The colours of
the current RWITC chairman dominated the day as apart from
Tobler, both Reconquista and Kazakh went on to win for the
Dhunjibhoy family. Their retainer Malesh also completed a fine
treble in the process. Having skipped the Pune season, both
Reconquista and Kazakh were making their first appearance on the
racetrack. The duo summered at the Nanoli Stud Farms before
coming back to work towards the end of the Pune season.
Reconquista
(Tecorno-Loire Princess) from trainer Cooji Katrak’s yard had
enough speed packed in her to withstand the onslaught of Niall
McCullagh-ridden Super Sword. After a slow start, the runner-up
covered good ground to throw the gauntlet at the winner only to
find her unrelenting. Kazakh (Razeen-London Cries) met an
opposition that was far beyond compare and thus the Vinayak-trained
bay faced no hurdles in the path of his maiden victory.
The
three-year-old filly Iceberg (Placerville-Frost Queen) from
veteran Bezan Chenoy’s string made a sensational comeback to
the Mahalaxmi tracks here with a comprehensive victory over
Aphaia. The chestnut filly just sped past Aphaia close home with
McCullagh doing well in not allowing the filly to relax as the
winning post came within her reach.
River God (Razeen-Ideas
and Trends), who too is one of the classic hopes of his
connections, got remarkable assistance in the saddle from Mark
Gallagher when challenged by Dazzling Gold in the final stages
of the race. However, the best finish of the day was witnessed
in the concluding event where jockey Pesi Shroff atop the maiden
filly Chiliandrina rode (Serious Spender-Cartier Million) like
only he could to conquer Resist on whom B. Prakash went all out
to topple the favourite.
Sometimes the
odds on display in the betting ring belie the form of the horses
running with a chance to win in a race. So it happened when
Fluency went out as an on-money favourite as opposed to
Overtures who ran at 5 to 1 against. There was no doubt that it
was one-way traffic as far as the flow of money was concerned.
The moneybags simply had their say with the Imtiaz Sait-trained
filly Fluency who prevailed over Overtures, though the latter
managed to give an impression of putting up a fight that was
only good till it lasted.