BENGALURU : After lack of competitive action for the last six months or so, the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) will kick off proceedings with their winter season from Sunday amidst a new normal. Besides the pandemic protocols being in place, no spectators will be allowed at the venue as well.
Also, betting will be absent in the first two race days — on November 1 and 7 — as the online application, which will be used for betting, may only be made functional from November 14.
As per the original schedule, the other three race days are November 14, 21 and 28. It was only in July that the state government granted BTC the permission to conduct online betting.
“The online betting is still under process. The necessary infrastructure is getting ready for the online app and I believe the app should be ready for commercial use on November 14,” said BTC managing committee member Harimohan Naidu.
As of now, stakeholders like trainers, whose horses are running on the day, and their staff will be allowed at the venue. However, a decision regarding the presence of owners of the horses could be finalised by Friday. If organizing races without betting is a challenge for BTC, jockeys have a challenge of their own. Experienced BTC trainer Padmanabhan feels that the fitness of the jockeys will be tested as they started training only last month.
“The challenge now for the jockeys is to be very fit. They have to be fitter than the horses. The horses have had some sort of exercise during the lockdown period. It might not have been the same for jockeys, and some of them might have added weight due to their change in diet and lack of exercise,” he said.