Queen Of Hearts (S.N.Chavan up), winner of the Mount Everest Trophy, being led in by trainer Ms.Arti Doctor & owner Mr.Aditya S.Mahandale
Nina Lalvani grabs the headlines with a treble
By True BlueMumbai
Mar 31, 2007
Nina Lalvani was walking tall on Thursday and not without reason. She never had it so good in her career before. Nina led in three winners against all odds and all three brought equal pleasure. But she was apparently more overjoyed with the success of debutant Carlos. The chestnut three-year-old made mincemeat of the odds-on favourite Party Celebrations in the Strengthtostrength Plate.
Since Party Celebration had won convincingly on his earlier visit to the race track and entrusted to C. Rajendra now, he was backed to the exclusion of his four seemingly mediocre rivals. But the Bharath Singh trained bay gelding was not exactly in the same “festive” mood like before. Party Celebration was struggling to keep pace with the field and appeared tied up as Major Starr called the early shots. The distress signals sent out by him didn’t go unnoticed and the moneybags missed a heartbeat or two. Carlos (Forest Fair – Oxide) meanwhile was brought to be in close touch with the leader who had Sharp Memory for company. The winner of the race was well and truly sighted when Malesh powered Carlos into the lead at the two-furlong marker. Party Celebration and Rajendra were done a favour by the two leaders by allowing the favourite to take the runner-up position but that was no consolation for the hapless punters, who were totally dismayed by his performance.
Fiddler’s Ferry (Pennine Ridge – Innara) opened Nina’s account for the day when easily accounting for the three horses fielded by the Raghunath siblings, Nana and Sanjay. Light My Fire tried to set the pace for Benfica but the latter failed to rise to the occasion. Malesh wasted no time in pouncing on Light My Fire and made it two in a row for Fiddler’s Ferry this season.
Flo Nightingale (Mischevious Music – Danseuse), Nina's third winner, relished the mile-and-a-quarter trip of the J. Robinson Plate even managed to escape the finishing fury of favourite Cavalry Brigade in the concluding race. Flo Nightingale with D. K. Ashish astride was always in pursuit of Incroyable and took over the running when heads turned for home. Flo Nightingale was soon joined by Dashrath Singh ridden Cavalry Brigade and they went stride for stride towards the winning post. Cavalry Brigade drifted out when Dashrath plied the whip and it was unbearable to see him continue to use the whalebone with his right hand when a remedial action to correct the horse’s wayward movement was needed. Dashrath lost the race by a short-head but the price for his inexperience had to borne by the punters.
Coming back to Bharath Singh and C. Rajendra, the duo tasted defeat again when Ka Ching was outpaced by Queen of Hearts in the straight. The S. N. Chavan piloted filly was saddled by Arti Doctor for owner Aditya Mehendale, who himself trained horses till the late ‘90s as Aditya Raaste. Queen of Hearts (Warrshan – Winning Venture) wore down Sephora on entering the home stretch and established what proved to be a winning lead. Rock Salt looked dangerous at one stage and so did Ka Ching but the latter’s late flight didn’t stop Queen of Hearts from making a winning debut.
Rehanullah Khan had two fancied runners in Siroco and Pepe Junior but it was only the former who succeeded in delivering the goods for his master. Both horses were however involved in tight finishes. Siroco (Glory of Dancer – Santella Katie) and the rest of the runners were almost caught on the wrong foot by Sea Gull but the former stretched out magnificently when Vikram Walkar brought him into the contention. Amberley ran a close third ahead of Born To Lead and Catalunya.
Pepe Junior was shown early daylight by C. Ruzaan and that probably cost him the race. He was measured by Imtiaz Sait saddled Mischief In His Eyes (Major Impact – StarsInHerEyes) and went down by a length after a ding-dong battle. Simply Smashing also showed some interest in the proceedings but her saddle partner Malcolm Kharadi seemed content watching Mohan Thakur’s colours in prominence. Ruzaan tried to reverse the judge’s order by objecting against Ashish who rode Mischief In His Eyes. There was some substance in Ruzaan’s protest and it was a touch-and-go affair till the Stewards decided that the winner was travelling better at that stage and didn’t want to interfere with the original order of placing.
Red Revelation (Alnasr Alwasheek – Speedbird) struck immediately for his new master Sandeep Mangalorkar when hard-ridden by S. N. Chavan to overtake Sam Aldo and Habit. The rest were simply out for an airing.
