Star Wind blows away the favourite
By Sharan Kumar
brsharan@yahoo.com

Bangalore
July 17, 2004

Trainer Michael Eshwer has been hogging the limelight by his remarkable string of victories during the season. River God became the first older horse to win a hat trick of graded races to give the trainer a great boost in his professional career. The trainer has had a major share of success in the races meant for horses in the highest class. With a number of well-performed horses in his yard, it is no surprise that his horses pick up the plums with amazing regularity. Star Wind won the S M Ramakrishna Rao Memorial Cup, a race for horses rated 40 and above, which featured Saturday’s races against the run of expectations. Declaring five-kg claimer Mark to ride the daughter of Placerville did the trick for Star
Wind who exploited the drop in weights as a result by resolutely holding on to the initiative she seized from the word `go’. Favourite Solar Rocket came threateningly close but he found the front-runner not in a mood to give up and he gave up instead!

Though Solar Rocket had run below par in his last outing, he came in for strong support in the ring considering the fact that none of the runners had great surface form to go by. Aerospace is still to regain his peak form and Star Wind, after winning twice in quick succession in winter, had been finding the company little hard to tackle at the scales that she was in. Mark pushed Star Wind to the front as the starter dispatched the field for the six-furlong trip and stayed on grimly. Solar Rocket, who raced in about fifth or sixth position, picked up all the front-running horses quite capably but faltered at the final hurdle. Aerospace ran a forward race to be a good third ahead of Iflookscouldkill. Star Alone did not run to expectations when finishing fifth. 

Star Wind (M Mark up) winner of the S M Ramakrishna Rao Memorial Cup being led by trainer Mr. Eshwer

Warsaw Pact (Srinath up) winner of the Treasure Girl being led by trainer Mr. Sait 
& owner Mrs. Rashmee A. Amersey

Trainer Imtiaz Sait who had a poor run towards the end of the Mumbai season, seems to be running into form as he saddled a brace of winners. Warsaw Pact, despite swishing her tail till being stalled in the gate, settled down nicely in the race and was not unduly extended when checking in a comfortable winner, ahead of Minstrel Girl. Prakash chasing just one winner to reach the magical figure of 1000 winners, was astride the runner-up and he was not destined to reach the milestone on Saturday, as he was on two other horses which ended second best, Star Ballad coming tantalizingly close to landing the spoils. Waves of Glory proved too good for the opposition in a six furlong race for maiden three-year olds, winning with a great deal of ease, jockey Rajendra having an arm-chair ride to victory. There was some inspired support for Star of Treasure but it was misplaced as the daughter of Alnasr Alwasheek was stranded long way behind.

Inkwazi won the Div I of the Chaitanya Chakram Plate though the son of Green Forest found the six-furlong trip rather sharp. Though he was in a tight position on turning for home, as he had to cover considerable leeway on the front-runner, he picked up momentum in time to pass the front-running Keep Guessing close home.

Accordance and Galaxy Star were expected to battle it out in the 2400 metres V G Saravanam Memorial Cup though the latter received support disproportionate to the relative form of the contestants. Accordance had held off the challenge of Galaxy Star when finishing behind Exuberant over a 2200 metres trip and he was surely going to be much better off over a furlong extra. Accordance, who ran a handy second behind Turbanator till approaching the 700 metres marker, surged ahead and though Galaxy Star came up with a flourish inside the final 350 metres, she failed to sustain and found her stamina limitations affecting her winning chances. Trainer Arshad who saddled Accordance, had a rare double as his other ward Verve won at nourishing odds later in the day.

Accordance (Appu up) winner of the V G Saravanam Memorial Cup being led by trainer Mr. Arshad & owers Mr. Palaniappan, 
Mr. Ramaswamy & Mr. Faraz Arshad
Mr. Palaniappan,  Mr. Ramaswamy & 
Mr. Faraz Arshad receiving the trophy 
from Mr. Dhanasekar 

Mauritius Star (A Qureshi up) winner of the Kranji Plate Div I being led by trainer 
Mr. Mangalokar & owner

Veteran trainer Madhav Mangalorkar chose the right race for his ward Mauritius Star who landed a quiet touch. The son of Metal Precieux had run a close third to Proud Tradition in his first run of the season and had a long break since then. Entrusted to five-kg claimer A Quereshi, Mauritius raced in a striking position and took charge inside the final furlong and held on to win from a late-finishing Chadragupta. There was misplaced support for Grey Eagle who had let down likewise last year too The lower division of the Kanaji Plate turned out to be a minefield, with Permia exploding the field winning at fancy odds for the second time in her career. Fancied Silver Ring had all the chances but she failed to quicken at the all-important end. Just Perfect found foot late to be an impressive second ahead of Sworn Silence who was finally allowed to stretch out.

Trainer Leo D’Silva has had a good outing in Bangalore. Friendly Fire who had run some suggestive races during the season, towered over the opposition in the 1600 metres Royal Challenge Plate but the only question mark about the chances of the Hyderabad challenger was the fact that apprentice Uday Kiran was entrusted to ride him and the jockey’s last success had been in Bangalore exactly a year ago! However, Friendly Fire needed no support from the saddle as he bolted away from the opposition on turning for home to win with a great deal of comfort. Storm Hawk who had run below his form last time out managed to take the second spot ahead of Lovely Empress who had to be really goaded into producing a stretch run. Lovely Empress finished with a strong run but it was too late in the day to make the eventual winner sweat hard.