Optimus Prime (Valid Concept-Actuate) sported a pair of wings en-route to a dazzling finish, in the Mysore Dasara Sprint Championship-Grade 3, at Mysore on Friday. The five year old had shown form when he finished second to Successor in the Governor’s Cup at Hyderabad recently. Current Ray set a scorching pace and Successor headed to take charge in the last 400 metres on the straight and Carla had by then lugged out to run almost on the stand side but was inching closer with every stride. Sprint Star and Arts raced in the centre of the track but both found the pace hot and couldn’t get past the shadow of Successor. Optimus Prime was all the way along the inner rails and jockey S.John pulled him left with hardly any ground left and Arjun Mangalorkar’s ward darted like an arrow to put his nose in front at the wire. Carla finished second and Successor took the third spot in a nail biting three horse finish and one could not have asked for a better script in the Mysore Dasara Sprint Championship which was accorded graded status from this year. The favourite Sprint Star, who is an accomplished middle distance runner found the sprint pace fast and finished fourth.

Jockey Suraj Narredu, who could not score on Sprint Star steered his other two engagements of the day, Portatone and Deep Blue Sky to victories in their respective races. J.S.Dhariwal trained Portatone (Gashwar-Golden Sceptre) romped home an easy victor, in the higher division of the K.T.Shamaiah Gowda Memorial Trophy. Entering the home stretch, Portatone moved strongly from fourth position and sped past inside the final furlong to justify the favouritism. Ailsa rallied in late to take the second place in front of Distinctly Ahead and Archer.

Suraj completed a double through Satish Narredu trained Deep Blue Sky (Royal Gladiator-Temple Tune) in the Sanctity Trophy. On turning for the final run, Deep Blue Sky was just in front of Social Climber and Lowndes Square being ridden out on the far side. Suraj kept the tempo on the race favourite and after repeated backhanders Deep Blue Sky picked up speed and pulled away from the rest. Flash Flares flashed on late to turn out to be the best of the beaten lot, pushing Lowndes Square to the third place.

Rakesh trained Best Move (Greensmith-Pretty Move) lifted the J.H.Foley Memorial Gold Trophy, a six furlongs sprint for Mysore based horses rated 20 to 45. A winner in her previous run, Best Move took a good jump and settled in third while Rock All led the field with Marianella in second. On top of the home straight, jockey S.John went for the stick on Rock All to stay in front but was no match when Best Move moved with ease under apprentice M.Rajesh Kumar. Rock All and Marianella finished second and third respectively.

Jockey B.Sreekanth stretched his winning streak with a back to back double. He rode Mohdmood Khan’s Voodoo Moon (Western Verse-Lively Mite) to a popular win in the Yadavagiri Plate, the opening race of the day. After a good jump, Voodoo Mood ran prominently till five furlongs out and led easily from thereon to score over the rest. Wimbledon Star was in chase throughout to finish second, while Looking to Luck moved late to take the third spot in front of Trafalgar Square. Amazing Performer was permitted to be withdrawn before the race.

Warren Singh’s Bernicia (Intequere Power-Artic Bride) was backed to the exclusion of the other runners, in the Sunderbans Plate, on the merit of her eye-catching second in her previous run. Sreekanth rode a confident race on the favourite and got past Sandhurst inside the final 150 metres to emerge clear. Sandhurst stayed on in second while Royal Music finished third many lengths behind.

A lot of money came on the top weighted Winning Tale, in the lower division of the Nugu Dam Plate but the gamble was foiled by R.V.Manohar’s Shot of Gold (Storm Trooper-Ballet Princess) who galloped with telling strides towards the closing stages. Vinod Shinde had replaced P.S.Chouhan on Shot of Gold and he was successful in pulling off a win on the chance mount. There was some jostling near the 1000 metres due to which Bolzano lost a prominent position after brushing against the inner rails and jockey Sreekanth managed to hang on to his mount. I Fancy You came in sharply along with Winning Tale and the duo in their rush to get to the inner ground went over violently to Bolzano. Bolzano recovered the lost ground and finished on to be fourth behind Star League.

J.S.Pillay’s Kripa (Inner City-Travelling Fast) made amends to his earlier failure by beating Trillion Win in a hard fought race, in the higher division of the Nugu Dam Plate. With a furlong and a half left on the straight, there were four runners, Trillion Win, Kripa, Attractor and Swiss Queen in a line heading for a close finish. Attractor and Swiss Don fizzled out and it was left for the other two to fight out. Rayan Marshall rode Kripa strongly and just managed to peg Trillion Win by a ‘neck’ at the wire.

Super Gold (Ajaad-Venus) flew inside the last 100 metres to beat Jaldi in the shadow of the winning post and score an upset win in the lower division of the K.T.Shamaiah Gowda Memorial Trophy. Scarlette failed to quicken after a duel with Jaldi on the straight and finished third.