Not
bringing Holding Court, who has reached the peak in terms of
handicap-rating, to Mumbai for the winter was never an option for
trainer Padmanabhan. Moreover, the son of Royal Kingdom out of Confiture
was getting an opportunity to make Haresh Mehta, his Mumbai-based owner,
proud in his own city.
Though overshadowed by Democraticus and Thundering Power in the
Jiwajirao Scindia Trophy, last year's Indian Derby runner-up was not
disgraced in that defeat on Christmas day. His five-month hiatus had
taken its toll then but once back in business, Holding Court showed the
world what horse-power really means.
He carried 61kg on his back and just steamrolled his opponents in the
Heritage Estates' Eclipse Stakes of India (Gr.2). He not only avenged
his defeat but humiliated his conquerors Democraticus and Thundering
Power, who were both rested after that run. Such was Holding Court's
superiority that he overcame some
severe jostling from runner-up Spinoza.
Earlier Spinoza with feather-weight on his back made the entire running
with Holding Court choosing to bide his time at the opposite end and the
rest of the runners meandering in between. Spinoza seemed to be kicking
on but veered out under pressure. Meanwhile Srinath skirted the bunch
racing ahead at the final turn and brought Holding Court wide into the
straight. The dark bay was momentarily taken aback by Spinoza's lateral
movement yet had no intention of
ending the race in an anti-climax. Spinoza was shown no mercy and was
neutralised by Holding Court before he could cause any further damage.
Bravissima ended a fair third ahead of Magic Touch.
Sunday's races were under the threat of being 'Eclipsed' because four
events in the programme originally advertised by the club found no
takers and were declared void. Some jugglery from the handicapper and
the small mercies of several trainers revived the race day.
Quest for Cash (Black Cash-Native Quest) from Pesi Shroff's yard
competed an encore
by claiming the Supervite Cup but faced grim prospects of being toppled
by the P. S. Chouhan ridden M. A. M. Ramaswamy property, Star Gesture,
who gave a superlative performance for a horse which was being written
off in the betting ring itself after an inexplicable drifted in his odds
from 2 to 1 to 12 to 1. Nevertheless, Niall McCullagh contributed his
usual bit in Quest for Cash's second straight success when staving off
the challenge of Star Gesture. Earlier Winning Star tried runaway
tactics but faded out in the dying stages of the race. Supreme
Attraction was expected to run better with blinkers but did exactly the
opposite. Dance Maestro ran thereabouts but Stud of Gold made a lot of
ground and came out of nowhere to end third.
Pesi had a sitter in the opening event, one of the four
reframed races, where C. Ruzaan piloted Rockfeller (Razeen-Roccobarocco)
found a submissive lot in his five rivals as he raced away to his maiden
win. C. D. Katrak trained Cosmopolitan (Royal Kingdom-Mea Culpa) had a
similar experience when Malesh Narredu made every post of the
seven-furlong journey a winning one.
Tapis (Warrshan-Hanalei) also tasted his first success to break the
monotony of the repeated failures of Faisal Abbas' wards. D. K. Ashish
showed great presence of mind and switched lanes in the nick of time to
avoid a collision with Medtia's Pride. The latter entrusted to whipless
A. M. Tograllu was in the process of going start-to-finish but ran
astray in
the straight.
Dedication's victory in the Bright Hanovar Trophy needs to be dedicated
to his connections who timed his relegation to Class III. His poor
performance last Sunday, in hindsight, was not-so-surprising. Entrusted
to S. N. Chavan once again by Arti Doctor, Dedication put in a solid run
to overtake Morpheus, who had stolen a march over his rivals, and held
on gallantly from Rivaaz and Don Gama later.
Hormuz Antia had two winners but those came after he almost chewed all
his nails in anxiety. Flames of Fire (Diffident-Seneca Reef) led
pillar-to-post to fetch the K. M. Munshi Trophy for his new owners but
not before being stretched to the limit by Appreciate and Jubilation. He
then had to fight for survival as C. Rajendra and Malesh Narredu,
astride Jubilation and Appreciate respectively, dragged him to the
Stewards. The Stewards found no reason to disrupt Antia's festivities.
Osprey (Topanoora-Fairway Goddess) though long in tooth has neither lost
her zest for racing nor her initial speed. She provided Antia one more
reason to celebrate though he was on the edge of his seat till she
quelled the challenge of favourite Thunder Zone. Vikram Jodha took
Osprey to the front but had Thunder Zone close on his heels throughout
the journey. D. K. Ashish failed to bring the best out of Thunder Zone,
who settled for the second place with Attia In Sunlight in close tow.
