Moon Forest authoritative in Derby win
By Aalibaba (indiathoroughbreds@hotmail.com)Kolkata
Jan 7, 2007
Moon Forest was simply brilliant. The Daniel David trained four-year old gelding won the Eveready Calcutta Derby Stakes (Grade 1) with authority in a smart time of 2 minutes 31.48 seconds. There was no hard luck story in the 2400m race and Colm O’Donoghue, who partnered the Razeen-Regal Grace son to a five length victory, rode a well-judged race on the 5-4 favourite.
O’Donoghue had Moon Forest settled off the pace while Andrology opened up a long lead from the start. Silver Print followed the leader at a safe distance, leaving the other serious contenders Amorina, Moon Forest, Right Again and Ardelis, closely grouped. There was no change in the order of the running till they passed the 1000 metre marker when Silver Print surged into the lead. O’Donoghue alerted Moon Forest and they kept within striking distance of the lead. In the final three hundred metres Moon Forest, with O’Donoghue urging him on, produced an electrifying burst of speed to leave the rest trailing in his wake. Amorina ran on to be second ahead of Silver Print and a non-staying Ardelis.
O’Donoghue’s day, however, did not start auspiciously. Star Perfection narrowly failed to beat Tactical Advantage and Star Phoenix in the day’s opener, the 1600m Psychic Flame Cup. It prompted the Stewards to open an enquiry into the running and riding of the horse and the Irishman was handed a two-day suspension for his injudicious handling of the favourite. The punishment, however, appeared to be totally unjustified as O’Donoghue was trying his hardest.
Javed Khan’s Ardella (C.Rajendra-up), too, had to fight a long battle to overcome the challenge from Imperial Stride in the Bahrain Trophy. Imperial Stride, sporting the gold-and-brown-belt colours of Dr MAM Ramaswamy, was at a weight disadvantage which cost him the race in a tight-finish.
Bhungard notched up a fine double through Cupid’s Glory and Ecstatic Pride, thanks to the power-packed jockeyship of Imran Chisty. Incidentally, the jockey and trainer were the only professionals on the day to score a brace of wins.
While Cupid’s Glory countered a strong challenge from a solidly fancied, Priceless Hero in the Goodfellas Cup, Ecstatic Pride was brought with a late but timely finish to snatch the verdict from Aluminous in the Brave Dancer Cup.
The withdrawal of Daniel’s Canterbury Rocks at the starting gates ensured a trouble-free victory for Athymia in the 1200m Aloknanda Stakes. The Major Impact-Dolka daughter was, in any case, expected to trouble the best in the race as she was an easy winner on her debut. She led from the start, in her customary style, and scored over Elemental Wish who was allowed to finish close enough as jockey Rajendra eased up the even-money favourite in the last 100 metres.
Barring the Derby victory, Daniel was badly let down by his jockeys. The trainer’s 6-4 strongly fancied horse, Dancing Storm, was given a poor ride by jockey CP Manasseh, in the Maltese Prince Handicap. The race was won by El Cid.
Rainbow Emperor, in the 1400m Voluntary Cup, was taken wide at the final turn and apprentice Amandeep Singh also failed stop the badly drifting out favourite to lose the race to Arrayal.
