THE NANOLI STUD-SPONSORED PUNE DERBY THROWS ANOTHER SURPRISE WINNER IN PICCOLINA

For the fourth successive year it was a filly that came out with flying colours in the Pune Derby and like her predecessors she too was among the least fancied to win this event. The bay filly Piccolina — now sporting shades of grey on her sprightly frame — annihilated her blue-blooded rivals which included Storm Again, Flensburg, Access All Areas and Star Shine to name a few. The lion-hearted filly who is the prized possession of Messrs. Shyam M. Ruia and Suhrud S. Jhaveri also provided young trainer Subhag Singh his first classic winner. It was a big day for young Subhag who could hardly control his emotions after achieving this success in the very first year of his career as a professional trainer in Western India.

The odds against Piccolina winning the blue riband of the Pune season were high but certainly the filly did not deserve to be ignored. She had run a length-and-a-half behind winner Star Shine in the Parx-General Rajendrasinhji Trophy early last month. A neck further finished Perceived Value who later went on to win the Hyderabad Derby a fortnight back. And mind you, Piccolina had called a merry tune to her six rivals till the heads turned for home and after dropping back briefly she rallied strongly to finish so. Yet, this eye-catching run failed to impress the form-watchers. But time and again thoroughbreds have proved wrong the predictions of human-beings wrong and Piccolina was no exception.

Having learnt a lesson from her previous run where she found herself in the front, the connections of Piccolina rightly decided to change the pattern of her running. It was decided that Piccolina would race now race from the rear. Accordingly, jockey Bajrang Singh, who was entrusted with this daughter of No Louder out of Al Zahyia, was content lying at the wrong end of the field in the first six furlongs of the mile-and-a-quarter journey. As the field swung for home, Bajrang removed his whalebone and sent Piccolina in hot pursuit of her rivals. It was not the smoothest of runs produced by any Derby winning horse — the pressure applied by Bajrang could be one of the reasons for her waywardness — but once she gathered momentum, Piccolina devoured her rivals with every stride forward and ranged along side Yukon. Barely fifty metres from home Bajrang got Piccolina to switch lanes and the filly surged ahead for a dream victory. No Louder sire of Piccolina and who is standing at the Equus Stud, has suddenly hit the headlines as only last week another of his progeny, Sonalika, had won the grade 3 Western India Owners Fillies’ and Mares’ Stakes. Yukon who was probably making the pace for her ownermate Flensburg nearly landed the spoils for the sponsors of this race. Running for the first time with a tongue-strap on, Aslam Kader-driven Access All Areas was settled close on the heels of Storm Again who had the services of jockey Pesi Shroff. This pair was always seemingly poised to launch an assault on Yukon but in reality they were never going anywhere. Access All Areas struggled hard to overtake Storm Again but without success. The performance of Mallesh Narredu-piloted filly Flensburg was a big disappointment, as she never raised any hopes of obliging. Such was the support for this filly that she ended up being the first favourite in the Derby.

Talking about shock winners, Pune racing provided them in plenty during the three-day programme held in the last leg of the season. Favourites simply refused to put their best foot forward. Essesspemess, Deep Blue, El Cid, Princess Gabriella, Amber Brown, Colonel’s Dream and Sea Farer were some of the culprits who messed up the bank balances of the punters.

With Aslam Kader to guide her fortunes, Dr M. A. M. Ramaswamy-owned Deep Blue was the obvious choice to win the Nijinsky Trophy on Saturday. Likewise two-year-old filly Princess Gabriella was installed favourite to win the Indiscretion Trophy on Sunday. Deep Blue led the field but faded out fast to finish fourth as Lady Moura seized the initiative and sailed away for a convincing win over Soviet Ride.

Though pitted against only two rivals in the first race framed for two-year-old juveniles, Cooji Katrak-trained half-money favourite Princess Gabriella could only go as far as the first three of the five-furlong sprint for the Indiscretion Trophy. This allowed Mountain Rose to gain victory in the hands of C. Rajendra who is running short in confidence these days. This leading knight of pigskin was to have another success in the form of Mein Kampf who surprised Osprey with his late burst in the final race of the week.

San Marino Star led all the way in the Mysore Race Club Trophy but succumbed at the all-important end to Berlino. Earlier, favourite Amber Brown gave a pathetic performance and ran detached from the field in the straight. Fine Arrow produced a sparkling run in the hands of Mallesh Narredu and drew away from his rivals for his second victory this season.

After failing to oblige in all her three starts here over shorter trips, Equity finally delivered the goods for her connections over a mile trip. Equity waged a ding-dong battle with Flamebird and just managed to prevail at the end.

Shrewd placing from trainer Rehanullah Khan fetched Strengthtostrength the well-deserved success in the Pune City Trophy on Sunday. Top-weighted Radiant was bidding for a hat-trick but with the handicap in his favour now Strengthtostrength managed to avenge the defeat he suffered at the hands of Radiant in the early part of the season. Jockey C. Ruzaan, for a change, rode the winner in copybook fashion that brought the downfall of Radiant.

After her miserable show on debut at Bangalore many racing enthusiasts were scared to put their money on Afilado. But the Imtiaz Sait-groomed filly proved her detractors wrong by going wire to wire in the Piarehind Plate. Jockey Mark Gallagher fully justified the faith reposed in his ability by Imtiaz as he admirably handled the daughter of Steinbeck out of Galiceno and guided her to a well-deserved victory. Afilado shot into the lead after jumping out smartly from the gates after which the only task Mark was left with was to prevent the filly from going astray.