Horse Racing: Bangalore Turf Club season begins but without spectators

After a gap of more than 7 months due to COVID-19, horse racing at the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC), which was suspended due to the lockdown, began on November 1. With this, the BTC will kick off the 2020-21 winter season and hold five races in November, on weekends.

A senior steward at the BTC stated to PTI, "In all, eight races took place starting from 1.30 pm today. There were no spectators and no betting". 

However, there will be no audience to watch the race, and no bets will be accepted for the first few races.

"We cannot allow crowds at the BTC to place bets. So, we are developing a mobile application for punters to place bets. It’s in the last stages of development and will hopefully be available for commercial deployment by November 14, after which we will take bets," BTC steward said.

For races without bets, BTC will pay the money of the winner's stake.

"We have devised a formula where the winner will be paid 45% of the stake money that the corresponding race had garnered last year. This practice will be in place only till our app is deployed," BTC steward added.

BTC had recently announced that there would be five racing days - November 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28. The races will be streamed online on the BTC website. A race day ticket will be priced at Rs. 500 INR and buyers will receive a password to watch the race.