Two horses —
Desert Fighter and Never Surrender did justice neither to their
form nor ability. That after being entrusted to ‘able’
jockeys like B. Prakash and Niall McCullagh. It was established
after the race that these two horses did not run true to their
form and surely there has to be some reason behind this. Did it
have to do something with the drift in their odds in the betting
during race time?
The performance of Al-Gibran too left a lot to be desired. C.
Rajendra rode this horse from Altaf Hussain’s yard and who
shared the pre-race favouritism with Lek, the eventual winner.
Mind you there was a alarming rise in the odds for Al-Gibran
too.
As Desert Fighter lost favour in the betting ring, the flow of
money was directed towards Raza Ali-trained Foreign Connection.
The five-year-old gelding was hard-ridden by Malcolm Kharadi to
stave off the challenge of Royal Standard, who ran well in the
hands of Pesi Shroff despite losing ground habitually.
The victorious juggernaut of Jaggy Dhariwal continued to roll as
Salt Lake (Dark Nile-Shamsheer) registered an encore within a
very short period. Pesi Shroff gave the temperamental bay a
marvellous ride to counter the challenge of Bookie’s Delight
close home. Talking about Pesi, he is one guy who never fails to
prove his point. It may be recalled that Dhariwal and Pesi were
both questioned regarding the poor performance of C’est Egal
on January 3. Dhariwal had a ring of caution in his statement
that perhaps the seven-furlong trip was too sharp for his filly
whereas Pesi emphasised that "her (C’est Egal’s)
performance today was the best she could do."
C’est Egal was entered in the nine-furlong event and as if to
prove Pesi right, the Tejano filly ran a tame race. The best she
could do was finish a faraway third behind winner Rewarding
King. Apprentice S. Sunil excelled on the winner who had given
some sleepless nights to his young master Sanjay Kolse. For a
change, the four-year-old son of Batzushka decided to take a
level jump and unleashed a devouring run when Sunil pulled him
on the outside. A-La-Ridge ran well above expectations to snatch
the second berth from C’est Egal.
Lek (Razeen-Dangerous Liason) cantered away for her maiden
victory in the hands of J. Chinoy after taking charge from Sea
Nymph in the straight. After being "settled" in a
hopeless position by C. Rajendra, Altaf Hussain-groomed Al-Gibran
ended up running on the wrong side of the track as the heads
turned for home. However, Star Music, recently acquired by Mr
& Mrs M. A. Hakim, came in for sustained support in the
betting and was right on the spot for Altaf Hussain.
Interestingly, Altaf and jockey Ravi Birmane were fined for
tendering an "unsatisfactory" explanation for the
performance of Star Music on November 22. This same duo was
penalised for a similar incident involving Dancing Dream towards
the end of the Pune season.
Perfect placement by trainer Shiraz Sunderji and astute riding
by Mark Gallagher fetched Divine Protocol an overdue victory in
a terms race framed for horses in Class IV. Begonia defied the
handicapper at the start of the day to notch his second
successive victory and also proved that his last victory was no
flash-in-the-pan. It was Winning Melody who caught the fancy of
the punters once again as support for both Dance With Me and
Adams Thunder became scarce in the betting ring.
Just after the flag-off, Adams Thunder rammed into one of the
horses ahead of him and then lost the grip on his bit as T. S.
Jodha tried to recover balance. The Hanut Singh ward trailed the
field throughout the journey. Malesh Narredu went all out on
Winning Melody but all he got in return was frustration. Big
Bang earned some precious stake money for his owners when taking
the runner-up berth ahead of Winning Melody. Later in the day,
Attia In Sunlight made amends for her narrow defeat earlier this
season to complete a double for Narendra Lagad.
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