Zavaray Poonawalla is king for the evening

Zavaray Poonawalla, chairman of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC), has won a bid to the title rights of evening racing, to be hosted at the Mahalaxmi Racrecourse for a period of 20 days beginning January 3.

Zavaray Poonawalla

The club received only one tender for the title rights of the race. The tenders closed on Tuesday evening. That tender was from Zavaray. This tender will be opened on Sunday evening at the races, where it will be formally ratified that Zavaray has won the title rights.

Earlier, Zavaray had offered R1.15 crore for the title rights for evening racing, yet, some in the club committee thought the process should be tendered since there were some who said it was 'undervalued and pitched too low.'

So, the RWITC invited tenders, putting a reserve price of R1.15 crore for the bid. Strangely, despite saying it may be, 'undervalued' at R1.15 crore, there was no other tender or higher bid for the same.

Vivek Jain, media and marketing manager of RWITC, said that the objection earlier amounted to unnecessary stalling. "If the club had pitched it very low and the initial R1.15 crore was undervalued, then, why was there no higher bid?" After all that, Zavaray it is, as floodlights and infrastructure are readied for evening racing, which begins at 4 pm to 8 pm.