page_title: Royal Calcutta Turf Club
section_title: Later years
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Calcutta Turf Club / Later years
caption_attribution_description: English: Col. Willkinson (Inspector of Courses in England) under the supervision of Hugh Gentor designed the modern race course in Barrackpore in 1927. The Grandstand consist of two stadia. It is now defunctioning as racecourse but using by the Indian army.
context_page_description: The Royal Calcutta Turf Club is a horse racing organisation, founded in 1847 in Calcutta, British India. Initially, horse races were organised for the British cavalry at Akra. Later, it shifted to the Kolkata Maidan. RCTC became the premier horse racing organization in India during the British Raj. At one time it was the governing body for almost all courses in the sub-continent, defining and applying the rules that governed the sport. During its heyday, the races RCTC organised were among the most important social events of the calendar, opened by the Viceroy of India. During It is still an exclusive private club and operates the Kolkata Race Course.
  The club also held polo matches in the late 19th century. It drew English gambling practices. In the 1930s the Calcutta Derby Sweeps, organised by the club, were the largest sweepstake in the world. After the closure of Tollygunge racecourse, a new racecourse was set up by the club at Barrackpore, as an alternative of Maidan, in the 1920s. Although it was closed afterwards due to poor patronage. Later stands and pavilions were built at the Maidan racecourse.
context_section_description: In 1915 the Tollygunge course was closed and steeplechases were run at the Maidan course. In the early 1920s, the RCTC became concerned about the lease of the course at Maidan and looked around for an alternative. An obvious choice would be to expand the existing Tollygunge course, but once the possibility became known the price of adjacent land became exorbitant. In 1922 a site to the north in Barrackpore, which included a racecourse, became available at an acceptable price. The RCTC decided to build a modern facility with new stands, stables and two courses, one round and one with six straight furlongs. The large grand stand would at first be partitioned between members and the public, and if the course was successful a separate members-only grand stand would be built. The railway agreed to provide a spur line to the course that could carry both horses and spectators. The new facility was inaugurated on 27 January 1928.
  Grand Nationals continued to be run at the Maidan course until 1929, when the Grand National was transferred to Lahore, where it was held until 1938. In the period before World War II (1939–1945) the club looked to Australia for guidance rather than to England. Thus the Australian Harvey Roulston was hired as an administrator, the Australian "Gray" gate was used in place of English starting gates, Australian jockeys such as Edgar Britt moved to Calcutta to ride for Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the Maharaja of Baroda State and Australian horses were imported. Methods of detecting drugs such as benzedrine from urine or blood samples became available in the 1930s. The rules of the Turf Club were updated to insist that these tests be conducted meticulously to detect cheating, years before such tests were introduced by the English Jockey Club.
  Despite the fact that the Barrackpore course was technically superior to the Maidan course in many ways, it did not attract the public and consistently lost money. Races were held until 1941 when the army requisitioned it during World War II (1939–1945). After the war, the course was rehabilitated, and races were run in 1947 and 1948. After that, the Barrackpore course was closed. In 1954 it was sold to the government in an arrangement that included renewal of the lease of the Maidan course.
  Sir Uday Chand Mahtab became a Steward in 1947. In 1955 he was elected as senior steward, a position he held for 27 years. During his tenure, in the early 1950s, the South India Turf Club was split off from the Royal Calcutta Turf Club to oversee racing at Bangalore, Chennai (Madras), Hyderabad, Mysore and Ooty. The South India Turf Club in turn divided into separate authorities based on Madras, Bangalore and Hyderabad. In the 1970s these clubs and the original Calcutta and Bombay clubs joined in a loose association of Indian turf authorities.
  In February 1961 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the course and presented the trophy to the winner. Attendance by the elite at the races was an important social event even in the 1960s, where the women would wear their most glamorous clothes. In 1971 Geoffrey Moorhouse placed the Royal Calcutta Turf Club in the first rank of clubs in the city, along with the Bengal Club, the Tollygunge Club and the Calcutta Club.
caption: Stands at racecourse in Barrackpore, to the north of Calcutta.
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