N. G. McCullagh astride Frida Kahlo was forced to stay close to the
rails after the filly was slow into her stride. Mallesh, in stark contrast,
enjoyed a free run as he travelled on the extreme outside when the race
took a serious turn.
There
was a wall of horses ahead of Frida Kahlo when McCullagh tried to
launch his assault. He saw a ray of hope when he noticed a small opening
towards the rails and wasted no time in taking that gap. P. S. Chouhan
atop Ocean of Angels was also making his move at that stage which led to
the squeezing out of Frida Kahlo from the fray.
Venus Arising (Steinbeck-Lei) meanwhile went storming into the lead
after a minor scuffle with Adesina and then staved off the dangerous bid
of Ocean of Angels. The latter ended second just a neck ahead of the
gallant Frida Kahlo.
Ocean of Angels was relegated to the third spot after McCullagh's
successful objection.
The Bangalore challenger
Flaming Glory made a scintillating career debut when she donkey-licked the
other juveniles in the N.M. Irani Trophy. B. Prakash had the Ganapathy
trainee settled
handy in third position as Xian called the early shots and shifted
gears opposite the grand stands. The daughter of Placerville out of
Stately Home streaked into the lead and kept increasing the margin of
victory. Celestrella who was badly positioned at the start made progress
at every pole of the six-furlong race and ended fourth. She should not
linger in the maiden ranks for long.
At the start of the day, J. Chinoy ridden Thunderella
(Reasonable-Thundering Bay) obliged a vast following by managing to keep
Ocean Avenue at bay. Rivaaz ran below par while there were hardly any
runners spotted, who were genuinely interested in the proceedings.
The crowd in attendance at Mahalaxmi had the privilege of witnessing an
enthralling three-way finish in the Silver Phantom Plate. Six Stars with
B. Prakash in saddle slipped into the lead at the turn at which point of
time C. Rajendra was trying desperately to get Jubilation going.
Jubilation started to hang out putting his rider under lot of stress.
Matters got worse when Star Strike moved along side Jubilation.
These three horses, piloted by the country’s three best jockeys, went
stride for stride. None was willing to concede an inch. There was pin
drop silence on the turf lawns. The battle was being fought with such
intensity that even the race commentator was unable to call the winner
correctly.
His flared nostrils had the won the day for Jubilation, but Mallesh
predictably lodged a protest which, after much deliberations in the
Stewards room, went in his favour. The incident was a close one and it
was only the short-head verdict which allowed Star Strike (Greensmith-Sunflowers)
to wrest the race from Jubilation. Convenience finished a close fourth
and is likely to be in the news soon.
One O One (Tirol-Zerbilla) and Hugo Boss, who were both running after a
long lay off, shrugged off the apprehensions of rustiness and won quite
comfortably in the end.
Shiraz Sunderji has taken superb care of One O One, who has a chip in
one of his knees, and the bay was handled admirably on the track by Rajendra. He gave him his head in the last two furlongs and stole a
march over Shyboy. The latter pursued the winner after relentless urging
from McCullagh but in vain. The 12.5kg weight difference proving to be a
real burden for Shyboy. Perpetuate warmed up late to her task and ended
a close third.
Hugo Boss (Royal Kingdom-Eau Parfumee), an earlier resident of Narendra
Lagad’s stables and who later migrated to Imtiaz Sait’s yard, scored a
resounding victory over West Coast Eagle. It was surprising to see the
odds drifting out for Ryeback and the horse running true to the
predictions of the market.
