Horse racing to begin in Ooty tomorrow

Udhagamandalam: The 133rd ‘Racing Season-2019’ is all set to commence on Sunday (April 14) in Ooty. With 20 race meetings, the horse racing season will continue till mid of June. About 500 horses are expected to participate in the racing season.
The highlight of this racing season is that a significant number of horses from other states will take part in the racing meet.

Secretary (Racing) of Madras Race Club P Sivasubramanian said, “As many as 26 trainers, including five outstation trainers, and about 50 jockeys are taking part during the season which would conclude on June 14. The race course has been spruced up for the racing meet.” Starting from April 14, the racing meetings will be held in the mornings. While the famous and classic ‘Nilgiri Derby Stakes Grade –I’ will be held on May 12, the other classic events such as ‘The Nilgiris 1000 Guineas Grade-III’ and ‘The Nilgiris 2000 Guineas Grade –II’ will be conducted on April 21 and 28 respectively. The ‘Nilgiris Gold Cup’ will be run on May 26.

However, over the last few years there has been a considerable dip in the essence of the racing scene. The reason could be attributed to a lull in the old–timers and the racing enthusiasts in the district. Also, the present generation does not seem to have any kind of inclination towards horse races.

However, Sivasubramanian said, “We expect more crowd this horse racing season as a quite a number of outstation horses have been included in the racing to make the events more competitive. The total stake money announced by the Madras Race Club is around Rs7 crore”.

“Cricket has eaten up almost all the games. Of course, despite its lost glory, racing in this hill station is still a ‘great spectacle,” said a die-hard racing enthusiast.

With brilliant and unique grass course, Ooty has the only high-altitude race course in India. Also, the Ooty Race Course, perhaps, is the only race course in the whole of India, where thousands of tourists and racing enthusiasts could enjoy viewing the races without even entering the main enclosure of the course.