The Poonawalla family
had a burning desire to host the 'PBMM' on a grander scale than the
McDowell Indian Derby. Making the day memorable for all visitors to the
racecourse was also primary on their minds. The hottest 'item' on their
agenda was getting Bollywood starlet Mallika Sherawat to the racecourse.
Mallika’s presence proved to be a big distraction for serious racegoers.
It was annoying to see the security personnel all over the place and to
think that people had come to witness a sporting event. The battery of
photographers also caused unlimited irritation.
Whether flying down Mallika in a helicopter and then escorting her in a
limousine to the paddock, if only to emulate the reception accorded to
British royalty at the annual Royal Ascot racing carnival, served
the purpose of the sponsors remains unascertained.
The punters otherwise were happy to see the dice rolling in their favour
for the second race meeting in succession. The only people to have long
faces at the end of the day were the bookies.
Haunting Memories (Placerville–Haunting Beauty), who is jointly owned
by Dr.M.A.M. Ramaswamy and Mr. Zavaray Poonawalla, simply outclassed
and outpaced her rivals in this year’s edition of the PBMM. The S.
Ganapathy nursed chestnut filly emulated the feat of her own sister Six
Speed, who won the PBMM at the turn of this millennium, in the process.
Haunting Memories virtually made the race a one-horse affair as soon as
she took a smart jump from the gates. She was hardly bothered by her
rivals as she cruised away for an emphatic victory. Her stablemates
Flaming Glory and Diabolical followed her in a procession with Giacosa
a poor fourth.
Earlier in the day, Storm Regent (Razeen–Allinda), who shares his
pedigree with last year’s Indian Derby winner Southern Regent, triumphed
over Auryn in the Rusi Patel Trophy. The entire credit of Storm Regent’s
glorious win goes to the fantastic ride given by jockey B. Prakash.
Storm Regent was hotly pursued by Mallesh Narredu driven filly Auryn and
it appeared for a fleeting second that Pesi Shroff’s candidate would
nail the favourite. But the resilience of Storm Regent and more
importantly that of Prakash made a huge difference to the result.
Cosmopolitan ended a tame third well below the expectations of many.
Niall McCullagh continued his good form in the saddle and steered a good
double through Indian Fashion (Local Talent–Classic Style) and Flying
Glory (Glory of Dancer–Flying Home), trained by Dallas Todywalla and
S.S. Shah respectively.
Indian Fashion finally tasted her maiden success as she went into the
chase of The Nonesuch, who was ridden into the ground by Cyrille
Stefan, and overhauled him very easily. Ante post favourite Crimson Red
never raised any hopes after his odds drifted in the betting ring.
Flying Glory completed a hat-trick as Niall thwarted the spirited bid of
Arabian Lady in the final stretch. Degas showed improvement in finishing
third ahead of the uninterested Annunciation.
Jockey P. Kamlesh shared the honours with Prakash and Niall by piloting
an equal number of winners. He took Proteus (Clever Trick–Gentle And
Bold) on a successful start-to-finish mission and then assisted
top-weighted Enaksi (Royal Kingdom–Serious Trouble) to a
fluent victory.
Proteus from trainer Vinayak’s yards raised many an eyebrow in the
stands when he hit the front but in the end it was wrongly assumed that
he was setting the early pace for barnmate and the prime favourite
Acindar. Whatever the strategy, Proteus relished running in
front and kept on going leaving both Acindar and Live Legend to fight
for the crumbs. Both these horses failed to keep a straight course and
were involved in a minor skirmish which ended in the Stewards Room. The
Stewards decided to overrule jockey C. Rajendra’s protest against
Narredu.
Robert D’Mellow saddled Enaksi made light of the heavy impost on her
back as she drew away from the pack in the upper division of the
Jasdanwalla Trophy. Enaksi followed the early leaders into the straight
and just pulled away from them when alerted by Kamlesh. Snow Tiger ran
on to take the runner-up position from High Rising and True Wisdom.
Thundering Star from Narendra Lagad’s barn justified her favouritism in
the hands of S.N.Chavan after taking charge from Against All Odds and
Hot Tin Roof. The favourite won untroubled from Generalissimo and Oprah.
Cine Star gave a disappointing performance.
Imtiaz Sait’s ward Hugo (Greensmith–Mariella), who was neglected for
the sake of Royal Hunt and Samarkhand, unleashed a powerful run in the
straight to catch Exotic Fantasy in the shadow of the winning post.
Samarkhand ended a game third ahead of Money Star.
