Austral (Green
Forest-Bauneamon) provided Imtiaz his first opportunity of the
day to lead a winner though it was not as planned by the
veteran. Favouritism in this race was thrust on the filly Mia
Senora after Danger Zone was withdrawn under unfortunate
circumstances. Austral broke away from the barriers and much to
the chagrin of his rivals he refused to throw in the towel. C.
Alford thus got a rare taste of success at this centre. Victory
March with C. Rajendra in saddle provided Imtiaz with a grand
treble as the filly streaked clear of her rivals after
negotiating the bend. Imtiaz was saddling this daughter of
Portroe for the first time after she migrated from Narendra
Lagad’s yards.
Jockey Rajendra had an armchair ride earlier in the day atop the
got-abroad filly Centenary (Storm Bird-Legarto), trained by
Jaggy Dhariwal for Dr Vijay Mallya. The two-year-old bay filly
Divine Honey (Alnasr Alwasheek-Angel Heights) gave none of her
rivals any opportunity to run close as she sped away for an
emphatic victory in the J. Rustomji Soparivala Trophy. This bay
from Hanut Singh’s yard opened favourite to win at 5 to 4
against and for no logical reason ended up at 5 to 1. One
possible reason could be that only a selected few are privy to
the inside information of Hanut’s horses. Forest Angel carried
the public purse but was left stranded by the winner and even
lost the runner-up berth to Divine Elegance who drifted out
alarmingly in the straight. Tagged for Terror found some smart
money coming on him but failed to justify this optimistic
venture.
The sparingly raced bay Top Gun, brought in-foal to Animate and
who is by Alhijaz, recorded his fourth straight victory in only
the fifth start of his career. With Mark Gallagher ineligible to
ride in this event and C. Rajendra doing services for Shapoor
Mistry, trainer Shiraz Sunderji requisitioned the services of
Pesi Shroff for Top Gun. This proved to be a boon for the horse
in the end. Allowing Aspiring Star to call the shots in the
early part of the race, Pesi had Top Gun running on the bit till
the leader started retreating. Here the ace jockey changed gears
on Top Gun who zoomed ahead to wrest the lead. Pesi skilfully
kept Top Gun going even as Consortium came with an intimidating
run on his outside.
Though Potential Force, Blushing Minstrel, Top Gun, Latest News
and to some extent Safari Girl justified the faith reposed in
them by the punters, Survee’s Pet, Blue Butterfly, Acharya and
Loyal Rebel made a solid dent in their profits. Potential Force
though not able to chart a straight course proved too could for
his rivals in the first race. Safari Girl, after facing a rough
passage in the earlier stages of the race, unleashed a powerful
run in the straight that shocked Nothing Better virtually at the
post.
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