some stray thoughts, some opinions

some stray thoughts and some opinions-I

Late Busybee (Behram Contractor) used to write under this caption on current political and civic affairs of erstwhile Bombay. I’ve also used this heading for many of my write-ups on horse racing on IndiaRace.com. I’ll use it on this blog in future.

Let me start with IR.com. When Reddy and Sharan Kumar were there they have given me a link to my old articles which helped me to continue,but when they left and new group took over they have disabled the link. It was natural on their part. I was neither their paid employee nor had any obligation to them and stopped writing on that site. I do write on Racing pulse when somebody refers to me by name or I think strongly about a subject. I prefer to write on my blog now .

I consider opinions, suggestions, remarks, comments made by anybody as manifestation of that individual’s personality and character and take it in that spirit. I take pride that I did and could write ,on various subjects , related to horse racing but feel disappointed ,sometimes, as nobody interacts on topics other than betting and gambling. I do admit that betting IS an integral part of racing but learning and improving betting acumen is more important and 90% of punters are INTENTIONALLY kept uninformed by vested interests including experts. I’ll not blame bookies, trainers, jockeys – perhaps owners and breeders too, for trying to keep them ignorant ,because it helps them I the long run.

Why is it so? Do we still believe in the age old Indian tradition to pass on our knowledge to ‘most suitable disciple’. We have dozens of breeders who never talk about their success/failure, hundreds of trainers and jockeys who never express their opinion on their profession , though many of them visit internet regularly and have good knowledge of the net language. We have more than 40 or 50 tipsters who write on net, blogs, newspapers and race books but barring a few who write copiously no one(including me) bothers to analyse the failure and success of a runner from the point of view of enlightening a punter. Majority of pseudo readers respond – forget what happened today , think of tomorrow. These pseudo-experts forget one of the basic ‘principles of war’- more you sweat in peace, less you will bleed in war… All are worried that the population of punters is declining – affecting the future of racing but none is trying to improve the process to disseminate the racing info, curtail or contain the malpractices indulged in by owners, trainers and jockeys (in that order) to instill confidence in current crop of punters and attract newcomers .

Horseracing industry is comparable to any other industry in terms of ‘real’ turnover which in my estimation ranges between 8 to 10 billion US dollar. With only 1300+ foal born , 3000+ races run and roughly 4000+ runners running on only 8 racecourses ,every year the returns are better than any other industry of the same size. With 18,000 to 20,000 diehard punters and about same number of casual punters pumping in about 5 to 7 billion dollar every year in this game has increased the number of illegal bookmakers and their cronies, helpers and pseudo experts and drastically has decreased the number of legal bookmakers and reduced the amount invested on legalized betting. Why should a ‘sane’ punter pay 26% when he can get the ‘same’ return at 10%. He also saves tax on winnings above Rs. 2500/-

Sometimes , I get a feeling that there are some vested interests in RWITC –who are connected indirectly or perhaps directly with the illegal bookmakers of western India . I don’t find any reason for their failure, when BTC could convince their Government and increase its turnover from 100 crore to 1000 crore in 10 years , why RWITC bigwigs fail to convince its rulers and allow its turn over to stagnate at the same level during last 10 years. Do we accept the assumption that ‘black money’ component in western India racing is more powerful than the men who control the racing there?

Who can provide a satisfactory answer to this question? I can not. Can anyone of you who read this piece is able to do that? Try...