With racing paralysed, finances bleeding and owners staring at an uncertain future, the Bangalore Turf Club`s leadership appears admirably focused on the irrelevant. Instead of grappling with bailouts, denotification and the simple question of survival, the Stewards chose to issue trainer licences at a time when stables are shut and horse movement is frozen. Priorities, clearly, are a flexible concept.

When the house is on fire, BTC prefers to polish the door handles.

Racing is not resuming for at least three months due to glanders. Stable visits are banned. Outstation movement will remain frozen well beyond that. In this deep freeze, a trainer`s licence is about as useful as a saddle without a horse. It looks impressive hanging on the wall and delivers absolutely nothing on the ground. Yet urgency was discovered. One is left wondering what emergency was being addressed, and more importantly, for whom.

Both Gregory Sandhu and Praveen Jassu have been out of the system for over five years, making them fresh applicants by any regulatory definition. Their licences sailed through without fuss. Meanwhile, former jockey S. John was shown the door because there is “no racing on”. Logic, it appears, operates on a rota.

If the absence of racing is grounds for rejection, it applies to everyone. If it does not, it applies to no one. What BTC has perfected instead is selective reasoning, a convenient doctrine where rules bend obediently in preferred directions.

Ordinarily, such applications are handled by Stipendiary Stewards, whose role is to vet, scrutinise and recommend, acting as a buffer between process and patronage. Bangalore, however, has been without a permanent Stipendiary Steward for months. That glaring governance failure has not been corrected. It has been exploited.

The Stewards, having already presided over breakdowns in administration, biosecurity, communication and trust, now appear keen to add another portfolio. Judge. Jury. Administrator. And now, Stipendiary Steward by self-appointment. A remarkable accumulation of power, matched only by the accumulation of chaos.

This is not about two licences. It is about a mindset. Owners are bleeding, staff are anxious, racing is paralysed and public confidence is evaporating. And yet, the leadership`s attention drifts effortlessly toward trivia dressed up as action.

BTC Stewards, it seems, are indeed a breed apart. When the sport needed triage, they reached for trivia. Logic has taken a conscious detour, leaving behind a fog where decisions are made, intentions are never explained, and accountability remains permanently “under consideration”.