The first lesson that any journalist gets is about the importance of writing his copy giving the essence of his story in the first few paragraphs. And in situations where space constraints demand that the copy be cut drastically, it could be done so without diluting the story by deleting the paragraphs down the order. The story is built like an inverted pyramid with the best paragraphs at the top. In the same way, racing should be top heavy. The drab proceedings thus far this season has reinforced the belief that there is urgent need for drastic overhaul to prevent racing slipping into a morass. There is too much of the bottom and less of the top.

Like an inverted pyramid, our racing should have more top quality racing with less emphasis on the bottom category. Unfortunately, majority of our races cater to lower category races encouraging professionals to target their wards right from the day they step on the track for training to race them in the lowest class. There is so much money to be made in betting that there is little attempt at excellence with majority of the trainers happy to race their wards in the lower class. In the name of social justice and quota system, the authorities are allotting the same number of horses to good and bad trainers. We have about 900 racing horses in Bangalore and sadly more than 700 horses are in the rage of 0 to 45 categories. The authorities have also not rewarded excellence by equating top trainers with non achievers who manipulate the system and reduce the sport to mere gambling. The Supreme Court said that racing is a game of skill but in the hands of our professionals and authorities, it has been reduced as game of manipulation, catering to the baser instincts of people associated with the sport.

The highest rated race held on Saturday was a race for horses rated 40 to 65. The rest of the races were all for those in the range of 0 to 45. This was a disturbing scenario as there was no horse which even had a rating of 65, with the top weight being rated at 56. Just three to four runs are enough to bring a three year old down to the lowest category. The belief that if horses are dropped swiftly at the bottom level, horses which have been held back for a gamble would find competition stiff against younger horses and the professionals associated with these horses would change their system has failed to give the desired results. This has also been defeated by the repeated framing of races for older horses. The system may have affected the likes of Sharat Kumar who used to wait for two to three years in order to bring their horses way down its previous winning mark to bring off a gamble but it has helped people like Amit Caddy who have specialized in the art of racing almost all his words in lower category races and bring off gambles. Prospectus should not be done keeping these two trainers in mind.

The quota system places a huge problem for big trainers whose ambition is to target their wards to win classics. To win classics, you need to have horses which can stay the distance over a mile and beyond. As a result, these trainers are stumped by the programme which has majority of races over sprints. The rule that a race will be declared void if there are less than eight runners is good practice for lower category races for purpose of attracting betting. These races though are nightmare for punters. The authorities have steadfastly refused to allow higher category races to be run with fewer horses even though such races attract bonafide betting on many of the horses in the fray. If we have majority of our horses in the lower class, how do you expect higher category races to get a minimum complement of runners each time? In such scenario, the trainers would prefer to keep their wards in the lower class as the prospectus caters to them. In the name of economics of betting, one cannot ignore the fact that it is these races which bring respect to racing and enhance the integrity of the sport.

The authorities may justify that their system has worked by showing the increased collection on tote each season. Have they tried consistently whether they can click with good racing of higher category even without the minimum requirement of eight runners? The authorities need to realize that this sport is not only about betting.

The authorities have put restriction on the number of horses that a trainer can have in his yard. Is there a restriction on the number of horses that a trainer can have in the rotten class? If there are restrictions, this at least this will force them to allow horses to reach higher rating. The authorities need to give more races for those who are rated above 50. Horses are sent out of training when they reach below 0 rating. In the same way, if a trainer has majority of horses in the lowest category, the restriction on their number should result in him losing the horse from his yard. There is no point in compressing the scale from the bottom. It should happen from the top.