The BTC Managing Committee, led by N Harindra Shetty can successfully negotiate with the government for new land and time only if the club members and others from the fraternity offer complete cooperation and don`t throw hurdles in the path. For the record, the Bangalore Turf Club has filed the Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday against the High Court verdict, asking it to vacate its premises by September 22.

``The SLP has been filed by the club in order to protect its interests and not to take an adversary position against the government. We are bargaining a good deal for the club and we should be able to sign the lease agreement for the land at Doddaballapur within the next 20 days. The Chief Minister has been very kind despite the club antagonizing him on several counts. We have been having fruitful meetings with the top functionaries of the government and the process of allotting the land to the club is on fast track. We have field the SLP as per the mandate of the general body of the club but we have informed the government that after the lease for the land is signed and extension of time is granted, we would be in a position to withdraw our petition in the Supreme Court. I am reasonably confident of getting financial support from the government. We may also succeed in retaining the existing building for office and conduct of off-course betting purposes,`` Shetty said exuding confidence. The government had originally shown the club a piece of land measuring about120 acres but the club expressed its inability to take that land because of the forestation and also the presence of a hillock with a temple on top of it. ``We asked for land next to the said survey number and the government has consented for the same,`` said N Harindra Shetty. ``The land that is now proposed to be given is free of any problem and we can build a race track, with all the modern amenities,`` Shetty said. ``We are to get about 150 acres of land now,`` he added. Asked how soon the club intends to start work, Shetty said that as soon as the land lease is signed, the club will have the ground breaking ceremony.

It may be recalled that the Chief Minister on Thursday had revealed his mind for the fist time in public when in a chat with this writer he said that he was willing to give time for the club provided it started work in earnest at the land that the government was willing to allot. ``The High Court had not mandated allotment of land to the club but I am giving them land and also time if the club takes up the work immediately,`` Yeddyurappa had said.

Shetty had promised that he would be able to build up good rapport with the government and get a deal for the club after he was elected chairman midway through the present term. He and a few members of his committee should be credited for the success achieved thus far.

The space at BTC is shrinking year after year due to road expansion on all sides. Any further expansion is bound to halt racing at Bangalore notwithstanding whatever the court order the club may get if they chose to persist with the path of confrontation with the government. The professionals themselves had written to the club in the past that the pollution at the present premises was causing harm to expensive horses, causing them frequent bouts of cough and wheezing. The present area of race course is roughly about 70 acres, with about 1100 stables built in a cramped way. A walk around the race course reveals that the situation is fast deteriorating as the newly built stables have no proper sanitation, resulting in accumulation of filthy water in the drainage that surrounds the stables.

The Bangalore Turf Club signed a lease agreement with the government two years ago, agreeing to vacate its premises by December 31, 2009. Interestingly, one of the immediate past secretaries of the owners association was a government nominee on the board. He strongly endorsed and voted in favor of the club signing the suicidal lease agreement despite a few of the managing committee members stating that this would be putting the club in a legally awkward position based on earlier legal opinion and the principles of possession and perpetuity as annunciated in 1923 agreement. . Incidentally, the first ever land lease that the club signed with the government was in 1983. It was inked by one of the past office-bearers of the owners association who was the then Chairman of the Club. The club was always conscious of the fact that the land under possession of the club came by way of grant though this line of defense taken in the past was a conciliatory approach. This fact has been highlighted in the Platinum jubilee book brought out by Bangalore Turf Club in 1995. This is contrary to the claim that this bit of information was s a great discovery by some self claimed protagonists and saviors of the club.