Trainers8217; strike spoils extra race day

MUMBAI, APRIL 1: A virtual flash strike by the trainers resulted in Royal Western India Turf Club RWITC cancelling the first extra race...

MUMBAI, APRIL 1: A virtual flash strike by the trainers resulted in Royal Western India Turf Club RWITC cancelling the first extra race day at the Mahalakshmi Race Course today. The racehorse trainers unilaterally decided not to saddle the contenders of the six-event card prior to the commencement of the first race at 3.30 p.m.

As horses were not saddled, the RWITC authorities started communicating with the trainers to bring their charges to the paddock. One of the RWITC official even approached them but the trainers desired to solve their pending dispute of payment of electricity bills. Earlier the bills were paid by the Club but owing to the paucity of funds the trainers had been asked to take the burden of 50 per cent of the bills pending from May 1, 1998.It was tried to impress upon the trainers that the public assembled not only at Mahalakshmi but also at other centres would be put to inconvenience as they had not intimated to the club their intentions beforehand.

But with the trainers notresponding, exactly at 3.30 p.m. the stewards took the firm decision to cancel the entire programme of the afternoon.

The authorities later informed the media that the 8220;trainers8217; unwanted, unethical and undemocratic action has disrupted the racing which was unprofessional for their profession.8221;

Representatives of the owners also joined and supported the move of the authorities not to pamper and take action against the erring trainers.As the first step, four of the five trainers who were concerned in the opening event were chargesheeted for gross indiscipline and were summarily summoned later in the evening.

Mrs Irene Patel, trainer of Speakeasy, told the stewards that she had infact saddled her horse and would have run but the races were cancelled and therefore she was not committed to breach of rules. The other four trainers Dallas Todywalla, Nana Raghunath, Jayantilal K Gor and Imtiaz A Sait were however fined Rs 15,000 each and warned that if they do so in future more serious punishment would bemeted out.

As a precautionary measure the stewards issued a warning notice to trainers of horses racing on Saturday to refrain from such actions.

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In an anti-climax to the protest, the members of Western India Trainers Association WITA met the stewards of the Club later in the evening and tendered their unconditional apology.

The irony was that the issue for which the trainers took hasty and unjustified action with a hope that the authorities would succumb and settle it never happened. On the other hand the authorities decided not to concede or even to discuss anything under gun-point.

The firmness of the stewards paid dividends. Nothing was discussed about the races scheduled for Saturday but writings on the wall were quite clear no one will dare to disrupt the show again.