There was a spate of questionable happenings at Mysore in last week`s racing which calls for severe action on the part of the authorities. If the authorities are found wanting, it is sure to erode the confidence of race goers in the powers to govern on the part of Mysore Race Club which became an independent turf authority earlier this year.

These days official race day reports reads more like crime diary that appears in newspapers. The pity though is that the powerful are let off and one can only see tokenism in the nature of punishments handed out to them. Power groups determine the outcome of enquiries these days. Alarm bells have already been sounded and it is up to the Mysore Race Club to prove that they can govern the sport effectively and that they can be firm if needed. They need to listen to call of conscience and not to those trying to peddle influence.

There were some disturbing happenings in last Thursday`s racing action. Lokanath trained Flame of Passion looked outstanding in the ironically named Police Trophy, a race over seven furlongs for maiden three year olds. The filly had won a race at Bangalore but had lost it in the Stewards room. The filly had imposing credentials thus as she was technically a winner of a race taking on maiden horses at level terms. That the horse was sure to run as an overwhelming favourite was something that was known to everyone the day the acceptances were published.

The onus thus was on the trainer to declare a top jockey to ensure that the filly which was going to carry public trust ran true to merit. The trainer was expected to take every precaution to ensure that the public was not cheated. Instead, what we saw was a blatant disregard for accepted norms. B Paswan was declared to ride the horse even though the jockey in the recent past had been suffering from injuries and hadn`t won for a very long time. The shoes of the horse were also changed from aluminum to steel. The rules of racing that are locally practiced state that any equipment cannot be changed unless the horse has run three times with the same equipment. This pertains to tongue strap, blinkers and other things. However, it is silent about the use of shoes.

When horses are in serious business, some trainers tend to use aluminum shoes and replace them with steel shoes when the horses are out for an airing. This is the general practice and punters put lot of faith in this practice. Professionals also use steel shoes when they want to mislead the punting public as to their intentions. They tend to play on the psychology of punters. The use of steel shoes on Flaming Passion certainly put doubts in the minds of race goers but the horse had such overwhelming credentials that punters were prepared to back the horse even if there were doubts on any score in the belief that the horse would win despite any attempt to prevent it from winning. The trainer was playing with fire when he declared Paswan to ride the horse.

The filly, much to the shock of punters, was not allowed to run on merits. The horse ran with its mouth wide open, the jockey making no attempt to improve position, eventually resulting in the horse finishing fourth. The Stipes ordered an enquiry and charge sheeted both the jockey and trainer for not letting the horse to run on merits.

There was a similar incident relating to Lokanath`s another horse Beauty Is Truth. The filly had run second behind Amelia in the Fillies Championship last year ahead of a horse of the caliber of Marinsky. As such the horse ran as a favourite in her next outing but there was controversy surrounding the horse with the jockey dropping out in the last minute and a new jockey put in his place amidst rumors that the horse may not be seen in serious business. The horse lost badly.

One is not sure what the outcome of the Stewards enquiry is going to be. It is possible that jockey Paswan would become the proverbial scapegoat and trainer let off with a fine or warning. The fact that the trainer chose to put Paswan to ride his horse when the jockey is a total stranger to his stable raises a question mark as to the intentions of the trainer.

The authorities need to go beyond the obvious. Punishing the jockey alone will be gross travesty of justice. It will be against the principles of natural justice and fair play. Either they should fix the responsibility and give equitable punishment or let off both the jockey and trainer and plead their helplessness.