Thoroughbreds in action on March 17
View(s):Ending a 11-month long drought of events, Royal Turf Club (RTC) will conduct its first race for 2018 with a raceday next Saturday. RTC President, Panduka Keerthinanda confirmed that all plans have been set afoot to conduct a raceday with six events after a successful round of meeting with the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association (TROA).
“A group of RTC officials met with the officials of TROA to discuss on the possibilities of conducting races, which were not held for the past 11 months mainly due to unsupportive weather condition. But we are glad to officially say that finally RTC is conducting races in six more days,” Keerthinanda said.
With the TROA onboard to work hand in hand with the RTC, a total of 45 thoroughbred horses will be in line to compete in six race events on March 17 at the Racecourse in Nuwara Eliya. Races for thoroughbred horses will range from 1000metres to 2000metres in addition to the event classes of three-quarter bred and half bred horses.
The latest development gives the RTC a glimpse of hope of conducting a total of four races in the coming two months, with three more races planned out for the April season. RTC confirmed that racedays have been already planned for April 1, 15 and 28 with more glamour added to bring back the sport into its usual status.
Since end April 2017 the RTC has failed to conduct any race despite slotting dates in from August till the end of the year. Either the races were affected by rain or RTC faced other obstacles in its failure to conduct races.
Prior to the new fixed dates RTC were on the verge of partnering with Sri Lanka Turf Club (SLTC) and the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association (TROA) to conduct races, but due to unknown reasons the coalition never materialised.
“The TROA is highly keen to be part of the proceedings. We, as thoroughbred racehorse owners, will finally get the opportunity to run our stallions after a lapse of 11 months. That’s something positive we were looking forward to. Our only interest is holding regular races to keep the thoroughbred horses in prime condition, and we are not interested in any other matter than that. We want our horses to be active and owners spend a lot of money to maintain them, our need is to have regular races. It’s nice to see things finally happening,” a senior official of TROA stated.
The RTC has raked in a few sponsors who are keen to have a long term partnership, while the TROA also stated that it will sponsor one of the races among the three events planned for April in memory of the Late Rajan Sellamuttu, who was a livewire in Sri Lanka horseracing.