Hormuz Antia saddles a hat-trick to go laughing all the way to his bank 
By Usman Rangila

Mumbai
May 9, 2004

The city witnessed unseasonal showers on Sunday afternoon as if in sympathy to the ordeal through which the Indian thoroughbred is going in the sultry weather of May. The card of six was not more exciting than the preceding one that took place on Saturday. Looking at the number of runners that some trainers had this weekend, there was an unmistakable hint that they (trainers) were helping them (the club) to help themselves. One man who went laughing all the way to the bank was Hormuz Antia, who saddled a hat-trick of winners towards the end of the day’s proceedings. This does not imply that the respective trainers of the other three victors at the start of the day were, in anyway, less elated.

The sagacious placement of his horses by Antia went a long way in helping the three mares, Eye To Eye, Secret Path and Danger In Sight, to win in their respective races. Having played a passive role in all of her seven appearances during the current campaign, Eye To Eye was raring to go in the Prince Khartoum Trophy. Ditto for Secret Path who had visited the Mahalaxmi race track on six prior occasions this season. Favourite Uber Alles’ defeat at the hands of Danger In Sight came as a big surprise but Antia was not grumbling for it was nothing less than a bonus for him and his connections.

Even though there were just six contestants for the Prince Khartoum Trophy, the odds during race time suggested that it was an open race. However, as far as the chances of ante post favourite Sweet Charity winning the event were concerned, the writing was clearly on the wall as the odds against her were northward bound. Sweet Charity left her chances at the gates itself leaving open the field for Eye To Eye to embark on her victory march. Pradeep Chouhan made no mistake as he went wire to wire and even increased his margin as the winning post came into sight. Illusion, who had her own share of admirers, never gave any semblance of having the requisite firepower to overwhelm the winner and the best she could do was play second fiddle.

Secret Path with Satish Nayak at the steering wheel raced closed on the heels on leader Bhanuja, Cagliari and Charging Rhino till the field straightened for home. Satish set alight Secret Path with Charging Rhino being hard-ridden by Pramod Belose. Secret Path refused to cave in and held on valiantly. Cagliari failed to grace the judges’ board which came as a big disappointment for her supporters.

Bangalore-based rider Harish was entrusted with the responsibility of guiding the fortunes of two favourites, the Irene Patel-saddled Momentous Mover and Uber Alles from Robert D’Mellow’s stables. Sadly, both these horses ended second and Harish had to return home empty-handed. Harish had every chance of winning astride Uber Alles but he failed to do proper justice to his mount. Probably the weight of money which he was asked to carry on his shoulders proved, in the end, too big a burden for him to endure.

Harish brushed Uber Alles at the start to be in close attendance of the leader Long John and was never really able to settle his mount during the seven-furlong journey. Finding Long John in one of his unrelenting moods, Harish was forced to make free use of his whip in trying to get Uber Alles to accelerate. Both Long John and Uber Alles went stride for stride and just as the latter got the upper hand danger was lurking close on his haunches in the form of Danger In Sight. Pradeep Chouhan dug in to the reserves of the Placerville progeny and found that extra bit of surging power to put his head in front of Uber Alles at the wire. 

Momentous Mover, on the other hand, was destined for humiliation at the hands of his owner-mate Rain Cloud, who managed to steal a march over his rivals in the straight after a brief struggle with Cape Merino. Momentous Mover was unable to find his moorings though at one stage of the race he was nicely poised to launch his assault.

The withdrawals of ante post favourite Free For All and Where Eagles Dare proved to be a blessing in disguise for Bachelor in the curtain raiser. The aged gelding from veteran Janardhan’s barns galloped resolutely in the final stretch and stayed on the right course with Berliet and Attia In Sunlight in close tow.