Horse racing: Jain moves to resolve royalty issue

Good news in in the air for race lovers across the country as warring turf clubs have decided to bury the hatchet on the royalty issue. On the sidelines of the Turf Authority of India (TAI) meeting yesterday at Mumbai, Vivek Jain, the newly appointed chairman of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC), offered an olive branch to the retiring chairman of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) AC Satish Chandra, by unconditionally reversing the decision to cut off signals of Pune races.

Jain, who was not exactly in sync with the decision to cut off Pune race signals to BTC, confirmed the development to mid-day.

"Today was the first step, and our positive attitude changed the atmosphere," Jain told mid-day, "I can't say whether this will reach final resolution, but for now, I am more than hopeful."

Jain also made clear that chairmen of all the other turf authorities too expressed the opinion that the RWITC decision to cut off the signal was not in the interest of the racing industry, especially with many issues like the GST, unified tote, and recognition for racing as a sport, coming up soon where the race clubs will need to be united when putting up their case with the central government.

It is widely expected that the BTC will reciprocate, and the new chairman who will take over after the fresh elections to be held next week in Bangalore, will make way for the restoration of betting from next weekend's races at Pune.