The races scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Bangalore Turf Club were cancelled by the authorities due to paucity of entries. Only a handful of trainers had put in their entries. The Trainers Association had instructed its members not to put in entries in support of unspecified demands. The decision of trainers without as much as notice of strike intent took the authorities by surprise. It is said that the owners association and the jockeys association too supported the strike call though their grievances are yet to be made public.

President of Karnataka Trainers Association Puttanna said that the jockeys had requested the trainers for an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss their problems and sought their support to strike work because the authorities were pulling up jockeys for incompetent riding. And they were taking action on trainers for putting up incompetent jockeys which was having a detrimental action on the livelihood of these jockeys. They also felt that the track was in bad shape and the authorities needed to act on this regard.

Whether they have genuine concerns or not is for the authorities to address. The unfortunate thing is that their protestation justified or otherwise has resulted in the cancellation of races. The professionals have sought to hurt the sport which gives them livelihood without even battling an eye lid about the financial losses that they are inflicting on themselves, the hapless owners and scores of daily wager employees beside the damage to the image of the sport in public eye.

Puttanna said that one of the reasons for the trainers` action was the fact that the Stewards suspended trainer Gregory Sandhu and his jockey for four race days because the trainer had chosen to put an incompetent jockey on his ward called Shaft which lost a possible winning chance due to poor jockeyship. The trainer appealed against the sentence and the Appeal Board of Bangalore Turf Club rejected his appeal on Monday. The trainer was represented by club member Ashok Raghavan. During his time as Secretary of KROA, strikes were par for every season. For the first time in the history of racing in India, a Derby was also called off because of strike. Ashok is supposed to have been upset that the Appeal Board rejected the appeal when he had represented the case. And the talk doing the rounds is that he got the KTA and KROA into the act. Incidentally, all the strikes in Bangalore have happened when Puttanna has been at the helm with the Raghavan brothers being the driving force. They have an iron grip on the owners and trainers association and this helped them to call the shots. Ashok could not be contacted on phone for his comments.

Another season stated by Puttanna was that trainer Dominic who happens to be the Secretary of Karnataka Trainers Association was suspended for giving a run to his ward Real Supreme over six furlongs trip when the horse had previously won over a mile by a huge margin. The Stewards should not take action when a professional is trying to figure out which is the more suitable distance for a horse. Also giving a preparatory run also should not come under the purview of Stewards` action, he added.

Puttanna said that there was a big list of demands which the authorities had not addressed. Asked whether they had given any notice about their intention to go on strike and set a deadline for authorities to address the issue, he said they were in correspondence with the authorities on their problems. He said that they had not served any notice and it happened all off a sudden when the jockeys also requested their cooperation. He regretted that they had to resort to this action stating that he was against any agitation hoping that the problem would be sorted out without delay.

This time the trainers association has gone too far questioning the authorities who run racing. The professionals are licensed by the Stewards and they can only air their grievance but cannot force them to act as per their will. This season, the Stewards have been much more lenient to commissions and omissions of professionals.

Chairman of Bangalore Turf Club Harimohan Naidu said that he was out of station and he was informed about the sudden development. ``I instructed the officials to take due action after consulting the other Stewards. I have been notified that there were only 18 entries and under the circumstances it was inevitable that races had to be cancelled. This is unfortunate and I do not approve of the action the professionals have taken. Any issue can be resolved by dialogue and I have always been willing to address issues. The fact that an appeal was rejected cannot be the basis for a strike. Established practices cannot be thrown out of wind for the sake of unjust demands of the professionals. We need to take strong measures and even think of punitive action on those provoking the strike,`` he said.

Incidentally, the loss of two races days has come at a time when the KTA was in the process of requesting for one extra day of racing. There are just four more days of racing left in August for the summer season to conclude. If there is hardening of stance, the remainder of the season may have to be called off. The BTC is seen as a weak body because strikes are a recurrent phenomenon whereas in other racing centres, it is unheard of.