Beyond Belief slams them all 
By True Blue

Mumbai
February 10, 2007

With Niall McCullagh and C. Rajendra hogging the limelight with their saddle-skills, one almost stopped thinking that Malesh Narredu is alive and kicking and can ride winners too! But the old warhorse is slowly making his presence felt at the Mahalaxmi joint. He had four winners last weekend including a treble on the Derby. The good form continued on Friday and Malesh booted home a popular winning brace.

Malesh went into the last race with Imtiaz Sait trained Beyond Belief (Warrshan and Leit Motif) who had caught a tartar in Ruben Star before Christmas. He had no hesitation in hitting the front with Beyond Belief and the bay gelding really showed his liking for the free run given to him by stretching out decisively in the last furlong of the mile journey. Raudo was trying to intimidate him at this stage but couldn't succeed. Lahinch, who was running for the first time after being gelded in October, was not given a hard race. He was ridden off the pace and given his head only in the straight. Lahinch despite being rusty kept the third berth after a scuffle with Golden Triangle.

Take On (Tirol and Takwim) fetched Malesh his first winner of the day and this Mansoor Shah trained mare though running over a sharp scurry defied the handicapper to win the Indian Air Trophy, the day's main event. Red Amytheist surprisingly was shorn of her initial speed and the Dallas Todywalla nursed mare came into the picture only when the bookies had started to count their losses. Blazing Speed had no fire in him to Take On the winner and ended a tame third.

Both the divisions of the Wild Eagle Trophy for maiden juveniles had on-money favourites. Schnell, owned by RWITC chairman Cyrus Poonawalla and his immediate family, was a rage in the betting in the second division. The fashionably bred colt by Alnasr Alwasheek out of Astor Place was so well conditioned by Altaf Hussain that the bay won the race without much ado. Canton Caper and Tigresse Noire were in futile chase throughout.

Narendra Lagad trained filly Festive Light was equally in demand in the upper division of the Wild Eagle Trophy. Unlike Schnell the odds for Festive Light saw a peculiar drift by starting at 100 to 55 on and ending up with a rise of 20p and became the only favourite to disappoint on the day that was one of the finest for the punters. The eclipse of Festive Light came about in a weird manner. It is reported that the saddle on the favourite slipped forward and jockey Sunny Chinoy couldn't offer any assistance to the filly. Debutant Giocometti (Greensmith and Indrayani) from C. D. Katrak's yard made the race a start-to-finish affair. Jockey P. Kamlesh had an armchair ride astride the winner with the runner-up Major Image finding his feet a trifle late. Refuse To Bend took off sluggishly from the blocks but progressed steadily to end a fair third.

The same trainer-jockey duo, Lagad and Chinoy, had lived up to the expectations of the moneybags earlier when Beau Monde (Warrshan and Momentous) won again on promotion though there were none in the opposition who thought it fit to create trouble for the winner. FlyMeToTheStars ended second ahead of Power Zone. It was a day off for Ishtar yet again and the filly ran a poor fourth to override her ability.

Robert D'Mellow saddled Sparrow Hawk (Don't Forget Me and Soul Mate) decided it was about time that he got some winner's stakes and ran true to form in curtain raiser. Jockey Amyn Merchant driven Sparrow Hawk took control at the turn however he was required to be hard-ridden in the closing stages to keep the late-finishing Tafeta at bay.

Wild Cat (Royal Kingdom and On The Hill) sprung a pleasant surprise on her connections when she managed to earn a bracket with the help of apprentice D. K. Ashish. The Mansingh Jadhav nurtured filly won almost pillar-to-post and survived the initial nagging of Flo Nightingale at the bend and the late bid of favourite Sara Jahan. Bu Attifel was declared unfit at the gates and hence withdrawn from the fray. Ancient Princess showed some improvement in her form to finish third ahead of Cosmopolitan.

Pure For Sure (A In Sociology and Sparkling Cyanide) was yet another favourite winner to found no hurdles erected in his path. Trainer Vijay Kasbekar entrusted Pure For Sure to rookie Shailesh Shinde this time in the upper class and the bay gelding enjoyed the lead-free saddle. Pure For Sure made every post of the five-furlong trip a winning one. Runner-up Crown Affair's story unravelled when the outcome was well and truly sealed in favour of the winner. Emerging Power ran on to peg back Queen Adler for the third place.