Indiarace.com - india's first & foremost horse racing portal

Classy Iaepetus Feels Raptures of Victory

By Mirror Image | 07 Aug 2011 | HYDERABAD


Trainer S A Shehzad Abbas and Dr Syed Ainuddin Arif leading Iaepetus (Ajit Kumar up), winner of the Air Comand Cup

S.A.Shehzad Abbas trained Iaepetus (Major Impact-Limelite) proved to be a classy customer, when the 6 year old lifted the Air Command Cup, the feature event of Sunday’s compact card of seven races beating the stylish Raptures Of Victory. Having been assigned the top weight of 62 kilograms, Shehzad decided to utilize an allowance and declared apprentice Ajit Kumar to steer the fortunes of Iaepetus. Ajit utilized the 1.5 kilos allowance and hit the front with his mount as the gates opened and made every post of the mile trip a winning one. El Paso and Raptures Of Victory raced in close attendance till the final bend and even as the first named lost pace on entering the straight, the favourite Rapture Of Victory was unable to get to the winner in spite of the best efforts of jockey P.S.Chouhan. Rapture Of Victory, was racing within a fortnight after a rousing win on this track and this probably did not go well for the gelding.

A compact card of seven races were run on the day and short priced favourites ruled in five of them while the other two were bagged by second favourites. Trainers M.V.Narayan Rao and Laxman Singh recorded a double each while P.S.Chouhan and apprentice G.Sai Vamshi took the rider’s honours with a similar feat.

Narayan Rao’s Guiding Light (Itaquere Power-Courbette) simply outclassed the opposition, in the Shivkumar Lal Memorial Cup, the opening race of the day. Malabar Prince was left standing at the gates when the race took off and refused to move an inch. Guiding Light settled behind Royal Shaan till rounding the last turn and drew away to score a run-away victory.

Cascading Glory (Storm Trooper-Wild Glory) produced a brilliant gallop under Sai Vamshi to get the better of the favourite Key Note and give Narayan Rao’s stable a well deserved double. Approaching the distance post, Key Note was driven to the front by P.S.Chouhan to take charge but was soon joined by Cascading Glory and after a stirring duel surged ahead to spare half a length at the finish in the lower division of the Mirza Ghalib Plate. English Indian ran prominently on the straight to take the third spot.

Two of Laxman Singh’s wards carried the winning purse back to the stable. Vijay’s Rose and Homely Helo won the higher and the lower divisions of the Best Of Bold Plate respectively to come out of their maiden ranks. Homely Helo (Diffident-Girl From Ascot) was the most impressive winner of the day. Russian Rhytham set out in front right from the start over the five furlongs sprint and stayed put till the last 100 metres. Inside the last 100 metres, Homely Helo unleashed a terrific turn of foot and flashed on with telling strides to settle the issue well before the winning post in a smart timing.

Vijay’s Rose (Just A Cat-Vying Rose) won the race alright but not before stopping the heart beats of her supporters for a few seconds. Phenomenal Strides and Sea Runner raced together for almost the entire distance of the race and although the two began to fight it out on the straight, Phenomenal Strides kept her hold over Sea Runner and was looking to pull off a surprise win with the favourite Vijay’s Rose being lazy at the rear. Jockey Ashhad Asbar pulled Vijay’s Rose to the extreme outside with 300 metres left in the race and the filly started to gallop late, under Asbar’s forceful riding, to fly in the last 50 metres and snatch the race on the last stride to the relief of all her supporters.

P.S.Chouhan rode a double, one for the home stable of Deshmukh and the other for trainer Faisal Hassan. It was an arm chair ride to victory for P.S. on Aegis (Royal Kingdom-Adventure) in the Grand Entry Plate. Aegis took firm hold of the race well before turning for home and romped home by a street. For the record, Ice Rain, Indian Warrior and Standing Ovation filled the frame.

S.S.Faisal Hassan’s Samsonite (Gaswar-Samarinda) was given a confident ride by P.S.Chouhan to lift the higher division of the Mirza Ghalib Plate. There was a flutter of betting on the bottom weighted Armada towards race time sending him into the gates as the first favourite while Samsonite eased slightly to close at 2-1. Samsonite faced no such threat in the race entering the home straight first and extending the margin of victory. Yippee turned out to be the best of the beaten brigade.