Laxman Singh trained Royal Shaan (Royal Gladiator-Shanavi) lifted the Raja Mehboob Karan Memorial Cup, the feature of Monday’s races at Hyderabad. The seven furlongs race for horses in category II was left with six starters. Da Xia and Al Sarraah emerged ahead of the rest in the betting with the first named turning out on top, although the price eased out after an injured P.S.Chouhan was replaced by Deep Shankar. Royal Shaan jumped out fastest from the innermost draw and led all the way to won with ease, despite drifting out towards the closing stages of the race. Al Sarraah looked to be hanging in throughout the straight and the rider was unable to get him on an even keel and finished third behind Kuchipudi. Da Xia performed below expectations to end up fifth behind Rosemead.

Jockey A.Imran Khan was in the limelight once again, booting home three winners, two of which were for K.S.V.Prasad Raju, while D.Netto managed to pull off two surprises from the stable. Imran rode Shehzad Abbas’s Crown Crystal (Tejano-Crown Secret) to victory, in the Commanche Cup. Spanish Conquest ducked in immediately after jumping out, resulting in the rider P.S.Chouhan being dislodged. Crown Crystal took the inner ground on entering the straight with Bribe Madi beside her and the rider less Spanish Conquest running hither thither in-between the two. Bribe Madi lost a couple of precious strides trying to dodge the rider less horse and settled for the second place.

The other two winners for Imran came through Prasad trained Celtic Rose and Phenomenal Speed. Celtic Rose (Alnasr Alwasheek-Aureus) picked up her maiden win, in the higher division of the Tanasha Plate with authority. Sent into the race at cramped odds of 10 to 4 ‘on’, Celtic Rose shot ahead to hit the front as the field was dispatched and accelerated in tremendous fashion on the straight. Zulu Prince, who had a sluggish start, moved around the field throughout and turned out to be the best of the beaten brigade, while Carson Troy was a further two lengths adrift in third.

Phenomenal Speed (Sussex-Osprey) lifted the lower division, making it a pillar to post victory, to score an encore. A rumour that ‘all’s not well’ with Phenomenal Speed before the race saw the odds moving upwards to even money, from an opening price of 10 to 4. Those who didn’t fall for the rumour reaped it rich, as Phenomenal took her second straight win without any fuss. Splendid Show and Queen of Court finished second and third respectively.

Trainer Donald Netto reaped rich, with two long shots, Tiara and Firebird, from the stable winning their respective races. Tiara (Glory of Dancer-Symphony of Style), a 8 to 1 shot set out on a start to finish endeavour and scraped through, to win the Esquire Plate, from Nandanvanaa. Tiara bowled along in front while Nandanvanaa raced last till the last 400 metres, as is her fashion of running and began to move up only after straightening up on the home stretch. Nandanvanaa failed to collar Tiara although she covered plenty of ground towards the finish and went down by a whisker.

Jockey N.Rawal replaced R.B.Shinde on Firebird (Flitch-Fame Star) in the lower division of the Epsom Plate and successfully converted his chance mount to a winning one. Menlo Park and Standing Ovation were fighting out in front, passing the distance post, when Phar Lap galloped strongly to shoot ahead and just when her supporters were beginning to count the chicken, came Firebird, from out of the blue, to breeze past the entire field and snatch the race in the shadow of the winning post. Enhancement moved in late to finish third ahead of Menlo Park.

Anupam Sharma’s Suchiman (Burden of Proof-Soviet Lake) had won three races as a three year old but had not shown much form in the last two years. Ridden by apprentice G.Sai Vamshi, in the higher division of the Epsom Plate, the 5 year old mare showed tremendous improvement to outclass the rest. Chesapeake led till the last 100 metres and yielded in when Suchiman challenged him. Carte Blanche moved late to beat Chesapeake for the second place and another runner who disappointed a chunk of supporters was One One One, who never raised hopes at any stage.