Heavy Rrain Spells Disaster
By Epsom Ace

Kolkata, Saturday, September 5, 2009
A sudden twist in the weather saw the city experiencing continuous heavy rain from the morning on Saturday. It left the track heavy and quite a few fancied runners failed to put their best foot forward. Hardest hit were a couple of talented youngsters, Glamorous Spirit and Chinatown, both highly rated by the connections. At the end of the day, only two first favourites obliged in a card of six events while two rank outsiders spelt disaster for punters in the races where Glamorous Spirit and Chinatown were favourites.

 
 
The day commenced with Bharath Singh-trained Spectacular Style putting in a spectacular performance in the Tangiers Handicap. He was the sole three-year-old in the field and it was quite obvious that his top-weight run over an identical trip of 1,800 metres in the company of Validate helped him deliver the goods here. The favourite Lil Miss Sunshine ran well below expectations while Aveline failed to make up the leeway in the straight, possibly because she was conceding 4 kg to the runaway leader. Sea Monacrh cut a quick pace till the 800 where Spectacular Style and Md Islam took over and bid adieu to the field, Not surprisingly, the timing of the race for the Alternator Cup, also over 1800, was slower than the previous race as the three-horse field lacked a pacemaker in the form of Sea Monarch. The second hopeful from the Darius Byramji stable, Compton Star, called the shots till the 600 while favourite and stablemate Succeeding Star lay third behind second placed Aquadisiac. At the 600, Aquadisiac took up the running and maintained the lead till the distance post, from which point Christopher Alford atop Succeeding Run edged past him with some forceful riding.

After his eye-catching second to Superman over 1400, Prince Of Gold ought to have closed as the favourite in the Pickwick Handicap run over the same distance. However, it was Bath-trained Bright Blossom who attracted the bulk of the support. The latter seems to have lost his urge to gallop; otherwise he would have been closer at the finish. It must be said however, that had he not drifted out in the straight, he may have posed a serious threat to the winner. A Imran Khan astride Prince Of Gold positioned his mount in a box seat behind early pace –setter Protection. Prince Of Gold took over the running at 600 and stole a march on Italian Splendour who finished a good second.

The six-furlong sprint for The Steinlen Cup saw Vijay Singh-trained Glamorous Spirit open at 70/100 and expand to 11/10 as some smart-money came on Pesi Shroff-trained Corazon, despite this being the latter’s first run of the monsoon season. Money also came on Knights Falcon but he obviously did not take to the slushy surface. The public fancy was stretching out well at the top of the straight but collapsed like a pricked balloon when Kadam and Corazon turned on the heat before the distance marker.

Imtiaz Sait-trained Shanghai Gal completed the double for Kadam. The filly won the Vanitas Handicap comfortably and in a surprisingly good time of 1 min 4.94 sec for 1,000 metres. She tailed Iora till the distance post where she sailed ahead to retire as probably the afternoon’s most facile winner. Though money came on Great Heart, he was never in serious contention as it was all Shanghai Gal in the straight.

The curtain came down in dramatic manner with Rutherford-trained Vignet handing apprentice Srinivas Rao yet another flashy triumph. It was Vignet’s second win of the season under Rao. A Imran Khan did well to take Leading Edge to the helm of affair from 11th draw and quite easily pegged back the fancied pair of Bold Babe and Chinatown but his fine effort came to nought as Rao and Vignet galloped on the outer rails (as Vignet is known to) resolutely to win close home.

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