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Southern Bay Wins Jalnawala Mysore Million

By Mirror Image | 19 Aug 2011 | MYSORE


Trainer S Ganapathy leading Southern Bay (M A Gallagher Up), winner of The Khushro K Jalnawala Mysore Million Gr-3

Ganapathy-trained three-year-old filly Southern Bay (Alnasr Alwasheek-Priceless Glory) dominated Friday's action at Mysore, when she decimated her opponents in the first-ever running of The Khusro K Jalnawala Mysore Million (Grade III). In the hands of Mark Gallagher, she displayed both speed and stamina while lifting this trophy. Only seven runners accepted to face the starter. Southern Bay and In The Spotlight seemed to have the race between the two of them. While In The Spotlight had beaten St Catz in The Summer Million, Sothern Bay had finished powerfully from the back in a seven-furlong race, and ended a fair second to the highly regarded Black Magic Woman. Both of them had the ability to stay the mile and their subsequent track trials had shown that the pair of them was absolutely fit for this race. Another runner that had been showing out on the training track was Satish Narredu's Golden Viper. He had been trouncing some top-class horses, and although he had little chance on the basis of comparative ratings, Golden Viper was strongly fancied by his connections. The bookmakers installed Southern Bay as a firm favourite ahead of In The Spotlight and Golden Viper, and their assessment turned out to be absolutely perfect. With Lad Lady getting withdrawn before coming under "starter's orders", only six took off from the gates.

In a fairly slow run race, Southern Bay was the first to show out from In The Spotlight, Migrolino and I Specialsit. Iron Marshall raced sluggishly in fifth, while Golden Viper was under severe pressure to stay in touch with the others. In fact, Suraj gave him a few back-handers, and after realizing that Golden Viper was in no mood to gallop, called it a day. The scene in front remained the same. Southern Bay had increased her lead over In The Spotlight and was seen powering towards the winning post. The latter was put under pressure by Appu, but there was nothing more that she could do. With Gallagher have a look over his shoulders, Southern Bay finished many lengths ahead of In The Spotlight. I Specialist improved late to go past a tired Migrolino, and claimed the third prize quite comfortably. On the basis of this result, Southern Bay has announced her arrival on the "Classic Scene" at Mysore, and the filly is bound to run as a frontline contender in The 1000 Guineas at this centre. Khusro Jalnawala is a keen horseman and the young man currently owns more than a 100 race horses across the country. This was the first time that he sponsored a race in South India. The Chairman of The Mysore Race Club felicitated Khusro Jalnawala on this happy occasion.

The RR Komandur Memorial Cup was an added attraction in the day's card. This was another mile event, and once again we had two frontline contenders vying for the top prize. Byramji's Rip Van Winkle and Attaolahi's Allez Vite had clashed more than a couple of times in recent months. On every single occasion, they had finished with whispering distance of each other. With a positive switch in the saddle, Allez Vite cornered the public support. It was felt that Ladjadj Stephane would do a much better job on him, than apprentice Nausad Alam had been doing in the past. On the other hand, there were a few things in Rip Van Winkle's favour. This front-running horse was going over a marginally shorter trip today. His connections were optimistic that in the hands of Suraj Narredu, their ward would benefit from the "easier" nature of the Mysore track. It panned out exactly the way they expected it to happen. Rip Van Winkle (Gaswar-Minetta) raced prominently behind Noble Sacrifice till the home bend before making his final move. With Suraj goading him to quicken, he charged ahead and galloped freely towards the winning post. Allez Vite was under pressure in the straight to move towards the leader. Rip Van Winkle won with a measure of comfort, and it is learnt that his owners are planning to take him to Kolkata during the winter months.

Stephane and Attaolahi succeeded in picking up a Class III handicap with Six Gun Smith (Brave Act-Six Speed). This front-running contender had failed to figure on the board in his few runs during the summer season. He had come down in his ratings, and was lucky to find himself in the lower division of this race. He was backed all afternoon to start as a firm favourite, and to the delight of his numerous fans, Six Gun Smith performed according to their expectations. Adopting his usual tactics, he strode out of the gates and proved to be too strong for his nine rivals. Without being really hustled, Six Gun Smith won by a widening margin from Never Say Goodbye and Jaldi.

The upper division witnessed an equally impressive performance from JS Pillay's Spark Of Silver (Juniper-Cristina). She was ridden to an easy victory by B Sreekanth. This triumph capped the best afternoon in the young man's career, as it gave him his fourth win of the day. The filly had won under him in the first week of August. Carrying the statutory penalty, she was fancied behind Ganapathy's Moves Goodenough today. The latter flattered till the top of the bend before getting tired. Spark Of Silver improved from the rear, came wide into the straight and skipped past the rest of the runners. She got stronger with each subsequent stride and posted one of the easiest victories in the eight event card on Friday. Yanamaria and Foswell finished at regular intervals to save place money for their respective connections.

Sreekanth had started the day with a fine hat-trick. Britto-trained Absence (Flitch-Share The Spirit) gave him an easy time, as the four-year-old gained momentum in the final furlong and put it across Different Opinion and Raging River. His main opponent was expected to be Amber Star, but the Sharat Kumar trainee suffered near the gates and was withdrawn on veterinary grounds. Riding Lokanath's Splendid Dancer (Duja-Signs) with aplomb, he brought her with a second run and won near the winning post. Bottom-weighted Neel Gagan had led into the final furlong, but was unable to hang onto his advantage. In fact, the favourite Snow Peaks responded to the stick and beat Neel Gagan into third place.

An exciting finish in the next race resulted in Sreekanth completing his third successive victory. Bobby-trained Rich Rogue was entrusted to apprentice Janardhan Paswan. He was backed confidently to win this race. Rich Rogue led at the gates and continued to do so for most of the way. Good Companion (Dark Nile-Modesty Blaise) chased the leader and was a fair distance behind him as they turned for home. In a sudden turn of events, Rich Rogue began to drift towards the outer portion of the track. The whipless apprentice became a helpless spectator. Without correcting him, he kept pushing Rich Rogue till the very end. However, he was unable to cross the line ahead of the others. Under some powerful whipping of Sreekanth, Good Companion got up on the last stride and beat Rich Rogue on the post. Vertex came from a long way back to take the third spot.