McCullagh steers Estonia to victory
By Silver Hawk

Visiting Irish jockey Nail McCullagh must be laughing his way to the winning post by the ridiculous ease with which he is outsmarting his Indian colleagues by tactical brilliance. His win on Estonia in the Gr 3 Dashmesh & Hargobind Stud Million on Thursday was another illustration of the fact that most of the Indian jockeys are overrated and that in a situation where they have to react intuitively to changing situations, they are found wanting. They want things fall into place, a pace maker to set the pace, and given the right of way at a crucial juncture to hog all the limelight. Barring a few honorable exceptions, they make a mountain out of a molehill and still manage to get all the credit even for messing up things. McCullagh’s brilliant performance, his ability to set his own pace, dictate things to suit the needs of his horse and then spurt away have often exposed the fixed mindset of Indian jockeys. Unfortunately, for Malesh Narredu, he has been seen too often in poor light vis-à-vis his riding as contrasted with McCullagh.

It is not that Narredu has made the wrong choice all the time. He has invariably made the correct choice when selecting his mount but not when adopting his tactics. He messed up on Zurbaran, went for Algeciras in the next race to disastrous effect. Zurbaran came and won most impressively next time out in the hands of McCullagh. This time, he chose Hawke Bay ahead of Estonia and he would have proved right had he ridden an intelligent race. He fought with Hawke Bay to settle him when the slow pace of the race demanded that he adopt different tactics and then put pressure on the colt to quicken all too suddenly, causing him to shift out and then was left with a hopeless task. On the other hand, McCullagh had Estonia comfortably settled in front, managed to dictate his own pace as none of the others bothered to hassle him and let him runaway with the plum. It is quite possible that with the jockey switch, Hawke Bay could have had the last laugh. Narredu may be better off riding by his instinct rather than by taxing his grey cells!

The Gr 3 race had a competitive look about it but Hawke Bay enjoyed favoritism as he had recorded a smashing win at Bangalore. McCullagh hit the front on Estonia and made the entire running and then spurted away from the owner mate Hawke Bay, to spare a little over two lengths at the finish to the favourite. Zimbali was third ahead of Dazzling Queen whose fourth-finishing effort was pretty impressive because she was ahead of many winners despite running at level weights. Estonia played up before the start but that did not deter her from giving out a top performance. Certainly, she went into this race in much fitter condition than the others in the fray.

Flasher was thrown in at weights to win the P D Bolton Trophy, a five furlong race for horses rated 72 and upward and the son of Portroe achieved the objective with ease. Racing a handy second or third as Aspiring Star made the pace, Flasher moved up smoothly to take over the running on turning for home and had something to spare at the finish. There was a cluster finish for minor placings, with Bud Royale edging out Terrestrial and Soviet Lake for the runner-up berth.

Jockey Rajendra, who had an armchair ride to victory on Flasher, had earlier guided Queen’s Message for a narrow win to record a double. Queen’s Message had let down as a fancied runner at Pune over a sprint but now running over a more suitable trip of a mile, Queen’s Message moved up strongly to edge out Premier Collection and Princess Sultana close home to win from a late-finishing Lord of Thunder. Queen’s Message’s win enabled trainer Sandeep Mangalorkar to end the winless drought.

Money can indeed transform a horse, especially at Mahalaxmi. Bellagio who had been all along an expensive failure, was backed to the exclusion of her rivals in the Noble Fighter Plate as odds on favourite Master Zahir drifted out alarmingly in the ring. Bellagio came through the middle to take charge inside the final 350 metres to win with ease from Seville Star and Whispering Rock. Master Zahir failed to make any impression.

Reap The Bounty who had an useful outing last time out, made a profitable start to finish mission dash to win at the expense of favourite Star Above who flashed on the scene rather late. Right Moment who has this habit of surprising when not fancied by the stable strongly, just about managed to edge out Silver Blue and Psychedelic to land the spoils. In the opening race of the day, Moraze who had let down an inspired support in his last run, won at the expense of Shakespeare who was devouring ground at the finish. Favourite Cape Vaticano, reportedly is plagued by physical infirmities.