The Bangalore Derby galloped off in style on Sunday, but the tote system decided to join the festivities in its own inimitable way—by tossing math out the window and generosity to the wind.

Once upon a time, Derby Day meant big hats, bigger bets, and a tote turnover that comfortably sailed past ?15 crores. This year, it limped to a modest ?3 crores across all pools—a reminder that while the horses were running, the public preferred chasing bookmakers` better dividends over the anaemic tote.

But fear not—the system still had a surprise party trick up its sleeve. In a rare act of benevolence (or sheer confusion), it reportedly handed out double the declared dividend in the last race. Loyal punters who stuck with the tote despite its meagre returns suddenly found themselves recipients of unexpected largesse—all thanks to a helpful system glitch.

Alas, the joy was short-lived. One of those pesky honest punters—the kind who ruins a perfectly good windfall—actually reported the error. Chaos promptly broke out. Payments froze. Staff went into panic mode. Operators stayed well past closing, trying to reconcile cash balances that now made less sense than a three-legged accumulator.

Whether ?25 lakhs turned into ?50 lakhs, or whether any of that bonus bounty was clawed back, remains unclear. What we do know is the club`s accounting books likely developed a nervous twitch that night.

And this wasn`t even a one-off. Whispers suggest this isn`t the first time the tote has gone rogue. As usual, there`s no clarity about who will ultimately foot the bill. Maybe the outsourced operator will cough up. Maybe not. Meanwhile, one has to ask: who`s actually minding the tote?

Once upon a time, BTC ran its in-house tote system like a well-oiled machine, comfortably handling turnovers upwards of ?2000 crores a year without so much as a hiccup. Now, with the system outsourced to a firm where—purely coincidentally, of course—a club member holds a prominent stake, it`s leaking more than a sieve in a monsoon.

After all, in this game, the only thing more certain than a photo finish is that the system will fail, and no one will take the blame. Racing might just be the only sport where the tote stumbles, the money vanishes—and the same people keep getting invited back to fix it.

In a truly sporting spirit, the turf authorities have helpfully rehired Uday Eswaran—the very man who oversaw the spectacular non-launch of the much-vaunted national tote. Remember that grand project? Announced in every forum imaginable, launch dates proclaimed like royal edicts, then quietly buried without a trace.

Naturally, he`s now back as Chairman to finally get it right. Because in racing administration, failure isn`t a disqualification—it`s practically a reference letter.

By appointing someone who failed so spectacularly the first time, the turf authorities seem to be preparing the ground for yet another fiasco. After all, the people he`s likely to hire will be the same team that couldn`t crack the code for successful implementation the last time around. It`s not so much learning from mistakes as putting them on retainer.