The Nina Lalvani nurtured Persephone stalked Enchanting Girl till the bend where C.Alford pressed her into the lead. Dynasty who was waiting to pounce on the leader unleashed a powerful run but Persephone proved a tough nut to crack. Alford drove Persephone for all her worth and the fight went all the way to the wire. Pesi Shroff’s candidate, however, proved to be more than a match for Persephone once again. Kiss of Luck, who was second in demand to Persephone, was inconvenienced by Dynasty when coming out of the gates and lost all hopes of winning the race there itself. The filly laboured hard to finish a faraway third.
Pesi and Mallesh were earlier involved in the success of Crown Court, who claimed the Ghazab Trophy.
The crawling pace for the nine-furlong journey favoured Crown Court (Burden of Proof–Queen’s Rule) the most. The Kunigal Stud bred Crown Court,
a half-brother to the celebrated Saddle Up, was reportedly nursing a stifle problem and
Mallesh’s decision to ride him off the pace proved to be a blessing in disguise. B.Prakash took the market fancy Star Millionaire on a start to finish mission and
appeared to be on course till heads straightened for home. But the offensive launched by Crown Court consumed Star Millionaire in the shadow of the post.
Auryn, Pesi’s other contender of the day, failed to live up to the expectations of her master but was not disgraced when she went down fighting against Imtiaz Sait saddled debutant Lombardia (Razeen–Naseem El Fajr) in the Jimmy Bharucha Trophy. Culture Shock
called the early shots and looked set for her maiden win when Lombardia was set alight by Malcolm Kharadi, who substituted
for Y.S.Srinath in the saddle. Culture Shock was forced to play the role of bridesmaid and ended runner-up for the fourth consecutive outing of her career. The piping-hot favourite Auryn ended up fourth, a neck behind Nimble Feet, who literally dragged M. Maseyk towards the winning post.
The day started off with the bitter struggle of
Glory (Steinbeck – Lei), half-sister to Venus Arising, with Fall Of The Hammer
which the former won by a proverbial whisker. P.Kamlesh had adopted runaway tactics aboard the Vinayak saddled filly and pulled off a surprise win. C. Rajendra pulled out all stops astride Shiraz Sunderji’s ward but failed to pip the winner.
A high drama was enacted far away from the eyes of the racegoers in the sampling yard and went unknown till the end of the day. The second head-lad of Vinayak was found mixing water with the urine obtained from Glory for post-racing sampling. This incident has sent shockwaves through the racing world and there is talk going around that the club has all but decided on lodging
a police complaint. The final decision is likely to be taken on Sunday evening.
Favourites were unable to make a mark in the first five races. Fall Of The Hammer and Star Millionaire were the first to go down followed by Nucleus-Warning, Auryn and Oscar Star.
S. N. Joshi’s candidate The Right Man (Forest Fair–
morous Delight) provided the biggest upset of the day when A. R. Mani piloted him to a narrow win over Thunder Zone, Cape Merino and Lady Trooper in a blanket finish. There was a flood of betting in favour of Golden Fort but rookie C. S. Jodha failed to provide able support in the saddle. Golden Fort, nonetheless, ended a close sixth behind Nucleus.
Ryeback (Greensmith–Victory And Gold) provided the much-needed relief to punters and the moneybags when Y.S.Srinath drove the Altaf Hussain trainee to a convincing four-length win over St. Moritz in the Running Star Plate. Understanding and Cincinnati ran on to fill the frame.
Red Amytheist (Alnasr Alwasheek–L’lle Mysterieuse) didn’t face any real challenge from her opposition in the Wandering Star Plate. P. S. Chouhan was given a virtual armchair ride by Red Amytheist despite the late flurry of runner-up Really Romantic.
T. S. Jodha ridden and Saeed Shah trained mare True Beauty (Concordial–Vinho Verde) fulfilled the promise shown during her previous run against Collateral and came with a flourish to notch her second victory of this season. Hudson Bay, Khubsoorat and Money Queen were in close tow of the winner. Khubsoorat’s late charge didn’t go unnoticed. Top-weighted Upstage retired gracefully from the fray and will probably do better over extended trips.
