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Anil Mukhi *
Much water has flowed under the bridge since the British left India over 50 years ago. One of the legacies they left behind in 1947 was the Indian Turf, with racecourses dotted all over the fledgling nation. Unlike in England, though, most of these tracks were within cities and towns, and snot out in the country. Urban pressures meant that some of these tracks (like those in Baroda, Coimbatore, Kolhapur, etc.) ceased operating. The nine that survived, and are in use today, constitute the testing ground for the Indian-bred horse.
Horse racing and breeding in the country have made tremendous strides in the five decades since then. And yet, today a question-mark hangs over the industry. Why is attendance languishing? Surely with virtually no other legal gambling channel and a manifold increase in population, Indian racecourse should be awash with patrons pushing their wads of notes through the Tote windows?
Barring the regular turfite, for whom horse racing is an "addiction", the number of casuals visitorsto Indian racecourses is extremely small. A few thousdand on a Sunday in cities with populations in the multi-millions. In contrast, about one lakh people are reported to turn out in tiny Mauritius for the biggest event of their season!
What are the factors that deter casual visitors from going to races? First of all, there is little or no marketing effort made by race clubs to lure such persons to the track. Once a novice somehow manages to arrive at the track, he or she finds scant information about what to do. A person feels terribly left out by the apparently intricate terminology that is used. For excample: "Golden Dagger is a good thing at odds-on, as long as he doesn't run green", conjures up a very mixed vision!
Then finally, even if the first-time visitors enjoy the outing, doubts are raised by the jeers the next day from their peers: "You went racing! It's all fixed! You are fools". End of a punting career.
Why does racing have this negative image and what are race clubs doing about it? Onefears not even 1 per cent of the time spent at meetings of elected race club officials is devoted to such queries. Just as a nation gets a Government it deserves, so also have unfortunate turfites to reckon with managements (honourable exceptions exist!) that are lacking in vision or are to responsive.
This sorry state was catalysed by the curse of "socialistic" thinking that pervaded the corridors of power in the period from the late 40s till the beginning of the 90s. State Governments virtually killed officially-recorded betting turnover by imposing high and unreasonable taxation.
Thus, race clubs do not earn their legitimate due and consequently cannot pay prize money commensurate with the risks an owner takes. A maiden race in Japan (which enjoys a Tote monopoly) pays out the equivalent of $100,000 to the winner -- in India the comparable figure is just about $2,000! It's the same breed, mind you, drawn from a global pool of bloodlines, that is contesting these races.
So if owners cannot make twoends meet from prize money, some consider that they have to resort to gambling. This is all very well if an owner backs his own horse when he feels it has a good chance. It is when the small percentage of unscrupulous owners manipulate their - or somebody else's -- runners, that the rot sets in.
What's more, it is not merely some owners that profit from manipulation. There is a tribe called bookmakers, a few of whom do not even care to obtain a licence. Some are not satisfied by the steady income stream from "over-round" books -- these dissatisfied members of the clan want windfall gains. Super profits derived from manipulation. "Skin the public" is their motto.
Of course, this does not happen all the time. Anyone who thinks that everything is rigged clearly does not understand the racehorse as an animal, one that is bred and trained to win. But it does happen some of the time, and official responses so far have not proved to be a very effective deterrent. In current jargon, the Line of Control has beenbreached a little deeper than is acceptable.
Without remedial action calculated to brighten the image of racing, the sport in India cannot be said to face a bright future. Like parasites, the crooked will swamp the straightforward, the naive and the innocent. The present resources of the supervisory personnel have been stretched to the breaking-point. We need more such dedicated personnel with far less ingterference in their functioning.
In the current scenario, the "stage artiste" can easily lead those in authority a merry dance. Is this what is wanted?
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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