Chennai: Kasinathan, 56, a resident of Vadapalani in Chennai, spent much of his early days at the city’s famed Guindy Race Course, gulping a peg of whisky with his friends, enjoying the excitement of horses thundering down the track, and hearing stories of people making money overnight by betting.
“It was a meeting point for all my friends to vent about the day’s work. Even if we didn’t have work, we would go there to watch and bet on the racing horses. But, now it will only be a matter of past,” Kasinathan, a plumber by profession, told ThePrint.
He was referring to the Tamil Nadu government’s decision Monday to seal the Guindy Race Course, India’s oldest, due to non-payment of rental arrears. To many of the city’s horse-racing enthusiasts, the action seems like the ending of an era.
Chennai has had a thriving horse-racing culture for more than two centuries, which, over the years, transformed from elite to more democratic.
The British dominated the sport first, followed by wealthy zamindars, and a few decades ago, the race course had become the go-to place for the working class, auto-rickshaw drivers, daily wage-earners etc., to make a quick buck, gather and chit-chat about their lives, before again turning into a place for the elite.
The racing history of Chennai, in fact, dates to the years before the independence of the US, according to historian Venkatesh Ramakrishnan. Even as George Washington was waging a war for freedom from Great Britain, the British were racing horses for entertainment in the Madras Presidency (present-day Tamil Nadu, including capital Chennai).
“They just started for the pleasure of men in Madras and it (sport of horse-racing) was the first of its kind in the subcontinent,” recalls Ramakrishnan.
Racing was close to the heart of the British, according to Ramakrishnan, and it could be seen in the records of the East India Company that “the entertainment took place in the cool season, when the ladies of the settlement are invited to a splendid ball”.
Though one cannot ascertain when betting began in the horse races, Venkatesh confirmed that it was prevalent during the British period in India.
In 1777, the entire village of Venkatapuram, almost on the Adyar river next to the Guindy forest, was allotted for horse racing by the then Chengalpet governor. Though the present day Guindy race course is located on about 160 acres, initially only 108 acres were allotted, according to historians.
“In the initial days, racing used to happen early in the morning and would end at 10 am for people to get to work. As it started to thrive, all the norms were changed,” Ramakrishnan adds.
After holding the reins on horse-racing for over a century, the British let Indians in, who spent most of their time at the race course.
“The zamindars and kings in south India spent almost all of their time at the race course, making it a second home for them. Eventually, the place was more democratised so that anybody could enter the race club and bet,” Ramakrishnan recalls.
It was in 1946 that the race course was leased out to Madras Race Club (MRC) for a period of 99 years. The club was then largely dominated by the mercantile community of Chettiars, who have been controlling horse-racing in the region.
According to Ramakrishnan, the family of Rajah Annamalai Chettiar, his son M.A. Chidambaram and his grandson M.A.M. Ramaswamy have controlled the club for most of the years after Independence.
“It was Chidambaram’s initiative to introduce classic races in the 1950s and he was also successful in it. To the family’s credit, M.A.M Ramasamy’s horses have won about 400 classic races,” he adds.
‘Went inside with Rs 10,000, came out with lakhs’
The British first started horse-racing as early as 1777 on an island of Cooum river close to Fort St George in Madras (now Chennai). Later, it was moved to Guindy close to the Adyar river as it was considered a suburban area then.
“It (Guindy Race Course) was not just a place for the rich and royals. It was more of a democratic place, where we could see people from all walks of life, meeting and greeting each other. It became a meeting point for all to discuss everything from business to marriage,” says 55-year-old B. Manoharan, an auto driver from MGR Nagar, Chennai.
Manoharan has been an ardent fan of horse-racing since his teenage days. He reminisced about the Guindy Race Course and growing up near the Adyar river. “We used to go inside with Rs 10,000 and come out with lakhs by betting on the horses.”
ThePrint also learnt that a cross section of people living in and around Chennai, irrespective of their economic background, have been fascinated with horse-racing and the kind of money people make out of betting on horses.
Manoharan, the son of a construction worker, spoke about how his grandfather made money out of horse-racing and built a house for the family around five decades ago.
“When my father took me to the race course at a young age, he told me that his house had been built from the horse race betting money. I have also witnessed people coming to the club with a meagre amount and going out with a lump sum,” he adds.
However, Manoharan was not successful like his grandfather and gave up on betting a decade ago. Kasinathan, too, stopped betting some 10-15 years ago for the same reason.
According to historian Ramakrishnan, betting on racing horses was cheap at the Guindy Race Course as compared to other race courses in the country. “In the early days, you could bet for just Rs 5,” he says.
Govt-MRC tussle
After being under the control of the British for over 150 years, the Guindy Race Course was leased out to the MRC on 1 April, 1946, for 99 years at a meagre annual rent of Rs 614.13.
Formed in 1896, the MRC paid the entire amount for 99 years at once. The initial lease deed didn’t have any clause about revision of the annual lease amount, according to government data.
However, in December 1970, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government stipulated 14 percent of land value as annual rent for leased-out government properties. In 2004, revenue officials issued a notice to the MRC to pay rent arrears of about Rs 310 crore for the period between 1974 and 2004.
Until 2017, the state government had demanded total rent arrears (for the period from 1974 to 2017) of Rs 12,381 crore from the MRC.
After several rounds of petitions and counter petitions before the Madras High Court, the court ordered the MRC last year to pay Rs 730.86 crore immediately and the pending arrears in a month’s time. An appeal by MRC against this order is still pending before the high court.
According to revenue officials, the court had not said anything about the action the government could take on the race course in accordance with law. “Hence, we have sealed the race course and cancelled the lease deed signed for 99 years during the British period,” one of the revenue officials told ThePrint.
Asked about the non-payment of arrears which has led to the termination of the lease agreement and sealing of the race course, a functionary in the board of MRC members told ThePrint that they have decided to not comment on or release a statement.
“We are trying to sort the issue legally and hence, we have decided not to speak on this,” the functionary said.
One of the arguments the government has made in favour of sealing the race course is that racing is not as popular as it used to be, and the vast land can instead be converted into a park for the public as it is the only lung space available inside a crowded Chennai.
Ramakrishnan, too, says the 160 acres of race course land is now the only green space inside the city.
“We may be surprised that only Chennai has the biggest urban race courses in the world, but it is because the city has grown beyond Guindy. However, when the race course was first set up over 200 years ago, the ground was almost on the Adyar river surrounded by farmlands,” he says.
Not the first obstacle
It is not the first time that the horse races in Chennai have come to a halt, as they were previously stopped for several reasons, including World War I. The sport faced a tough time in 1949, when the government enacted the Madras City Police and Gaming (Amendment) Act, which allowed Tamil Nadu to ban racing with just a notification. However, the notification was never issued.
But, it was only a matter of time. Banning horse-racing was one of the electoral promises of the DMK when it came to power in 1967, and the state government brought the Tamil Nadu Horse Races (Abolition of Wagering or Betting) Act in 1974. A year later, it banned the sport.
“It was a real threat that the horse race faced ever since it was started in the city,” says Ramakrishnan.
However, the MRC moved the Supreme Court and got a stay on the ban in November 1975. Horse racing continued for another 10 years, only to be hit by yet another legislation—the Madras Race Club (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertaking) Act, 1986.
Ramakrishnan remarked that this was the time when interest in horse-racing began to dwindle in Tamil Nadu.
With the 1986 Act, the MRC came under the control of the government and the 1975 stay on the ban order was removed that year, and horse racing was stopped again. Nevertheless, race enthusiasts fought in the legal corridors and sought temporary relief in 1988. There was much relief in 1996, when the Supreme Court ruled that horse racing was a game of skill and not of gambling.
The Madras Race Club Act, 1986 was struck down by the Supreme Court in February 1996. The course was then handed over to the committee of Madras Race Club the next month that year.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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