What has come as a surprise is the decision to cancel the races instead of postponing it. Since Thursday for a free day, they could have re-schduled the card for Thursday. By taking a hasty decision late on Tuesday, the MRC authorities have put everyone to great inconvenience as the trainers had already despatched the horse entered for the races to Mysore.

Howerever, the secretary of the MRC K G Anantharaj Urs informed that racing was cancelled due to unsatisfactory track condition without mentioning the fact that it was the bandh which forced them to this decision. ``It has been raining continuously for the last few days and the Stewards took the decision to cancel the races as the Derby is scheduled forSunday and they did not want the track to be damaged.''