Southern Empire was rated higher than Holding Court and added to this,
the reason for public to believe that the son of Placerville was
invincible was the statement of turf baron Dr.M.A.M.
Ramaswswamy who had said that this year’s Indian Turf Invitation Cup winner was far superior to Mystical. In the event, Southern Empire, despite getting 2.5 kgs from his challenger, floundered and went down tamely in the end.
Holding Court, who had excelled on this turf two years ago by swamping the opposition in the
Kingfisher Bangalore Derby, had since gone on to bag a host of graded races. Barring the unexpected defeat in the Indian Derby, Southern Empire won all his outings and had beaten his conqueror Diabolical in the Invitation Cup by one of the widest margins recorded in the history of that race. Southern Empire had showed out in a mock race which
in his lead up to this event.
Among the rest, only Aperitivo has been a model of consistency while the
others despite enjoying pull in weights, did not measure up to the super stars.
It was Friendly Fire who did the job of setting the pace followed by another Hyderabad challenger Gentleman’s Deal, Southern Empire, Holding Court and the rest. Southern Empire moved into a striking position at the final turn and had the first run on his opponents. The way Southern Empire quickened to open up a lead of about three lengths it looked as
though Holding Court would meet his waterloo. But jockey Mark Zahra was not ruffled and had Holding Court cover the leeway smoothly and had him going away without resorting to any aggression. It was a good quality ride by the visiting
Australian jockey. Aperitivo ran on to be third ahead of Gentleman’s Deal. Holding Court will next race in the Maharaja’s
Cup (Gr.2).
Subhag Singh trained Cosmos brought off a big upset in the 1200 metres S.M.Ramakrishna Rao Memorial Cup, a race for horses rated 80 and above. Secret Command, who had run an impressive second behind Haunting Memories in his last essay, enjoyed maximum support but the Hyderabad challenger failed to reproduce his best and only managed to nose out Cromwell for the third spot. Mumbai challenger Cosmos, who has been a good performer, enjoyed the pull in weights and held
on to the advantage even as Jersey Pride closed in the gap with a big effort. Running Thunder burst his blood vessels.
New Zealand jockey V.Colgan steered Sprucespringstien to an easy win over favourite Aelenia who was there for an outing. Aelenia was not favourably positioned at any stage of the race and started to move when the front-runner had established a winning lead. Give Me The Money finished third ahead of Royal Treasure who had his own share of supporters.
Ex-jockey Babu Rao, who has been given a private license to train
Ramanujula Reddy’s horses, was successful in his first attempt in his new vocation. saddling Noname to a facile victory. Noname has been pretty unlucky in his career, finishing second best on innumerable occasions. Perhaps the change of stables helped as Noname won well over Easy, taking charge on
turning for home and winning with something to spare. Yet another horse who had let down a number of times but who obliged on Saturday was Woman In Charge. Woman In Charge circled round the field at the final bend and established a big lead even as Perfect Rhythm was getting into her stride and retired home a facile winner. Alinski ran below part while Algiers was a notable third.
Rashid Byramji trained Olivia Valere had no problem in tackling the opposition in the 1100 metres Camineto Plate, a race for maiden three year olds. The daughter of Razeen showed plenty of speed to win from start to finish. War of Attrition drifted out in the straight but ran on to finish third behind Alyciaa. War of Attrition has a wind problem and as such, there will always be a question mark about his performance.
Conde Nast had to be driven out to win from a late-finishing Brothers in Arms while Only Royale who led the field from the word `go’ in this nine furlong trip, slackened in the final furlong to finish a suggestive third. In the day’s other action, A Run To Remember had it easy against Hima’s Pride who has been a consistent failure.
