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Southern Charge Finds His Winning Ways

By Pearcey | 18 Nov 2007 | BANGALORE


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Padmanabhan-trained Southern Charge made his comeback to racing after a gap of almost 5 months in the Madras Race Club Trophy, the feature event in Bangalore on Saturday. He faced the starter as the shortest priced favourite in recent times. His winning was perhaps never in doubt, but it was more his manner and style of running which everybody was looking forward to. Alandra made all the running in the backstretch with the favourite looming on its outside. Imperial View, My Turn and Lionheart were right behind them. The question hereafter was whether Southern Charge would maintain a straight course after entering the homestretch. To the delight of his fans, he ran straight as an arrow, and was driven out under the whip by jockey Appu to win from Imperial View, Lionheart and My Turn. This form does not bring him into the classic picture. Although he was getting loads of weight from the others, he did not go away from them. I think it is too early to take a call, since Padmanabhan may have a tougher training programme lined up for him. It shall be interesting to see how things pan out in the weeks to come. Rio Bravo was the other star to shine in a long card of nine races. The combination of trainer Sriram Komandur and owner Sidney Moses has transformed this horse into a sprinting machine. This was his third consecutive win and perhaps the most impressive. Saddled with a backbreaking weight of 61 kilos. Jockey Vivek settled him in third last position behind the early leaders Ascot Lady, Black Splendour, Jazz Dancer and Suave. Ascot Lady pulled away from the rest and was kicking away for home when she suddenly found Rio Bravo on her outside. It ceased to be a contest thereafter with Vivek relaxing his mount and cruising away to an easy victory. There were smiles all around since Rio Bravo had carried the public money in this race, as also his style of winning indicated that he would soon find himself successful in the highest class. Apprentice jockey Gaurav Sapra is a brave man. He showed everyone present at the course today that he is not scared to play with fire. He had seven rides in the nine races framed for the day. Two of these, namely, Stanza Starry and Bliss were obviously fancied and were expected to win their respective races. He was seen in poor light on Stanza Starry. He was slowly off from the gates and made no effort to improve his position till well into the straight. All this while he was riding an even money favourite. For the record, his feeble efforts in the saddle got Stanza Starry a close third place behind Suraj Narredu ridden Afea and Kemrock. His handling of Bliss was shocking. There was a fair indication of things to come when the odds quoted on Bliss started to rise in the bookmakers ring. He got off to a disinterested start and had the horse on a tight leash for most part of the race. On entering the straight he forced the horse behind the tiring frontrunners on the rails. In spite of a couple of checks, Bliss dragged Sapra into third place behind Andronicus and Good Companion. Gaurav Sapra has the unique distinction of being reprimanded by the BTC officials for his riding on Nityanand-trained favourite Easy in the early part of his career. I wonder what shall be his fate today after his expected meeting with the stewards of the Club. It is hoped that this shall not be another budding career, like Raju Singh's in western India, coming to an abrupt halt. Dr Ramaswamy-owned Music on Demand won the second 2-year olds race of the season. Freedom Fighter led the favourite Music On Demand into the final two furlongs, with Royal Player moving up on the wide outside. The Burden of Proof-Sea Gazer gelding quickened thereafter and won by a street. Appu had the heavily backed Royal Player under the whip from the bend, but he could do no better than finish a tame second ahead of Prince Ville. A king size gamble was landed on Billy Blackjack in the last race of the day. This horse had recently changed stables from Eshwar to Sharat Kumar. With Eshwar, he was in the bad habit of getting left at the starting gates. Sharat Kumar had obviously changed things, considering the amount of money the connections wagered on a known slow starter. In the race itself, Billy Blackjack took a smart jump and sat behind Darktan, Artic Blast and Auchinlech. He got a wide opening round the bend, which he gladly accepted and sprinted away to win with a measure of comfort. Amazing forest came with a late run to pip Artic Blast for the second place. B Puttanna and jockey Krishnan combined effectively to land a double with favourite Samrat Ashok and rank outsider Bold Request. Anoosheek was the other winner of the day for Darashah and Gnaneshwar.