Bangalore Summer Meeting from May 28

The Bangalore Summer Meeting 2022, originally scheduled to commence from May 21, will now get underway from May 28.

The total prize money earmarked is ₹14.41 crore and the value of trophies is ₹19.80 lakh. Chivas is the ‘beverage partner’ for the meeting.

Combined tote operations

Briefing the media here on Wednesday, K. Uday Eswaran, chairman of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC), said in line with ‘One Nation, One Tax’, the Turf Authorities of India is striving hard to commence the combined tote operations/commingling amongst all the turf clubs in India as ‘One Nation, One Tote’, so as to maximise the tote revenue and enable the racing patrons to earn higher dividends.

Commingling is a new trend and has helped turf clubs/jockey clubs across the globe to multiply their revenue. When the combined tote operations kick-start on July 1 with the help and cooperation of all the turf authorities, it will be a historical day in Indian racing as it would extensively benefit all the stakeholders of the sport.

Commingling

Commingling is a process where one totalizator combines its wagering pool with another to create one common dividend and brings the entire racing patrons fraternity together for better experience and better dividends with identical pools and identical commission on all pools. The Turf Authorities would be well equipped to compete with bookmakers. Commingling would improve transparency and accountability of betting operations.

The salient features of the combined operations/commingling is one common tote pan India, identical pools for the tote betting, identical commission on all pools and host/guest sharing model based on a weighted average method.

As next year’s Indian Turf Invitation Cup races are being hosted by the BTC during the first weekend of March 2023, BTC will be the Turf Authoritiesof India till such time.

International Golf Tournament

The International Golf Tournament, comprising four members of turf authorities, trainers, jockeys andbreeders, will be hosted by the BTC at the Bangalore Golf Club on March 3, 2023.

BTC proposes toextend an invitation to Japan Racing Association, Korea Racing Authority, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Malayan Racing Association, Dubai Racing Club etc., apart from all the otherturf clubs in India to depute four of their golfers.

Thereis anaverage 21% increase in prize money across all categories of races compared to Bangalore Winter Meeting 2021-2022.

Thetrophy value has been increased from ₹50,000 to ₹60,000for the races of horses rated 80 & above and from ₹25,000 to ₹35,000 for all the other handicapraces.Thetrophy value has been enhanced from ₹1,25,000 to ₹1,75,000 for both Fillies’ and Colts’ Championship Stakes. Similarly, for St. Leger, it has been enhanced from ₹80,000to ₹1,35,000.

30% of the races are open to outstation horses in the category of 40-65 and maiden races. As usual, outstation horses are eligible to participate in the categories of 60-85 and 80 & above besides Classics and Sweepstakes Races.

The minimum number of acceptors is four for races to be run over a distance of 1800 metres or more, five for 80 and above, and six for races for the category of 60-85. The maximum number of acceptors in respect of ordinary races will continue to be 12 except the Classic race days where the maximum number of runners will be 14.

Summer Derby on July 17

The Bangalore Summer Derby, sponsored by Vijaya Mallya, is scheduled for July 17 (Sunday). The advertised guaranteed prize moneyis ₹200 lakh and value of trophiesis ₹3 lakh.

28 ‘A’licensed trainers are expected to take part during the summer meeting. Similarly, 14 ‘B’ licensed trainers from other centres are also expected to participate. 70 jockeys including 12 jockeys claiming allowance have been issued ‘A’ license and 30 jockeys have been issued ‘B’ license. In all, about 112 jockeys are expected to participate during the summer meeting.

Members of managing committee: K. Uday Eswaran (chairman), Anish Sood, Arvind Raghavan, Ashwin D.K., Darshan Lokesh, Naval R. Narielwalla, I.S.N. Prasad, IAS, C.H. Pratap Reddy, IPS, A.C. Satish Chandra, Satish N. Gowda, K.N. Shanth Kumar, G. Shivakumar and Dr.L. Sreenivasa Reddy.

Board of appeal: V. Harimohan Naidu (chairman), Kiran Basappa, I.S.N. Prasad IAS, C.H. Pratap Reddy, IPS, Shivkumar Kheny and D. Vinod Sivappa.

Racing dates: May: 28 and 29; June: 4 and 5, 11 and 12, 18 and 19, 25 and 26; July: 2 and 3, 9 and 10, 16 and 17, 23 and 24, 30 and 31; August: 4 and 5.