Southern Empire on Mystical’s footsteps 
By Aalibaba (indiathoroughbreds@hotmail.com)

Kolkata
Mar 14, 2007

For Southern Empire it was a sweet revenge against Diabolical in the Indian Turf Invitation Cup on Sunday. In the Indian Derby, early last month, Diabolical had shattered many a dreams when jockey B. Prakash misjudged the pace and Southern Empire’s unbeaten streak of wins was stopped at 10. The observation also got the seal of approval from the bookmakers who refused to stretch Southern Empire’s odds beyond 6-10 in the big race while Diabolical was quoted at 5-2 in the betting. The result of the race was also a true reflection of their real merit as the S. Ganapathy-trainee handed a double-distance drubbing to his stablemate, Diabolical. 

The victory of Southern Empire also made his owner, Dr MAM Ramaswamy, concede that this champion was superior to the all-conquering Mystical and the Indian Derby defeat of the Placerville-Stunning son was a one-off case. The running of the Invitation Cup was slightly different. Unlike in the Indian Derby, Red Apache and Diabolical were allowed barely a five- length break by Super Speed and Man Of The Match while jockey Colm O’Donoghue had Southern Empire settled in-fifth, further three lengths behind. Nevertheless it was a serious business in the last 1,000m when Diabolical assumed the charge of the running from a tiring Red Apache.

Southern Empire, too, improved places but it was past the 600m marker when he came abreast of his Indian Derby conqueror. Southern Empire was first to enter the final stretch with a slender lead but drew away from the field in a trice.

Ganapathy’s Secret Memory (O’Donoghue-up) was also an easy winner of the 1 600m Maj. P.K.Mehra Memorial Super Mile Cup which he won from the start. The only flaw in his victory was that the Diffident-Memories Of You son was observed to be shifting-in towards the rails approaching the distance-post. As the passage along the rails narrowed, jockey Y.Srinath, who was directly behind the half-money favourite, chickened out on Haunting Memories. Srinath was, however, quick to switch the course but it turned out to be a wild goose chase for the filly eyeing a rare double having won the Sprinters’ Cup the previous day.

O’Donoghue’s forceful riding also helped trainer Daniel David’s 6-10 favourite, Condrieu, win the CROS Cup from a quietly fancied Grand Ceremony and the front-running Wild Mystery. The favourite, a four-year-old filly assigned a topweight of 61kg, was always under-pressure to defend her slender lead build-up at the top of the turn. Earlier in the afternoon the Irish jockey had also guided Ganapathy’s money-back favourite, Fabulous Emperor, to a well-judged start-to-finish victory over Vijay Singh’s Clockwork.

Vijay, however, remained luckless throughout the afternoon. Harvinder Singh Bath’s Megillah piped the champion trainer’s Elucidate at the post. After making all the running in the 1,600m Calcutta Bookmakers’ Association Cup. Daniel’s Imperialism produced a good stretch run to down the 8-10 favourite, Zeus, who had build-up a winning lead in the 1,400m Capricorn Stud Farm Cup. However, Vikash Jaiswal’s Vanila Glory proved a tough customers in his pillar-to-post efforts winning the 1,200m Chevrolet Optra Royale Cup from a heavily fancied Dancing Mystery.

Javed Khan’s Charulata landed a good gamble in the 1,200m ‘Hovercraft’ Yeravada Stud Cup. The Dancing Beggar daughter allowed the favourite, Time To Dream, to lead till the top of the final turn before shooting in to a winning lead.