Monday, March 3, 2014 will always be a historic day for Mysore Race Club as on that day the club became the sixth Turf Authority in India. The granting of Independent Turf Authority status to Mysore Race Club thus fulfills the long standing desire of all associated with the club over a century of its existence. Years of hard work has culminated in this historic moment. The Royal City of Mysore thus has a lot to live up to with the new responsibility thrust on the club. Though the youngest of the turf authorities in India, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country.

My congratulations to the committee headed by Dr Satyanarayana. Well done Doc and your team. You deserve all the accolades. I hope that Mysore Race Club will be re-christened as Royal Mysore Turf Club Ltd in keeping with the fact that the city is known for its historic Dasara which is associated with the Royal family of Mysore. The Royal family of Mysore was responsible for promoting the sport. The word Royal is an apt prefix for the simple reason that Mysore still evokes the Royal Aura whenever the city`s name is mentioned.

	Chaduranga Kanthraj Urs

The Mysore Race Club must thank Bangalore Turf Club for encouraging the club to have more racing by way of having mini seasons on either side of the main season which runs from August through October. During the chairmanship of Dr Doreswamy, the jackpot pools were combined with BTC which was then being led by P G Belliappa. Later in 2000, when Marilingaiah was the Chairman of BTC, combined tote operations started. The club also benefitted by the subsidy given by BTC as also its officials who were sent to Mysore which gave the club the space needed to build up its own infrastructure gradually. The club also owes its gratitude to Shapoor Mistry for sponsoring an equine swimming pool and the role played by trainer Michael Eshwer in this should be acknowledged.

The idea of getting a turf authority status was the desire of every past Chairman of MRC. It got serious in 1999 and since then every Chairman has been strongly pursuing the idea but in vain. When I was the Chairman, we tried hard but we did not take it to its logical end because BTC was under tremendous pressure from government to move out of its premises and we heeded to their request not to go for it as it would seriously affect their existence. Mysore obliged BTC in 2011 and in the fitness of things; it was BTC which proposed that we be made an independent turf authority at Monday`s meeting.

Dr Vijay Mallya was one of the promoters with his ``Vision 2000`` for Mysore to make it a full-fledged racing centre accommodating a full complement of horses including a base of two year olds. The club must also thank him for sponsoring all its classics in Mysore in the 90`s giving these races a big boost and thereby attracting best horses to race in the classics. Dr M A M Ramaswamy also actively encouraged Mysore to become an independent turf authority. It was also the dream of Late HH Sri SrikantadattanarasimhaRaja Wadiyar that Mysore should chart its own course as an independent authority.

Now with the dream having been realized, the club has several commitments and expectations to fulfill. To begin with, the club should extend the number of race days from the existing 54 days to 60. I believe that Mysore Race Club should offer attractive stake money in order to attract the best trainers, owners and horses for its racing. I know the club would lose substantial subsidy that Bangalore Turf Club was giving all these days but I am sure this can be offset but spreading racing to other parts of the state by opening off course betting centres at Mangalore, Nanjangud, Mandya, Mercara and other places. The higher the collections the greater the returns for all concerned. The club can get help from the government by effective lobbying.

I believe that the club should set up facilities on par with some of the best racing centres in the world like Hong Kong. The club should go in for foreign stipes for at least five to six years so that they can train juniors to take over at a later stage. Right now the senior officials are not too keen to train the juniors for fear of losing their own jobs! The Rules of Racing should be based on those practiced in Australia where professionals run the show without fear and favour. Stewards should not be involved in taking mundane racing decisions. The professionals should be licensed after due process without giving all and sundry the license. They in turn end up being agents of bookmakers thereby compromising the integrity of the sport. Regrettably, majority of horses based in Mysore at the moment are benami owned.

The committee members must attend the Asian Racing Conference which is due to be held shortly at Hong Kong and also study the best practices adopted all over the world. There should be no system of quota and trainers should be rewarded for their performance. At present, the horses get spread to mediocre ones because of the quota system resulting in lowering the quality of racing. Some of the trainers don`t deserve to hold their license.

Mysore Race Club today boasts of the best stables in the country. If the second phase of stable building activity is completed, there will be greater boost to the sport. A total of 1000 stables are what the club should target. My friend Zavaray Poonawalla who has come to Mysore quite often during the time they were sponsoring the Mysore Derby will surely vouch for the fact that our stables are the best in the country. There should also be a quarantine block of about 150 stables which should be used for accommodating horses 24 hours before they race so that they are under CCTV surveillance and nobody meddles with the horses including the connections. By doing this, you can ensure greater integrity to the sport.

Mysore has a big task of conducting the Invitation Cup weekend races in the coming years. The club should plan for a Grand Stand which can seat about 15000 people and they must engage a top architect to design and build it with the help of reputed builder like Shapoor Mistry. Mysore Race Club should lobby with the government for sanction of land for building a training centre so that the pressure on the club premises is eased to a significant extent. Mysore should take a step forward by having night racing. The attendance at Mysore averages about 4000 every race day. Having delayed start to racing by overlapping it to be run under lights will surely help bigger numbers to come to the race course. My experience as Chairman is that attendance at the race course starts to build up after 3 p.m. and when racing starts at 1 p.m., we have about 1000 people at that point of time.

So in these happy times, I hope the Royal Mysore Turf Club goes the Hong Kong or Australian way. Renowned writer James Underwood had advised me in 2010 when he had visited Mysore that there is no better example than that of Hong Kong, Japan and Australia which have the best possible facility in every aspect. They are perfect role models for Mysore to follow.