BENGALURU: Following Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s direction to move out of Bengaluru, Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) officials are now waiting for an official order from the state government. “We have no choice other than to shift to Kunigal,” BTC Chairperson Manjunath Ramesh said at a press conference on Wednesday, when asked about the CM’s directions to shift the club’s horse-racing operations from Bengaluru to Kunigal within two years. Ramesh said BTC was awaiting an official letter from the state government, following an informal suggestion by Siddaramaiah, during an unscheduled visit to BTC on Sunday.
“We have to go with the (state) government in some ways, if not every way,” said Zavaray S Poonawalla of Poonawalla Stud Farms in Pune, about the possible shift to Kunigal. Siddaramaiah has reportedly agreed to relent on six acres of the almost 80-acre land BTC currently operates from, for carrying out administrative functions of the club and other activities.
The press conference was held on Wednesday to announce the upcoming Bangalore Winter Meeting 2025-2026, a horse-racing season comprising 24 race days that many thought was in jeopardy, following Siddaramaiah’s visit. With the patronage of Zavaray S Poonawalla, who partly owns Poonawalla Stud Farms, the races seem to have been salvaged. “After the implementation of GST 2.0, we were not in a position to conduct races (if not for Poonawalla’s intervention),” said Ramesh.
Poonawalla, who was declared a BTC member on Wednesday, announced that the club had moved the Supreme Court, petitioning for exemption of betting from 40 per cent tax imposed by GST 2.0 on ‘sin goods’. He mentioned that a victory in the case would be monumental, asserting, “We are not sinners.”