Bangalore Horse Race Ruckus

Last week I saw an announcement that the Bangalore horse race season would commence on Friday and wondered if we might try and go this year and experience horse racing ‘Indian style’.

Fast forward to this morning and I see a headline in the paper that there was a ‘ruckus and vandalism’ at the opening meet.

Apparently, the jockeys and their association had concerns about the condition of the track but the Turf Club decided to go ahead with races on Friday. Sadly, during the first race, the favourite Will to Win, who was leading broke a leg, which then followed with two more horses falling and jockeys being injured. The blame was squarely placed on the condition of the track.

The Turf Club refused to void the race and immediately announced the winners - and of course the favourite was not in the mix. There were over 7000 race goers astounded by the actions of the club that all hell broke loose’ !! Many demanding their money back, but other resorted to violence and vandalism!  Furniture was thrown, TV’s broken and a lot of pushing, shoving and yelling. All further races were cancelled - opening day and only one disastrous race!

Only in India would this happen and they have now cancelled races until another review of the track has been completed. The police are now trying to identify the vandals........