The Bangalore Summer Season, scheduled to start on Saturday, May 14 has rich stakes on offer, with four richly endowed terms races added to the impressive list, embellishing the season. There will be racing on 13 weekends with four-year-olds getting their due by way of having 11 graded races. The added money for these races is substantial.

The Bangalore St Leger becomes the first Leger in the country to be thrown open to four-year-olds and over, thus giving an opportunity for inter-generation contest. All these years, the St Leger was restricted to four-year-olds only. There have been other structural changes in the categorisation of horses which was forced due to the fact that the scale has been compressed to 50 kgs which means that barring a few exceptions, the rest of the horses will be less than 100 points. Not long ago, the scales of weights were loosely spread over 100 kgs. The tight classification means that races will be more competitive in nature in lower categories. There will be less number of races in the lowest category.

A total of 25 crores will be distributed during the season. Performance linked bonus has gone up to 40 per cent which goes directly to the owners account.

The added money for graded races has gone up significantly. The added money for Gr 2 Maharaja’s Gold Cup is Rs 30 lakhs as against 25 lakhs that was on offer last year. The Gr 3 Bangalore City Sprint Championship has been upgraded and the added money to the race is Rs 24 lakhs. Similar increase has been accorded for other graded races as well making the summer season one of most rewarding seasons for race horse owners and trainers in a span of less than three months.

The category of races has been changed as follows: The existing 0 to 25 has been changed to 0 to 20. 20 to 45 is now 15 to 35, 40 to 65 is 30 to 50, 60 and above is 45-65 and 80 and above is 60 and above. The number of races for the lowest category are likely to come down because of this re-arrangement. The Kingfisher Derby has been scheduled for Sunday, July 10.

As has already been announced, trainer Pesi Shroff will be skipping the Bangalore Summer Season this year. While the absence of his horses is sure to rob some of the races the competitive interest, the trainer himself stands to lose substantial amount as the horses that he has at his disposal would have had a big say in the graded races. The kind of stake money that is being offered is the best in the country. The season also gives opportunity for talented younger horses to mature into top class performers. Trainer Malesh Narredu will however bring some competitive horses for the season though he says that some of his best three year olds who are highly promising but backward at this point of time. Trainer Karthik Ganapathy will be coming for the season after a longish break. He has reason to look forward to the season as he has highly hyped horse in Supreme General in his yard. The got abroad is scheduled to run on Sunday at Mumbai and the belief among racing circles is that the horse is something special. From Hyderabad, trainer Vittal Deshmukh will bring his quota of horses. Since the Leger has been thrown up, he has a chance to race Tintinnabulation to race in the classic.

There are couple of trainers from Kolkata who will be seen in action. Trainer Bharath Singh will test his wards against the might of local horses. James McKeown who got the license to train by RCTC last season has also brought a couple of horses to race during the summer season. These horses may well help him to have a symbolic presence at a centre where he originally tried to become a trainer. Looking at the list of horses that he now has at his command, he should have a fruitful season at Kolkata when the main season gets underway.

There are several unresolved issues which may cast a shadow on the running of races. For one, the agreement between the trainers’ association and syces is due for renewal and it is sure to drag on for some time and may even result in industrial action if the problem does not get resolved in quick time.

Bangalore Turf Club Secretary S Nirmal Prasad retired after 30 years of distinguished service. The past chairman of the club had recommended to the present committee to continue his service as Chief Executive Officer so that the new incumbent gets the hang of the tricky assignment. However, some members of the committee played spoilsport. Worse, they did not even think it fit to honour the secretary who had worked for such a long period with great commitment.

The former Chairman of the club under whom Nirmal Prasad had worked along with past committee members and Stewards, arranged a party at their own cost on Wednesday at the turf club to honour the past Secretary. Incidentally, none of the present committee members of the club were invited for the function. About nine former chairmen of BTC and Chairman of Madras Race Club R Ramakrishnan were present on the occasion along with a host of past Stewards and Committee members. The past chairman who were present on the occasion were P G Belliappa, Vijendra Velu, S G Madhukar, C N Nataraj, D M Kumaraswamy, Vivek Ubhaykar, V Harimohan Naidu and Dr K M Srinivas Gowda. Another 15 past committee members and Stewards were also present. All these people had seen the secretary function from close quarters and they strongly believed the club would have been wise to keep his services while training the new incumbent.