In Bangalore Turf Club, the best lack conviction and the others are full of passionate intensity. This has resulted in the club management sliding inexorably, with a slew of controversies and scandals undermining the institution. Much of the blame should go to the poor leadership and the lack of interest in the affairs of the club on the part of the senior members who had built the reputation of the club so assiduously. The club has become a litigant, spending lakhs of public money on litigations by taking unjustifiable decisions. There are many skeletons which will tumble out if a serious enquiry is conducted by an impartial body.

The turf club mandarins think that they have the powers to do anything and that they can take the cover of the powers vested in them to justify their illegality. The club officials are treated with scant respect and dumped if the elected members feel that they are slighted. The important past functionaries of the club who were like the pillars of the club were ill-treated at the time of their retirement and given an inglorious exit. The turf club has recently advertised for several posts but anybody applying for these posts is well advised to go through the recent record of the managing committee riding roughshod on the officials and suspending them without rhyme or reason. BTC has become so notorious for the way it treats it officials that it will be a surprise if anybody is interested in the job after knowing the way the elected representatives behave with the officials.

There was a long enquiry into the running and riding of a horse named Wings of Fortune during the 2017-18 winter season which went on for several months. At the end of the enquiry (March 2019, trainer Narayan Gowda was warned as to the future running of his wards and jockey Kiran Rai who was accused of preventing the horse from running on merits by getting the horse to take a slow jump was given a one month`s suspension. The camera installed to monitor the activity at the time of the start did not speak glowingly of the jockey`s intentions. The jockey himself confessed that he made a serious ``mistake``. When the judgment was pronounced by the Stewards, one of the Stipendiary Stewards Ravi Shankar informed the Chairman that he was offered a bribe to soft-pedal the case and that he had brought the matter to the notice of the then Additional Chief Stipendiary Steward Mahendra. However, when asked for corroborating the version of the Stipendiary Steward, the Additional Chief Stipendiary Steward reportedly chose to remain silent.

One of the Stewards Kiran Basappa took affront at the Stipe for bringing the matter to the attention of the Stewards so late and demanded that he should be placed under suspension with immediate effect pending an enquiry. The fellow colleagues obliged Kiran Basappa and suspended the Stipe. Subsequently, a charge sheet was also given. The contention of the Stewards was that the Stipendiary Steward had chosen to reveal to the Stewards of certain information only after the enquiry had been completed and that his conduct was questionable. The charge sheet further stated that prima facie the Stewards had concluded that the conduct of the Stipe during the entire process relating to the said enquiry amounted to Gross Misconduct as per the Company`s Service Rules!

Subsequently, when the legal advice was sought whether any serious charge of the dereliction of the duty on the part of the Stipendiary Steward would stand legal scrutiny, the opinion was not in the affirmative. The charge sheet, as well as the suspension, was withdrawn immediately! The Stipendiary Steward was asked to go on forced leave pending the final decision by the authorities and was asked not to enter the premises of the racecourse. With the legal opinion not backing the action of the Stewards, they are now looking for a facing saving solution. The matter is dragging on for this reason alone.

The matter took a dramatic turn when the former committee member Dayanand Mandre wrote a letter making serious allegations against Steward Kiran Basappa and alleged that he had soft pedalled the matter during the enquiry and fought aggressively for a modest action on the erring professionals for reasons best known to himself. Mandre demanded that Kiran Basappa`s emphatic defence to absolve the accused of any wrongdoings must be assessed in the light of the recorded evidence available. The reason for Kiran Basappa defending the accused needed to be uncovered, Mandre demanded.

When Kiran Basappa was asked about the letter written by Mandre, he said: ``You know the credibility of the person who has written the letter. I don`t have much to say though, in person, I will clarify.``

The Stewards of the Club are directionless and Chairman Harimohan Naidu has been unable to offer proper guidance to the others despite being on the committee for so many years. This speaks poorly of his capability. The other senior person also has not been of much help because he has own interests to take care of. The rest lack experience though they are combative and believe that they can take any action and that they are above questioning.