The four-year-old
filly, Girl From Ascot (Alnasr Alwasheek-Ascot Lass,) produced another
scintillating performance to gain a hat-trick of wins and remain
unbeaten after just three career starts. It was through Girl From Ascot
that Rajendra was able to notch his solitary winner. The filly from
Imtiaz Sait’s yard took toll of Pesi Shroff’s ward Acerenzza, who
appeared completely shorn of the brilliant turn of foot that saw him
saunter away to a facile victory in his previous appearance.
Tarragona took the early initiative before surrendering to One Way when
the heads turned for home. The latter flattered briefly before Rajendra
unleashed Girl From Ascot. Meanwhile, Malesh astride Acerenzza, who
raced in the fifth slot after being settled towards the inner rails,
also made his move and threw his challenge at the filly. Girl From Ascot
didn’t wilt under the pressure and Acerenzza couldn’t catch her despite
Malesh’s frantic efforts.
Hormuz Antia got to milk the bookies once again and the tool he used to
conduct this exercise was Dominique. The daughter of Cruachan out of
Wind In The Willows chased Montana into the straight where Pradeep
spurred her to take charge of the running. Belle Chose, Deltic Star and
Queen Adler all tried to intimidate Dominique but the filly was
determined to fetch the booty for her connections. Pradeep completed a
swift double when Ivor Fernandes saddled Heart of Danger (Conquering
Hero-Double Starlet) made every post of the seven-furlong trip a winning
one. Interestingly, the favourite to win this race belonged to none
other than Hormuz, who trains a bulk of the horses for Heart of Danger’s
owner, Mr Sajjan Kumar Jajodia. Realism lost precious ground at the
start along with Passion and Fraud and they never really appeared in the
hunt after that though Fraud latched on to the runner-up berth by
pegging back Power Zone.
Malesh, however, showed steely resolve aboard Star Of The Season as he
steered the Cooji Katrak trained gelding to a narrow win over Marquisa
in the Thanksgiving Trophy. Rajendra decided to snare his rivals by
adopting runaway tactics atop favourite Desert Sunrise over the
seven-furlong journey that came to an abrupt end in the home stretch.
The Imtiaz Sait trained filly was gasping for breath and gave up meekly
to Marquisa, who then found Star Of The Season stretching out well to
play spoilsport.
Pradeep completed his treble when All The Go snapped the ambitious plans
of Great Alliance at the wire in the concluding race. Great Alliance
grabbed the lead from Priceless Place and appeared to be coasting
towards a comfortable victory when Pradeep set alight All The Go. The
daughter of Excalibur’s Lake out of Astina responded well to her rider’s
call and denied Great Alliance his moment of glory. Star Destiny ended a
tame third and it appeared that he had saved his best for some other
day. Maid of Money ran an encouraging fourth and should be in the news
before long.
Reap The Bounty brought home the bacon with a successful start-to-finish
mission that was accomplished in the company of apprentice L. Prashant.
The aged mare trained by Irene Patel stormed into the lead and lasted
out to win from the late finishing Verzzano. Nina Lalvani was the other
lady trainer to lead in a winner when Eva (Mischevious Music-Please
Come) overcame the favourite Silver Tulip. Eva engaged the Rajendra
ridden favourite Silver Tulip in a stirring duel in the last two
furlongs and Neeraj Rawal just managed to retain his composure to earn
success.
