India, March 27 -- The Mumbai racing season ends on Monday and the RWITC must be breathing a sigh of relief that the season was completed without facing any problems that plagued the southern clubs. I have always felt that a magic halo shines over the fortunes of the RWITC, which surmounted serious threats of demonetisation, surge in GST and more recently Covid but still kept the show going with aplomb. Kudos to (chairman) Suren and Ram for leading from the front. The acceptance of membership forms for new members is linked to the upmarket clubhouse. It is going to get the club some much needed moolah, and the roll back in membership fees for children has resulted in a flood of applicants. Although it is for the clubhouse, interest in the sport could be a spinoff benefit. The high point for the month was the Zavaray Poonawalla Racing Carnival which drew surprisingly high footfalls for a mid-March racing day. It was the huge commitment from Zavaray who walked the talk to make it such a success. The promotion requires active support by the sponsor, for I remember years ago we ran the Indian Derby in April, and the attendance was 20,000-plus. It was the singular effort of the UB Group that made people forget it was April, and it dawned the birth of the very popular AC tent. The honouring of veteran trainer Imtiaz Sait for completing 50 years as a trainer, following in the footsteps of Uttamsingh, Syed Shah, Bezan Chenoy and Maniar Jadhav was well deserved. Over his tenure, he has saddled over 2,200 winners and has won the Invitation Cup thrice in addition to the Indian Derby and 18 trainers championships. Having trained for some of the biggest names in Indian racing - the Poonawallas, Ruias, Jains, Vijay Mallya, Khaitan, Shapoor Mistry and more, it is Imtiaz's affable nature that has endeared himself to the entire fraternity for decades. The curious case of Latmotrigine is still hanging fire. The drug was found in the samples of five horses across four training establishments from five months ago. The contention of the affected trainers - Bezan, Nazak, Karrthik and Behram - is that it ought to be treated as a contaminant, as circumstantial evidence points to that. Especially since the substance is a known water contaminant and was even tested at an accredited lab by one of the affected trainers. It is learnt that Chennai-based owner Arun Alagappan has referred to a similar case in 1999, where neither were the horses disqualified nor the trainers punished. The fact that Lamotrigine was detected in samples across four trainers in a few months is intriguing and furthermore, it has no pharmalogical benefit to a horse. The Stewards appear to have finally decided to test certain feed products and water in an attempt to prove or disprove the contentions. Standard protocol requires maintaining a strict chain of custody in the interest of natural justice. The case of Lamotrigine is like a classic whodunit, except that in this case there appears no motive nor any crime and not much left to guesswork....