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

Southern Bay Keeps Her Date with the Derby

By Mirror Image | 29 Jan 2012 | HYDERABAD


Trainer S Ganapathy leading Southern Bay (C D Hayes up), winner of the Vijay Textiles Golconda Derby Stakes (Gr.I)

Southern Bay (Alnasr Alwasheek-Priceless Glory) carried the ‘Goldie Brown’ silks of Dr.M.A.M.Ramaswamy to victory, in the Vijay Textiles sponsored Golconda Derby Stakes 2012 (Grade I) at Malakpet race course on Sunday. Jockey Chris Hayes who arrived in India to do the honours for Dr.M.A.M.Ramaswamy in the Indian Classics, gave an immaculate ride to give the ‘Colours’ the 553rd Classic success.

Southern Bay was initially targeted for the Bangalore Derby but the uncertainty at Bangalore Race Course due to the labour unrest led the connections to believe that a Derby is not be missed and the bay filly headed to Hyderabad for the Blue Riband here. The arrival of Pesi Shroff’s Volterra from Western India for the race generated keen interest and Southern Bay who was expected to run at cramped odds was available at a little over ‘even money’. The die hard supporters of Southern Bay would not have missed the ‘opportunity’ and would have had their killing.

Arabian Gold went to the front, by the time the 14 horse field took the first right hander at the 2000 m marker and set out on a cracking pace. Southern Bay was settled well in about seventh position, as they passed the half way stage, with Volterra close behind and Swiss Don towards the rear of the pack. On top of the straight Arabian Gold was still in front but it was evident that he was losing out of steam and Southern Bay beginning to respond to Chris’s heave. Southern Bay produced a resolute gallop inside the last 300 metres and surged clear. Swiss Don moved around the field and Ridgeway weaved through horses on the inside and the two were able reduce the winning margin of Southern Bay to a length and a quarter. Swiss Don had his head in front of Ridgeway at the finish to take the runner-up berth. Volterra was never in contention on the final stretch while the local filly Surya Lakshmi finished fourth.

The running of two ‘Million’ races, for three year old horses, were the added attraction of the Derby day. The HDIL Million run over seven furlongs was bagged by S.S.Faisal Hassan schooled Any Given Time (Rebuttal-Ganga Purna), who produced a dazzling acceleration when given a couple of cracks and spurted away from the rest, to score an upset win. Flying Spur followed in second ahead of Allendale and Azaira while the hot favourite fizzled out inside the last 200 m to finish last.

Vijay’s Pride (Bertolini-Designer Chic) from L.V.R.Deshmukh’s nursery made an appealing debut, while winning the Eureka Forbes Youngsters Million. Jockey P.S.Chouhan settled the filly close behind the leader Always Bullish, till the distance marker and moved ahead effortlessly, to win with plenty in hand at the finish. Vijay’s Pride joins the list of classy juveniles in Deshmukh’s stable this season.

Leo D’Silva trained Garcia Marques (Quest Star-Friendly Type) has hit a purple patch. The 4 year old picked up his fifth win on the trot, the fourth this winter and looks to be in a commanding lead to be the ‘horse of the season’. Apprentice Kuldeep Singh pulled out Garcia Marques from the inner track and let the gelding gallop freely on the extreme outside. Leo’s ward produced a scintillating gallop inside the last 100 metres and swept past Golden Queen.

D’Silva and Kuldeep combined to score a double, through Garibaldi (Ontario-Giovane Signora), in the higher division of the Sikander-E-Aazam Cup, the concluding race of the day. Garibaldi went ahead quickly from the start and was never headed.

Zoheb Shaikh’s Evarado (Eljohar-Daddy’s Girl) won the lower division with a start to finish attempt. Kohinoor Fighter was in chase throughout the six furlongs trip but failed to get the better and finished second.

C.D.Hayes had earlier in the day ridden K.Satheesh’s Sporting Star (Alydeed-R Valid Girl) to victory in the Aristocrat Cup. Making headway through horses in front, Sporting Star got behind the favourite Audacious on the home stretch and travelled better to score.

Laxman Singh trained Lumiere Blanche (Gaswar-Dancing Flame) who had missed scoring a hat-trick in her previous outing, made amends to lift the Deccan Prince Cup. Rosemead came rushing towards the grey in the closing stages but missed out by the shortest of margins.

Anupam Sharma’s Yakshagana (Dance To Destiny-Executive Angel) moved with telling strides on the stand side to snatch the race from the favourite Arabian Dancer in the shadow of the winning post, in the Squanderer Cup.