Rising costs driving out sporting owners.

The foundation of horse racing in Western India was built on competitive widespread ownership and the joy that winning a big race brought to the sporting owner. Allied to this was the sheer intellectual challenge of selecting a youngster, watching it take its first baby steps in the hands of a trainer, and following its career from its first run right through its classic year. In fact, one recalls with nostalgia Classic winners like Squanderer, Our Select, Thunder Storm, Buland, Royal Tern all owned by sporting owners who never had more than a handful of runners in training.

Today a few very big stables dominate racing in Western India to such an effect that one can reasonably assert that the day is not far when smaller owners will be extinct and racegoers will face the prospect of viewing only stud farms racing their own products against each other.

With the Indian economy burgeoning, the demand for horseflesh has risen and this has in turn resulted in astronomical prices, thereby placing ownership of horses out of reach of the smaller and sporting owner. Coupled with these are high maintenance costs. This deadly combination has resulted in one of the most disadvantageous ratios of cost-to-stakes in the country being found in Western India.

From a regime that saw such owner-friendly policies as "subsidy for 2 year old training costs", "oats subsidy" and "transport subsidy", the scenario has undergone a sea change. Today's owner is faced with 1) "One-time levy" of Rs.12,000/horse on 2 year olds, 2) Stable rent, 3) Electricity charges, 4) Water charges, 5) Contribution of 2.5% of stakes to Race Stable Workers Welfare Research Society and 0.25% to Annual Welfare Fund, 6) Owners' box charges, 7) Medical charges (these bring in a profit of over Rs.71 lakhs/annum to the RWITC) and 8) Non-refund of entry fees for actual runners. All these measures have been introduced during the past few years, at a time the RWITC Ltd. has been facing losses as a result of its inability to tap its fair share of the wagering revenue.

Now that the RWITC Ltd. is making a profit – and that too with what has been advertised as the highest-ever profit – the only owner-friendly step has been the introduction of a 10% bonus on winning stakes in the Mumbai season 2007-8.

This is definitely a step in the right direction, and is a move warmly welcomed by owners. Continuing in the same vein, owners look forward to the RWITC Ltd. taking more such measures, including inter alia the removal of all the charges heaped on the owners in the past decade, which owners have magnanimously borne.

The Hyderabad Race Club has already shown the way with 2^nd and 3^rd placed horses getting over 43% of the stakes. (The 3^rd placed horse in a higher class in Hyderabad receives Rs. 75,000 against Rs. 39,000 by the RWITC). Monthly fodder and oats subsidies are given and a sum of Rs. 10,000 credited towards BTF to owners of 2 yr. olds. (The RWITC charges an owner of a 2 yr. old Rs. 12,000) Even the Calcutta Race Club will be extending higher stakes than in Western India in the coming year.

It's time the RWITC Ltd. makes some proactive moves towards making ownership more attractive to the sporting owner, especially the new generation of young Indians who are making their presence felt on the world stage. It is only when winners of million races, sponsored races and classic races come from a wide gamut of owners, instead of from the same monotonous sources, that ownership of horses will flourish as then the joy will be experienced by many instead of just a few. Not only will that boost racing, it will boost wagering – the lifeblood of the club's finances – as well, because competitiveness will increase manifold.

It's also time the Government of India adheres to its commitments to the WTO and restores the status quo ante regarding import of racehorses, which will help in moderating the price of racehorses for sporting owners. One can recall dozens of such performers gracing the Mahalakshmi and Pune racetracks during the 'fifties and 'sixties – and no breeders of that era ever complained! (rather, they took advantage of the fact that they could acquire sound imported fillies off the local tracks as prospective broodmares).