The battle for the
2400-metre Prince Pradeep Trophy kept the interest of the punters alive
during the day. King of Hearts with Amyn Merchant in the saddle however
marred the chances of a lively duel by trying to dictate terms to Star
of Windsor and Flavius Victor right from the word go.
The S.Padmanabhan trainee entered the straight well ahead of Colm
O’Donoghue ridden Star of Windsor but no sooner had Merchant turned
around to see where his nemesis lay, King of Hearts seemed to lose heart
leaving the battleground open for S.Ganapathy’s ward to romp home.
Flavius Victor kept rolling in his rollercoaster performance and ended a
tame third. He probably hates lead on his back.
Unlike his earlier outing, Altaf Hussain’s candidate Zroom was
well-behaved when the Starter’s flag came down and it was clear that the
son of Major Impact out of Zienelle would be hard to toss. The winner
was sighted a long way from home the moment C.Rajendra shifted gears on
Zroom. The aged Shadow Fax moved up to be in the money ahead of Friendly
Gift and Mind The Gap. Eva ran well below expectations beating only one
home.
Bionic Angel (Metal Precieux – Crepe De Paille) showed a clean pair of
heels to her rivals in the Mangal Plate. Letsgetloud, who was patronized
more by the betting fraternity than the winner, never posed any threat
to the Bezan Chenoy trainee although going in her chase from the start.
See The Truth with H.G.Rathod in saddle came wide into the home stretch
and failed to really deliver a threat to Bionic Angel. He had to remain
content with the runner-up slot.
Black Brilliance (Black ’N Brilliant – Crystal Maze) exceeded the hopes
of her connections as Frenchman Cyrille Stefan urged the mare to take
charge of the running at the turn and won comfortably to provide Altaf a
double. Secret Sortie, Dudleys and Great Giver placed on the judge's
board but were as good as ‘also ran’.
Power Zone (Meritocrat – Sunshine) from Magansingh Jodha’s yard gave
rookie Dashrath Singh his first win in what was only the third ride of
his three-day old career. The grey gelding went wire to wire over the
mile trip to shock not only his rivals but also the students of form.
Niall McCullagh ridden Nucleus and Samuel Fargeat steered Maybach, the
highly fancied duo in this race, ran like absolute duds and finished
among the ruins which allowed Adam’s Ambition and Second To Go to follow
the winner home.
The Boss (Concordial – Kamada) once again obeyed the command of master
Asad Ali and triumphed over runner-up Excitement, who probably could
have done better with some better assistance in the saddle than what was
provided by F. Irani. Healing Ray ran a game third with Fire Boy in
close tow.
