Interestingly, at the managing committee held at the Mahalakshmi Race Course on Monday, the club decided to accept a major demand put forth earlier by the owners. The owners wanted the club to waive off the Basic Training Fees (BTF) till the season begins. The committee, however, decided to meet the demand partially. “We have decided to waive off the 50 per cent of the BTF for the three months, which is till January 2009,” informed Vivek Jain, the media and marketing chief of the RWITC. “We will also finance the rest of the 50 per cent which will be recovered from the owners when the racing resumes,” Jain added.

Jain also informed that horses which are fit to resume training, can do so from next week. But he refused to predict any date for the resumption of the Mumbai Season. “This will depend on how fast the situation improves.”

WIRHOA welcomed the committee’s decision to waive off half the BTF till the racing resumes. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction. This will help us owners greatly, but it would be better if the club also takes care of the entire medical cost of the treatment,” Nagpal said. But why should the club pay for the medical bills of the horses owned by members of the WIRHOA?

“We stood by the club when they were going through the bad time. Six years ago, during their bad times when the club asked us to pay the stables rent, electricity charges etc. we did so as we thought it is our responsibility to help the club in bad times. Now we are having a tough time and the club should now reciprocate,” opined Nagpal. Nagpal said even though there is no Mumbai racing on, the club will still earn from renting out place for various ceremonies to public.