Fond Fantasy lands the plum
By Sharan Kumar

Fond Fantasy provided trainer Ganapathy with a hat trick of wins in the Gr 1 Fillies Trial Stakes. The daughter of Razeen emulated her full sister Wandering Star who had won this event a few years ago. Despite running for only the third time in her career, Fond Fantasy did enough to keep her rivals at bay, winning in a good time of one minute 39.4 seconds. Fiorenzza showed remarkable upswing in form to be a surprise second ahead of Ramjet and Integral. One Magic Moment who was expected to be in the thick of things clearly was not her usual self, running below par and looked a beaten horse well before the contenders took the final turn. Whether the slow pace of the race which saw the runners jostle for space affected the chances of One Magic Moment or not, the fact remains that the daughter of Tirol appears not cut out for extended distances. Considering the fact that she is endowed with tremendous speed, sprints may be her forte.

Fond Fantasy may make big improvement after this run but on the basis of the run in the Fillies Stakes, one cannot be too optimistic about her turning out to be a champion filly in course of time. All things point to her outer limit being a mile because in a slow run race, when she was held up inside the final 300 metres for a while behind a tiring horses, she showed striking acceleration to go clear of the field but the deceleration too was obvious because the field was catching up on her. Fiorenzza, who finished with a rattle on the wide outside, was fast catching up but the winning post perhaps came a wee bit early for her. Fiorenzza had run poorly in her last outing and the dramatic improvement only highlighted the inconsistency that dogs the stable. Ramjet battled hard to stave off Hyderabad challenger Integral for the third spot. Glorious Colours who had lost narrowly to Ramjet and Metalique in her previous run, was expected by many to be a frontline contender but both of them were out of depth in this company.

Fillies negotiating the bend at 500M

Mr. S. Mariswamy, I.P.S., Commissioner of Police and Steward of BTC presenting the trophy to Dr.M.A.M.Ramaswamy, owner of Fond Fantasy. 

Fond Fantasy went into the race as an on-money favourite. She looked the part, showing out in the paddock parade. Jockey Prakash on Fond Fantasy found himself in front soon after jumping off from the gates and he slowed down the pace effectively so much so that those behind him were cramped for space. Frenchman Poirier circled the field and took charge but he too controlled the pace of the race. On turning for home, Integral was strongly challenged by Ramjet who was on her outside, with Fond Fantasy getting into the act. With the front-runners not quickening to the desired effect, Prakash on the favourite found himself behind these two tiring horses. He wisely shifted the favourite without wasting time and the Razeen filly who has a good turn of foot, established a winning lead straightaway. Fiorenzza, in the hands of Mrs Silva Storai, finished on strongly to be a shade over a length behind the winner, causing many to believe that if the daughter of Bee's Prospector had a smooth run, she could have altered the scenario. 

Jockey C Alford who had messed up on Network last time out, made amends, riding a copybook race in the 1400 metres Civil Service Cup. The luck of the race too went in his favour. Network broke off level from the gates and half the problem was overcome there itself. Network hugged the rails and coming into the straight, the field spread out and the favourite got a smooth run down the centre. Network quickened well and established a winning lead and held on to win from top-weighted Acrobat who covered plenty of ground on the winner in the final furlong. Acrobat had to circle round the field to make his challenge but the leeway that Network had, stood him in good stead. Now that Network has won a handicap race, he may well have reached his mark. Prevalence took the third spot ahead of Integrity while Brunswick who showed up prominently at the top of the straight, failed to sustain and faded out of the frame.

Top Executive enjoyed a lot of hype about him and this was what made him go into the Justice P Medappa Memorial Cup at cramped odds. Lesser-fancied Avignon had the first run on Top Executive and although at one point, the latter surged ahead, the former fought back to wrest the initiative to win with a measure of comfort at the finish. Top Executive seemed to have reserved his best for his preparatory gallop only. After Glow had a good forward run and should strike early.

South Cove who last win was during the first week of February last year, had more than eight runs during which time he had come down in scales marginally but good enough to be a strong contender. Backed to the exclusion of his rivals, the daughter of Serious Spender, despite being none too well placed at the top of the straight, came through the centre with a strong run and won with a lot to spare. Steroid struggled hard to edge out Wovoka for the runner-up berth.

Network (C Alford up) winning Civil Service Cup from Acrobat (R Marshal up)\

Mr.P.B.Calappa presenting the trophy to Mr. Atul Amersey, owner of Avignon

Outsmart looked outstanding in the Diablo Plate (Div I) and he readily justified the support, surging past Adventurous World with ease to win in emphatic fashion. There was inspired support for Adventurous World but it was clearly misplaced. The lower division of the race went the way of Satish Narredu trained Lucky Spell who proved too good for the likes of Triple X and Maurya. Maurya who has soundness problems ran well enough to suggest that he could be in the money in the near future.

Hyderabad challenger Nickelback came from way behind to overhaul the front-running favourite Wishbone with a great deal of comfort to take the Red Divine Plate (Div I). Abbu Sher was out for an airing. Silva, who rode Wishbone, had finished second behind on another favourite in the opening race of the day. Lesser-fancied Anmol went clear of the field from the word `go' and held on to win from favourite Samyuktaa. That was the first leg of a hat trick of seconds for Silva.