Tarragona, the 10 to 8 on favourite to win the lower division of the Jayant M. Shah Plate, put a halt to Niall McCullagh’s unbeaten streak of a winning brace at every race meeting since his arrival at Mahalaxmi. The dark bay mare nurtured by Hormuz Antia led all the way home but had to fight every inch of the turf in the last furlong or so with Charging Rhino (Conquering Hero-Rafah). The Magansingh Jodha trainee, who had gone down by a neck to Blue Butterfly a fortnight back, fought a resolute battle under the guidance of Pramod Belose and snatched the verdict
on the post.
Niall, however, had no difficulty whatsoever in delivering the goods atop Hanut Singh-saddled Adam’s Bounty. The bay son of Tirol out of Adam’s Fortune lay in wait till the field
straightened for home and unleashed a powerful run down the centre of the track. Wizard of Oz came with an eye-catching run to finish second ahead of Savoy and Star Aviation.
Favourite Incomparable was unable to wrest the initiative in the early stages of the curtain raiser, which ultimately led to her downfall. Acceleration (Don’t Forget Me-Lorelei Lee) produced a scintillating run in the hands of Imran Shaikh to notch her third career success. Magic Honey and Stunning Effort fought for the minor places with Incomparable finishing a dismal fourth. Master Zahir lived up to the promise shown in his previous run and gave a thrashing to his rivals. Ridden confidently by apprentice A. J. Nilesh, the Mansoor Shah-trained Master Zahir gathered momentum in the straight and wore down his opponents who were disputing the lead till then. Vlei, Dudleys and Rushing River finished close behind each other in that order. Pandora’s Box, who was expected to do well by those in the know, planted in the gates and took no part in the race.
Flavius Victor (Storm Trooper-Indrayani) was sent out by Cooji Katrak to register the most impressive win of the day. Ridden off the pace by Malesh Narredu as C. Rajendra tried runaway tactics with Starlite, Flavius Victor moved up gradually and stormed into the lead 300-metres from home. Although Flavius Victor galloping style was not fluent, he stretched out to put daylight between him and his nearest rival Starlite, who managed to hang on grimly to the second slot from The Complete Man and Infinite Glory. Both Special Place and Anaroma gave a pathetic show to end down in the dumps. Enchante capped the day’s programme with an assertive run induced by Anil Baandal in the saddle.
