Rough riders

Army officers ride roughshod at Pune racecourse, intimidate trainers

Prakash Gosavi
gosavi@mid-day.com

With only a week to go for the commencement of the Pune monsoon racing season 2011 which opens next Thursday (July 21), the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) trainers find themselves caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

On one side are officers of the army who want trainers, their staff and horses out of the training school premises during their pleasure riding sessions which, interestingly, coincide with the morning track work of racehorses, and on the other the club authorities, whom the trainers turn to for help and protection, tell the professionals to be 'polite' to the arrogant army officers and avoid precipitating a showdown.

"Situation has come to a flashpoint," a trainer told MiD DAY on the condition of anonymity before another veteran trainer, Mansing K Jadhav, raised the issue for the attention of Vivek Jain, chairman of the club, during a press meet that was held at the Turf Club House, Pune racecourse, yesterday afternoon.

"Two ADC's on horseback barged into the training school around 7 am on Wednesday morning," trainer Jadhav told MiD DAY, "asking to immediately vacate the premises because 'Commandersaab' wanted to ride there. Trainer Malesh Narredu's two horses were working inside, they had to be abruptly taken off."

Another trainer, Karthik Ganapathy, who was about to enter with his horses was warned at the gates by the same ADC's. Jadhav also added that Jasdanwalla, a senior member of the club who was formerly a committee member and steward, was riding in school at the time, and when he found the army officer riding in from the opposite direction and pointed out that it was dangerous and against the norm, the officer told him to mind his own business, saying 'this is my property and I will do as I please'".

The bone of contention between the Army and RWITC is the 160-acre prime property on which the Pune racecourse is situated. The Army claims that it owns the land, and the club has only been given part of it on lease, a position that the club has recently challenged. The Army, last year during a similar showdown, had claimed that it still controls 65 acres of the land over which the club has no claim even as a lessee.

"We have lodged a complaint with the local police today morning," Vivek Jain declared at the press meet yesterday, "it's a delicate issue, but we have decided to take the bull by his horns, even at the risk of upsetting the applecart. We have been advised by our legal department to file a writ in the matter, and we are seriously mulling over it."

(c) MiD DAY