No tremors as Mumbai racing season limps towards its end
By Usman Rangila

Mumbai
April 3, 2004

With the Mumbai racing season limping towards its end, a decrease in the number of races being run at this time of the year is very much expected. Eventually, on Saturday, the card of six went through without producing any tremors. The results were more or less conforming to the current form of horses. There was right money coming in on the winners while there were a couple of cases where ‘you lead the way, we will follow’ strategy being adopted by the connections of pre-race favourites.

Six-year-old Norton (Be Fresh-Favourite Fantasy) made short work of his five rivals in the curtain raiser after he sailed past the early leader Storming Home near the two-furlong pole. Norton’s victory also helped trainer Asad Siddiqui to open his account for the season and apprentice Yogender Singh didn’t have to do anything exceptional astride Norton. The 3.5kg-claimer soon followed up his success with another bloodless victory aboard Altaf Hussain-saddled Ettan.

The four-year-old maiden filly Ettan (Diffident-Nicole) garnered maximum support after support for ante post favourite Super Sword waned beyond hope and hardly any investor interest noticed in Bachelor. Sparing her supporters the agony of biting their nails, Ettan got straight down to business as the gates flew open and never wavered from her course. Super Sword dismal run may’ve stunned the followers of form but those who watched the odds for the Amjad Khan-schooled chestnut gelding climb from even-money to 3 to 1 weren’t surprised a bit. Bachelor also ran below par as a result of which unfancied Cloudy and Berliet were able to earn some precious stake money.

The admirers of Hormuz Antia’s ward Flames of Fire outnumbered those of Amadomio from Narendra Lagad’s barns. The former played up as the start got delayed and was declared a non-starter. Amadomio didn’t succeed in wresting the early initiative and was simply done in for pace by the winner Goodness Gracious (Diffident-Amorosa) in the Desert Light Plate. The other twelve runners too weren’t able to do much except chase the shadows of the bay filly saddled by Faisal Abbas, who went wire to wire over the scurry.

Having been let down badly by Jade Hunter in his previous outing, punters were rather circumspect with the chances of Imtiaz Sait’s candidate on this occasion. This hesitation in the minds of the punters led to the opening odds for Jade Hunter rise to almost double by the time the starter got busy. Those who chose to persevere with the chestnut son of Steinbeck out of Dazzling Star were rewarded handsomely. Bajrang Singh hit the front with Jade Hunter and made every post of the nine-furlong trip a winning one. Sundrenched, Powell Power and Queen’s Special hardly managed to make any impression on the winner and followed him in that order past the winning post.

Veteran Janardhan-trained Ascension flopped for the second time in his third appearance this season when Charging Rhino stole a march over his rivals in the straight. Earlier, Reap The Bounty and Reign of Fire brought the field into the home stretch only to find Charging Rhino (Conquering Hero-Rafah) being spurred into action by Pramod Belose. Malesh Narredu failed to ignite a blazing run from Ascension and was forced to eat a humble pie by the Magansingh Jodha trainee.

Bezan Chenoy-nurtured four-year-old gelding Fraud (Sizzling Melody-Danseuse), who had been kept under wraps so far, produced a sparkling run in the hands of A. Imran Khan to claim the concluding event. Runner-up King Pin tried hard to overhaul the winner but Fraud was in no mood to relent. Tribal Warrior and Sweet Success ran on to fill the frame.