Splendid Surprise, who went into the race without a run benefit, was a
lesser fancied runner in this race while River Island, despite her
blazing workouts, was not considered to come into fighting line because
of her jockey.
Royal Ambassador, the top-weight, was left in and not declared to start. As a result,
the weights did not go up, inconveniencing a majority of the trainers. As
many as five top jockeys present at this centre had to miss out because
they could not make the weight as most horses ran at low handicap.
Cotswold Arms took over the running as the starter dispatched the
unwieldy field of 14 runners, followed by Upper Crust, Woman On Top,
Pastiche, Open Opinion and the rest. Splendid Surprise, who
had the disadvantage of an outside draw, was further inconvenienced by
the jockey of Open Opinion who pushed him further out and
caused him to drop back to the sixth position. Axiology lost some ground at the start.
Rounding the final turn, Woman On Top smoothly sailed into the lead and
sped away from the field to win pulling up by more than three lengths.
Cotswold Arms was in the second position till the final 100 metres but
was displaced in the closing stages by River Island and Splendid
Surprise. River Island came from far behind and on outside to take the
runner up spot ahead of Splendid Surprise. Upper Crust was fifth followed
by Oxford Street and Pastiche was a poor seventh.
Woman On Top who was one of the most impressive winners as a two-year
old, has thus regained her form which had seen her being marked out as
one of the top juveniles of this centre. She had gone down fighting to
Bourbon King in a splendid timing and then suffered a setback. She
bounced back with a terrific run, denied her share of glory only because
she was poorly positioned in her last essay. Her smashing win should once
for all clear the air.
Sunday was yet another day when the mighty gold and brown brigade went
winless despite having three fancied runners. All of them
went down without a fight. Fearless Spirit received inspired support to
win the B.Khanna Memorial Cup (Div I), a race for horses rated 40 to 70
but the son of Steinbeck lost pace to be in the rear and finished on
without hope. Classical Dancer, who was the favourite, had to be fully
ridden out by jockey Appu to complete a quadruple for the day. Appu’s
other winners earlier in the day had been on Woman On Top, Easy and
Ascot Lady. The lower division of the race went the way of Ascot Lady
who had let down last time as a favourite but this time out, won as she
pleased from Onegina who was flat-footed.
Van De Star lived up to the promise of his last run, with a resolute
win over Spirit of China in the Pendragon Plate (Div I). The odds on
Chevron drifted out and the son of Brave Act was never well positioned.
He received a bad bump at the final bend, went wide and was full of
running when the cause was lost. The lower division of the race went the
way of favourite Dancing Highness who won as she pleased from Regents
Park.
Srinath earned one of those rare wins when he guided home favourite
Orientation to victory in the 1800 metres Nad Al Sheba Plate. New
Pastures put up a stiff fight before losing steam in the final stages of
the race. Srinath however was unsuccessful on another favourite, Winsons,
where Easy ran out a facile winner with a start to finish dash.
Seize The Knight who had failed to oblige as a fancied runner last time
out, won in an exciting three horse finish over Surreale and Kandiate.
Kandiate surged into the lead at the final bend and shaped like a winner
but slackened in the closing stages of the race. Surreale came up with a
good run and seemed to have the measure of the front-runner when Seize
The Knight, who was hopelessly pocketed in the final furlong, shifted to
the wide outside and flew home to win by a whisker.
The concluding race of the day too saw a similar finish when Reigning
Sky came from way behind to get the measure of runaway leader Constant
Wonder by an identical margin. Million Words was the third favourite
from the famed brigade to bite the dust.
