Star Pegasus, Campanero and
Astor Place were expected to run prominently but it was Michael
Eshwer trained Taipan who surprised everyone with his
performance. Jockey Gallagher was pretty confident that Taipan
would run a great race. ``Taipan has shown a great deal of
improvement and the removal of blinkers has worked wonders with
the son of Don’t Forget Me. I am sure he will be right there
at the busy end,’’ he had said before the race. And he was
proved right though not many were inclined to agree with his
assessment before the race.
Aslam Kader had Ansbach held up in the sixth or seventh position
and brought the Alnasr Alwasheek progeny on the wide outside on
turning for home. Even as Star Chieftan and Campanero were
battling it out, Ansbach drew clear in a trice to establish a
sizeable lead. Taipan who had a slightly hampered passage, shot
through the middle. The son of Don’t Forget Me covered up a
lot of leeway but the winning post came to the rescue of the
front-running favourite. Taipan was shy at the finish by ¾ of a
length. What tilted the scales decisively in favour of the
favourite was his ability to quicken faster than the rest.
Taipan has a bright future
ahead of him. It would be prudent to campaign him in the Nanoli
Juvenile Million at Mysore where he will be favoured by the
terms of the race and he could be quite a handful in the
classics too as he would be taking on relatively inferior
opponents.
Both the divisions of the Cape
Dance Plate, a sprint race for three-year olds, saw favourites
come a cropper in contrasting fashion. In the lower division of
the race, favourite Silvertre played up before being stalled and
was withdrawn from the fray. Moses trained El Tonor won
unfancied, at lucrative odds, with Memorable Occasion finishing
second ahead of favourite-by-default Wovoka. Jockey Woods tried
to work his way through the narrow gap along the rails on
Memorable Occasion but the got-abroad filly who has an impaired
vision in one of her eyes, was hesitant to take the gap and
Woods abruptly shifted her out of the rails, causing a big check
to Wovoka. Memorable Occasion finished full of running to miss
the berth by half a length. Jockey Gallagher took an objection
for interference against Woods. The Stewards, much against their
own decisions in the past, upheld the objection and disqualified
Memorable Occasion and promoted Wovoka to the third spot.
There would have not been any
grouse had the Stewards been consistent in their decisions. On
several occasions, they have gone by the norm whether the
interference made any material difference and if not, the
objection has been thrown out. In this case, the interference
did not make any material difference. Even if the objection were
to be upheld, disqualifying the horse was wrong because
Memorable Occasion could have at least been placed fourth. The
fact that the Stewards did not view Woods riding as dangerous
but only careless made things worse. In the upper division of
the race, Imtiaz Sait’s Pleasure Hunt was an overwhelming
favourite to win but the Razeen filly that was in season was
beaten fair and square by well-backed Extreme Contact at
nourishing odds.
Barring Ansabch who won as a
strong public fancy, the day’s races went the way of
lesser-fancied ones. Abdullah’s Vertigo was strongly backed to
win the Bold Gesture Plate (Div II) but lesser-fancied Abhimanyu
floored the favourite close home with a powerful run. The run of
bad luck for Abdullah continued, with Vertigo becoming the 11th
horse of the trainer to finish second best during the season.
Nothing seems to be going right for him. Laplander came up with
a late run to finish a noteworthy third. In the upper division,
Ganapathy’s Splendid Ally won quite easily from First
Principle. Padmanabhan is another trainer who is finding winners
hard to come by this season and his poor run continued with
favourite Love Unlimited finishing off the frame.
Warren Singh was at his
aggressive best when steering lesser fancied Krugar Park to an
exciting win over Patriotic while in the lower division, Samar
Singh’s Exstream, after a series of seconds, finally obliged
at nourishing odds, with a great deal of comfort. Rashid Byramji
trained favourite Moonlight Rays was not sighted. It is no
longer safe to back a horse, running as a favourite from the
yard of the Byramjis.
Ganapathy is all set to claim
the trainer’s championship for the second season running.
Majestic Emperor won the Lt Col Gaunt Memorial Cup decisively
from Native Red to put him a point ahead of long time leader
Darashah. Alycylic, ridden by Aslam Kader was the favourite but
the drifting odds in the betting ring were certainly indicative
of the fact that something was amiss. Alycylic ran a disgraceful
last and jockey Aslam Kader has often disappointed by his
lackadaisical attitude. The concluding week of the Summer Season
should see Ganapathy wrap up the championship.