in particular. The prophets of doom who had written the Club for dead after COVID struck, will have to eat their words as the club almost providentially appears to be rising like a phoenix. The return of racing, the waiver of license fees for the non racing period, and the generous and unprecedented contribution to the prize money corpus by former Chairmen Zavaray Poonawalla and KN Dhunjibhoy and partners, will not only save RWITC the blushes, but will rocket it to the top of the stakes pyramid in India.
The Club has (always) been blessed by a magic wand to steer its ship, as first demonetization, then the 28% GST and finally covid, were huge storms on the way , but the sport sailed on regardless. Calmer waters are now visible on the horizon, and kudos go the Vijay Shirke led Committee. At my visit to Bangalore for the Derby, and having had occasion to meet the Chairmen of all the Turf Authorities, the buzz has been on the impending start up of the National Tote. It appears the irritants are mostly resolved and it is more a question of when, rather than if, when this overdue reform is implemented.
Whereas the punter will benefit by assured higher dividends because of the larger pool, the actual benefit to the RWITC will not be dramatic, as it will have to lower its take by half to match the unified deduction (5% about on win/place) In the absence of a national betting platform, and with GST still at 28%, whether this move proves to be the touted ‘game changer” for the RWITC remains to be seen, though a step in the right direction.
The Bangalore Derby, though was a huge victory for Mumbai horses, who filled the first three slots, and was another shot in the arm for the dominant Usha Stud, who also took 1-2-3 in the race, and re affirmed Multidimensional as the topmost classic sire in India.
The RWITC has given an increase in prize money of about 20%, unimaginable till few months ago and riding on the back of the unexpected windfall of the Poonawalla-Dhunjibhoy contribution. Whereas sponsorships are crucial, what is the need of the hour is finding innovative ways to increasing footfalls and improving the sport’s narrow reach as also its public profile.
(Vivek Jain was former Chairman of the RWITC)
