The public choice Evanston, confidently ridden by jockey Christopher won the Bottolanda Gold Cup, the feature event of the day at Thursday's Mysore races. The second in demand, Abide Proven was pushed to the front by Ryan Marshall in this mile contest, with Mr Bureaucrat and Romantic Design in hot chase.
Evanston was content to race behind this lot, with Dr MAM Ramaswamy's Newfoundland further back in the field. As soon as they swung into the straight, it ceased to be a contest, with Evanston sailing away from Newfoundland. Gallardo came with a long stretch run to be third ahead of a tiring Mr Bureaucrat. This winner was trained by J Chetan.
The added attraction of the day was a gold trophy donated by the family of B Ashok Kumar, the late owner and publisher of the Original Vel race card. This event attracted 13 three year olds for a seven-furlong contest. Three of them, namely Ciboney, Victory Verse and Pricelesssolitaire, were equally supported in the betting ring. All three looked well tuned in the parade ring. However, it was Victory Verse who turned out to be far superior to the rest. Allowing Born Beauty to lead him into the straight, B Prakash gave his mount a couple of cracks and the response was almost immediate. Finally he won by a widening margin from Manthara with the others badly beaten. Victory Verse was looking a trifle gross in the paddock and was also sporting bandages. He has a lot of scope for improvement, and more should be heard of him if his connections choose to race him in Bangalore during the winter season. This well-bred gelding is owned by Dr MAM Ramaswamy and trained by Robert Foley.
It was a wonderful day in the life of trainer Samar Singh. Last year, he had bought a two-year old and given it to his younger son Vishal Yadav, to train for him in Mysore. He had named it Dare Don. This afternoon, the horse was slotted to run in the seventh race with Samar Singh's elder son S Rajesh
in the saddle. In the race, jockey Appu took Glint Revelation on a start to finish mission, which fizzled out in no time. Jockey Rajesh on Dare Don, who was running second at this stage, went to the front and cantered away to win this event from a late finishing Royal Hawk, Forever Grande and Tenct Bling. There was a loud cheer from the crowd as the horse was being led in.
It made a very pretty family portrait with Samar Singh leading in his horse with his two sons....one on top and one by his side. Dare Don's victory was more popular because it happened to be the public favourite in the betting ring.
The opening event of the day was touted as a match race between Maharani and Spanish Crown. Both were well-supported and it was Spanish Crown who spurted to the front and kept going to win in the hands of jockey S John. Lakanath trained the winner.
A good gamble was landed in the second race of the day. Roman King, in the hands of jocey B Prakash was the raging hot on-money favourite for this mile event. It was tipped as a good bet by most pundits. However, trainer Md Khan and jockey P Krishna had other ideas. Their horse, Cadre Noir was backed down from 10-5 to one. It was Full Steele which made the running from the favourite Roman King in second and Cadre Noir in third. Although Roman King took over the running with 250 metres to go, it was obvious to everybody watching the race that it was Cadre Noir, which was travelling the
better of the two. Finally the gamble was landed and Cadre Noir won with a measure of comfort.
Polar Wolf won his second consecutive race of the season. It was at the expense of Game Fighter and Fantabulous Prince. The other two winners of the afternoon were Angel Field and Super Woman. Jockey B Prakash and trainer Robert Foley led in a very popular double for the day and shared the
professional honours.
