Do you "hate the wait at the gate"?

"Stop this mindless practice": KN Dhunjibhoy, part owner of Jacqeline, makes a valid point about the starting gates procedure

"It is not a question of who won or lost," said Mr KN Dhunjibhoy, part owner of Jacqueline who lost the Kingfisher Bangalore Derby on Sunday by the breadth of a hair (1/100th of a second to be precise), "it's a question of whether we are going to treat our horses fairly or not. Are we going to put them under stress just to collect more betting?"

Khushroo Dhunjibhoy was referring to the mindless waiting tactics the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) played to attract more and more betting on the Kingfisher Debry. Although they were going to start from just opposite the grand stand where they could have reached in a minute after leaving paddock, the Derby runners were asked to file into the paddock way before the scheduled race time of 4 pm, and were asked to wait at the starting gates for 15 long minutes. It is a known fact that race horses--especially the young, inexperienced three-year-olds, are highly strung animals and are prone to get stressful just by the shouts and noise let out by a Derby day crowd.

"I had seen it happening at Hyderabad during the Invitation cup last year," added Mr Dhunjibhoy, "horses were made to wait in sweltering heat in 40+ degree Celsius climate just to accomodate more betting. I mean I understand the club's need to get more money, but I refuse to make horses suffer for that. I don't mind if they give us five lakh rupees less in stakes money, but please don't make our horses suffer."

"I have written a letter to the BTC about this," he told me, "it will be great if you can publish it on your blog. Let there be a public debate about this issue, something good will come out of it. I will make it clear once again. It is not who won or lost, I would have raised this topic even if we had won."

So here is the letter reproduced exactly as written by Mr Dhunjibhoy. File in your responses in the comments section.

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Dear Sir,

RE: RUNNING OF THE BANGALORE SUMMER DERBY

As you are aware the Bangalore Summer Derby was run last Sunday where our filly Jacqueline was placed 2nd, which sportingly, of course we have blamed on Bad Luck.

However, after some introspection and without taking away anything from the gutsy performance of the winner we have come to the conclusion that it was not bad luck, but the mindless 15 minutes wait at the starting gates, that most likely caused her to lose by 1/100th of a second.

During the wait our jockey informed us that the filly who was only running for the 4th time in her life had to suffer the ordeal of shouts and whistles from the grandstand as the starting stalls are placed exactly opposite to them.

Jacqueline was reportedly highly worked up and had to be wiped down thrice due to her being excited. We are sure also that the favourite of the race Gypsy Magic who we all know is a temperamental filly, must have been adversely affected as can be seen from her poor performance as she was beaten by "Captivating" who she had beaten at the Fillies Trial Stakes. This clearly goes to show that these unwarranted delays must have had an effect on their performance.

We think it is about time that Turf Authorities realise that there is a responsibility to create a level playing field so that horses participating in such prestigious events (or for that matter any race) should not be kept waiting just so that clubs can earn few extra rupees on betting that takes place.

We are requesting Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla who has championed the cause of fair racing in India to intervene in this matter and ensure that this practice is discontinued with immediate effect.

PARTNERS OF JACQUELINE