The field consisted of
some top performers which, apart from Diabolical, had last year’s winner
Hesperus, Coral Gables who two years back enjoyed the tag of being the
highest rated horse in the country, Green Bax, Parthenon and Big B among
others who all had a host of wins to their credit. Quite predictably,
Diabolical went into the race at cramped odds, with the rest available
at lucrative odds. Such was the confidence of race goers in this
imposing performer.
Diabolical was settled in the fourth position with Prakash who always
travels about four horses wide as Running Bull raced ahead of the bunch
as is his wont. Diabolical was kept on the outside and moved steadily to
be in a position to essay his challenge to the front runner. Running
Bull packed up too quickly for comfort and Diabolical went into the lead
untroubled. In the meanwhile Coral Gables had made steady progress from
the rear and came up with his customary blistering run. However,
Diabolical had gone into a decisive lead and though his lead was fast
dwindling, the winning post came to his rescue as Coral Gable’s
finishing burst went in vain. Coral Gables continues to maintain his
zest at seven and he has always done well during the Bangalore Summer
Season as he seems to revel in the conditions obtaining here. Coral
Gable’s stablemate Khaleel’s Pride, who had run below par last time out,
claimed the third spot. Green Bax showed some semblance of returning to
form by filling up the frame. Jet Fire, who was well placed at the final
turn, did not pose the anticipated challenge and finished dismally.
The biggest disappointment of the day was the run of Our Excellencee in
the Nawab Arshad Ali Khan Memorial Trophy. Touted as a top class
three-year old and expected to have a big say in the winter classics,
the son of Placerville out of the Razeen mare Pleasure Hunt, had
run third to Bourbon King in the Poonawalla Breeders’ Million at Mumbai
in only his second outing. He was backed to the exclusion of his rivals
and Astraea, who had run a good second behind Alvarita in the Fillies
Trial Stakes and had every chance to upset the favourite, was
surprisingly allowed to run at lucrative odds. Soberano led the field as
Astraea and Our Excellencee raced in close proximity of each other with
the other four runners racing behind. Rounding the final turn, Our
Excellencee came cruising but faltered under pressure and Astraea burst
through the middle and went sailing clear to win as she pleased. Our
Excellencee plodded home to be second and Hyderabad challenger Auxiliary
who was conceding weight to all her adversaries, finished just a length
behind the highly touted favourite. Astraea is surely cut out for bigger
plums. The winner of this race, a sweepstakes for three-year olds, has
almost always gone on to do well in the classics.
The Bangalore Turf Club deserves appreciation for recognizing the
services of commentator S N Harish who had become the voice of Indian
racing by his contribution as a commentator, video presenter and a
columnist in newspaper for nearly three decades. His untimely passing
last month has indeed left a big void. There was a race named to
commemorate his memory and a maidens’ race has been framed for this
purpose. The well bred Czar Alexander made it a no contest, winning in
impressive fashion. Czar Alexander, who is bred to stay longer, should
improve after this run and make his mark when he shifts to Pune next
month.
The Turf Authorities of India came up with a good gesture to give a fund
to the family of S N Harish and an amount close to Rs 20 lakh will be
the promised amount. This amount includes the contribution of five Turf
Authorities of India and individual contributions of Dr. M A M Ramaswamy
and the Poonawalla family.
Attain and Woman In Charge were strongly fancied to win the R M Puttanna
Memorial Trophy (Div I) but in the event, the first named who ran in and
out, obviously feeling his bandaged legs, lost all his chances. Pride
who was taken on a start to finish mission by jockey Mark Zahra held on
grimly to win from No Name who put up stiff resistance and the late
finishing Woman In Charge. Attain was fourth. The lower division of the
race was claimed by Hidden Pleasures who came up with a sustained run in
the final furlong to edge out Neylah and Seize The Knight who were
disputing the issue.
Queen Rania made it no contest of the Confucious Plate (Div I), leaving
Double Emerge stranded. The lower division of the race saw an upset in
the form of Baffled winning at the expense of Reference. Reference went
into the race at cramped odds but failed to justify the favouritism as
she bled during the race.
Nityanand trained Double Elite had to ward off a stiff resistance put up
by Lady In Style to win the 1600 metres Pune Plate. Favourite Agassiz
was withdrawn from the fray at the gates.
In the day’s other action, Raider’s Sun was a runaway winner of the 1100
metres Sir Bruce Plate where Alyciaa finished second best for the fourth
time in a row.
