'Match fixing' stops Poonawalla Mysore Derby

MRC witnesses frenzied moments; cops use mild force to restore peace

The contentious issue here was the alleged jumping of a horse within the gate before the start of ‘The Poonawalla Mysore Derby’, ninth of the total 11 races of the day. ‘Immense’ was the horse that jumped when its jockey S John was trying to climb over, hitting two horses alongside; ‘Sun Kingdom and ‘Rapture of victory’. As a result, the jockeys of that horses- B Prakash and P S Chouhan respectively- were unsettled. The tipsters had rated first two horses as favourites of the derby race, a reason enough for those who had bet on it to go berserk. Meanwhile, the race got off to a start, even as these three horses remained within the gates.

The people who had bet on them lost temper damaging three LCD TV sets, besides throwing chairs and also benches. A maruthi alto car, that was to be presented for derby winner, parked in a corner of the paddock was also stoned in the melee.

The irate mob contended that it was nothing but ‘match fixing’ to stop favourites from winning the race. Learning about the incident, cops attached to the stations of Devaraja sub-division rushed to the spot and deployed mild force to quell them. Following the incident, MRC authorities enquired with the stewards who termed it as a ‘false start’. Acting on their opinions, President of MRC, Chaduranga Kantharaj Urs declared the race as ‘null and void’. He said a meeting will be conducted to decide the next schedule. A similar incident had occurred in Bangalore 25 years ago, he added.

However no complaint has been lodged at the jurisdictional police station in regard to MRC incident. A KSRP van has been stationed in the premises as a precautionary measure.