Hope And Faith reverses the trend
By Sharan Kumar

Zareer Darashah trained Hope And Faith who had been a money-spinner as a juvenile, ended her winning sequence when finishing behind stablemate Nairn as a favourite in the Mysore 1000 Guineas two years ago. After that, the daughter of Broto had been performing below par but fortunately for her connections, she bounced back to winning form, claiming the Bandipur Cup, which featured Saturday’s races in a close finish. Her success was on cards as Hope And Faith had served notice of an imminent success when finishing third behind Imperial Legend over a mile in her last essay. Now over a reduced trip of seven furlongs, which suited her fine, she found her bearings and lasted out to win from a late-finishing Angeles and Queenstown.

Hope and Faith (Appu up), being led in by trainer Z Darashah

Hope And Faith and Refresher were more fancied than the rest to win, with Angeles also receiving considerable support in the ring. Jockey Appu as is his wont, took Hope And Faith on a start to finish mission. Refresher who was in the third position along the rails brushed against it approaching the bend and had to be checked which caused the horse to lose some ground Hope And Faith who had a break of a few lengths at the top of the straight, kicked on gamely and managed to reach the safety of the winning post ahead of the rest. Angeles finished on strongly to take the runner up berth ahead of Queenstwon. Rajesh, who is still to win a single race this season, has been clueless and he was able to elicit response from Angeles rather too late to have a bearing on the result. This is the third time that Angeles has missed the berth narrowly in like manner.

Unlike Rajesh, his brother Rakesh who is back after a year’s hibernation, managed to break the ice, by driving out lesser-fancied Crystal Beauty to a narrow win over Inner Light to land a quiet touch in the Kollegal Plate. Crystal Beauty had the first run on her opponents and this kept the filly in good stead as first timer and favourite Inner Light flashed home with a good burst of speed. Four-year old Inner Light who was running for the first time albeit with the benefit of a couple of mock races, found the six-furlong trip rather sharp.

There was inspired betting on Falconet in the 1600 metres Vijayanagar Cup and the favourite, despite losing some ground at the start, managed to edge out the friendless Daggers Drawn close home to land the spoils. Star Eaglle, one of the fancied runners, was left to cover too much leeway in the run in for home and ended up a tame third.

Crystal Beauty (Rakesh up), being led in by trainer MB Manglorkar (left), and owner Savi K Jain

Jockey turned trainer Satish Narredu led in a winner in a race meant for juveniles through favourite Juan De Voux who had to be driven out by his brother Malesh to contain the challenge of Pipsqueak who was a notable second. Imperial Fire was third ahead of Ocean Spirit and his jockey B Prakash lodged an objection against Rajesh who rode Pipsqueak for shifting in and taking his ground and costing him a possible success. The objection was overruled. Pipsqueak did shift out causing Ocean Spirit to be shifted out and Greenlawn who was coming up with a run, ran into Ocean Spriit. The former clipped the latter but jockey Paul Eddery did well to remain in the saddle.

Juan De Voux (M Narredu up), being led in by trainer S Narredu

 Ganapathy had a well-backed double through Supreme Heights and Happy Valentine. Supreme Heights was not troubled by any of the runners as the son of Steinbeck went clear on turning for home. Barroness Orczy, who had come in for spirited support, was flat-footed by the eventual winner. Despite jockey D Patel being in the saddle, Happy Valentine was backed to the exclusion of her rivals and the favourite readily obliged as she clearly did not belong to the lowest category of horses which competed in the race.