:: Bangalore Turf Club::

History
One morning in December 1 1920, four stewards met at the grandstand of the Turf Club's present location in High Grounds. They were: Major R.H.O.D Paterson, Sir Leslie Miller, Major J.M Holmes and C.N Suryanarain Row. These gentlemen approved to form a race club in the city.There were to be 30 club members. The Stewards could elect an unlimited number of stand members. The admission charges for both types of memberships was Rs 20. Men were required to pay while entry was free for women.

How it works now?
I happen to visit this place on 19th Jan 2008 with Greeshma, and did some decent photography as well. It was a Saturday afternoon, where they had 8 races with a time gap of 30 minutes between each race. When we entered it was already 3.10 and three races were over. The race extends to a distance of 1200 metres and lasts only for 2 minutes (actually less than 2 minutes) and they need the balance 28 minutes to prepare for the next race.

The horses with their jockies were taken to the paddock, to show to the people, who are involved in the betting, before they were put on to the Race Course. This is in a way helps the betting guys to check their horse and jockey and always shout and clap and motivate these jockies before they go on to the actual race. I could also see people in suit talk to these jockies in the paddock. Guess, they are the owners of the horse or the big level betting guys.

Here are few of the pictures from the visit...
Paddock


Walks deciding Runs..


Expectations:


Got to know some sad story as well.
A person by name vinod, came with Rs.1000 at 2.00pm and lost Rs.900 at the end of 5th race. He was talking to us, saying few days, they win and most other days they loose money. Another person, was very happy when his horse (horse number 2) won the race in the 5th race. He wanted us to test our luck as well. I had to tell him and convince, that i know my luck and i was there for a different objective and not to bet. I remember, there is a horse statue under the Anna Flyover (formerly Gemini flyover) in Chennai, which was installed in the remembrance of stopping horse races in TamilNadu. But.. thats a forgotten history now. The rich becomes rich and the poor becomes poor in the race course.

Do you think, you and I can do something about it?

~ peevee.