Exciting Bangalore Summer Season on offer

MUMBAI: Bangalore Summer Season, the only horse racing season in the country that attracts contenders from all the racing centres, is set to start from Saturday, May 14. The Kingfisher Derby has been scheduled for Sunday, July 10.
Apart from rich stakes on offer, the season will have four richly endowed terms races added to the programme. There will be racing on 13 weekends with four-year-olds getting their due by way of having 11 graded races.A total of 25 crores will be distributed during the season. Performance linked bonus has gone up to 40 per cent which goes directly to the owners account.
The highlight of the season, however, will be the Bangalore St Leger which will become the first Leger in the country to be thrown open to four-year-olds and over, thus giving an opportunity for inter-generation contest. So far, the St Leger was restricted to four-year-olds only.
The season will see significant changes in the way horses are categorised. The existing 0 to 25 has been changed to 0 to 20. 20 to 45 is now 15 to 35, 40 to 65 is 30 to 50, 60 and above is 45-65 and 80 and above is 60 and above. The number of races for the lowest category are likely to come down because of this re-arrangement.
While most of the top trainers in the country will be there with their contenders, ace trainer Pesi Shroff will be skipping the season this year. The absence of his horses will surely rob some of competitive interest but another big trainer from Mumbai, Malesh Narredu, will be there with some competitive horses. Trainer Karthik Ganapathy will be coming for the season after a long break. All eyes will be on his highly rated horse Supreme General.
French jockey David Raymond Henri Breux will be seen in action riding for Dr M A M Ramaswamy Chettiar of Chettinad Charitable Trust.