The AGP Multi-Million day had all the ingredients of an exciting day of racing. The festivities, Celebs, Fashion Shows and also a dramatic climax at the end of the day involving the punters all packed into an exhilarating package. However, the ones to steal the show were equine star Dancing Phoenix and trainer Faisal Abbas.

The AGP Multi-Million was universally expected to be a humdinger, what with several worthy aspirants in the fray. However, Dancing Phoenix (Phoenix Tower – All Dancing) owned by the famous twins Dinsha & Munchi Shroff in partnership with Manav and Leena Suri put up a polished performance and won the race with an admirable margin and in splendid fashion. The Dallas Todywalla trainee, bred by Manjri Breeders’ Farm Pvt Ltd, literally cantered to victory with awesome ease.

Taking off at a brisk pace right from the start, Dancing Phoenix had Indian Touch and Silsila close behind until the turn.  The rest, including favourite Little Love had some catching up to do. Once into the straight, Indian Touch showed a bit of spark and tried to challenge the leader. The others never really raised a hope. Dancing Phoenix under the handling of Jimmy Fortune, raced away at an impressive clip to rule the latter half of the homestretch all by himself. He plundered away and amassed an unassailable lead in quick time and completely outpaced his rivals, without undue effort either from Dancing Phoenix or Fortune. This victory was even more impressive as Dancing Phoenix was giving weight around to his rivals. By winning his second outing in a much better fashion than he did his first, Dancing Phoenix is surely a horse with a future.

Indian Touch was unlucky to catch Dancing Phoenix in this mood, but he did not let any other horse get past. Indian Touch is bound to improve and will soon have his day in the sun. Janis Jay put in a good effort to finish third well of Little Love, the latter disappointing after a promising debut.

Among the professionals, trainer Faisal Abbas stood out, sending out three winners in the second half of the race card. He started off with Myla rose (Bertolini – Feminine Touch), the prime fancy but at back-able odds (11/4).  Myla Rose darted to the front lead the bunch comfortably all the way to the turn. Into the straight, Myla Rose was going well without being urged to do so. Mountain Warrior tried to match strides but was no match to the sizzle that Myla Rose produced. Mountbatten was a couple of lengths adrift, but when he tried to cover the deficit, Myla Rose stepped on it and piled up a huge lead.  Divine Inspiration appeared when all was over and ran on to finish third ahead of Reinstate.

In the very next race, Faisal struck again, this time with a blinding run coming from his charge Monsieur Strauss (Mull of Kintyre – Madamoiselle). Monsieur Strauss took charge early in the straight passing Aliyana easily and built up a handy lead. Afrojack and Rein In Spain were galloping alongside when favourite Twilight pushed his way through to try and engage Monsieur Strauss in a fight that never followed. Monsieur Strauss with jockey C Rajendra atop, kicked on and away at a great clip to smother the challenge of Twilight and sped away to a fine victory. Twilight ran on to finish a tame second a well beaten one at that. Afrojack held on to the third and just managed to stay ahead from the late finishing Grand March.

Monza (Royal Gladiator – Capriani) kept her date with victory in a eye-popping fashion going miles wide in the straight yet win with a measure of comfort. National Glory was fast at the start and rushed to the front amongst some tidy sprinters. He kept a good pace going all the way into the straight. Wings Of Glory was in chase as they straightened up for home.  

National Glory kicked on gamely, giving it his all and Catharsis was finding it a tough task to get past the leader. Wings Of Fortune was not getting anywhere. Meanwhile, Monza started to veer outward. Centrestage was also on the very wide outside. Approaching the winning post, national Glory was fighting hard to ward off Catharsis who was now gaining on him. However, Monza surfaced all guns blazing to get past them all and notch a convincing victory galloping on the stand side. This was an impressive victory and Monza is in line for a well deserved hot-trick. Over 1000 meters, he surely has a good chance to do it.

Celtic King (Noverre – Odabella) showed tremendous improvement over his debut run (his rider was dislodged in his second outing) and scored a facile victory to bring home the Young Presidents’ Organisation Trophy for maiden three-year-olds over the mile.

Seductress led the field with Celtic King settling into the third position until the final turn. Seductress took the turn slightly wide and Celtic king had to skirt around as well. Haunting Moments got a lovely rail opening, but squandered a good opportunity. His stable-mate however, was more progressive.

Celtic King, owned by Haresh and Manav Mehta streaked ahead in the final furlong to launch a decisive forward drive and ran away from the rest. Splendid Light, who looked impressive in the paddock may have needed this run and is one for the notebook although he finished a far away second.  Seductress would do well over a furlong less or even lesser for now.

Habibian (Burden of Proof – Chant Royal) owned by M/s Ketan Mehta, Sreedhar Raju and Ashok Rajani,  showed super grit and gumption to overpower Song Of Sparrow, who put on spirited fight that did not last too long. The field of twelve was tightly packed all through with Sterling Silver and Expelliarmus at the helm. Song of Sparrow, Astromia and Basic Life were up next close to one another. Habibian chose wisely to race on their outside as the heads turned for home. Song of Sparrow didn’t take too long to spurt head and was galloping at a good rate. Habibian started to eat up ground with alacrity. The Rehanullah Khan trained chestnut gelding was put in top gear by jockey A Sandesh. Habibian responded with an inspiring run to collar Song of Sparrow just past the distance post. The Kunigal Stud Farm bred Habibain then worked up terrific momentum to surge further ahead and increased the margin of victory to 2 ¼ lengths clocking a nippy 59.38 for the five furlong scurry.

Queen (Mambo Minstrel – Queen’s Special) trained by Magan Singh Jodha crafted a splendid victory to shock followers of money. The 12/1 long-shot played a waiting game over the mile long race and was in the mid bunch as Polynesia tried to gallop from end to end. Polynesia was on course until after the turn, but when the ones chasing her started to apply pressure, Polynesia surrendered meekly. Queen emerged from the mid-bunch with telling strides. Ice Beauty was right there with them and battled briefly with Queen. However, Nirmal Jodha’s strong handling saw Queen through to her maiden win in her eighth start. Ice Beauty finished a close second well clear of Song of praise.

Suntan Beauty (Mr Mellon – Free To Fly) finished on strongly to edge out favourite Sea Pearl who did shape well inside the final furlong. Settling into second close behind the leader Veneziano until into the straight, Sea pearl progressed to take the lead past the 400 meter marker. Sea pearl responded well to the jockey’s call and was looking good to last it out when Suntan Beauty began to gain on the new leader. The pair fought out the every inch of the final 100 meters, the bob of the head going in favour of Narendra Lagad trained Suntan Beauty. Daredevil covered a lot of ground, rising from the rear to pip Valorozky for the place money.

Narendra Lagad scored again to pick the Amateur Riders’ Club Trophy Division II with So True (Warrshan – So Shocking). So True had to work for his victory as Gottawearshades showed good resolve in his start to finish essay. Zervan pushed for the lead and settled well to gallop at a decent clip. So True was close to the rails just behind in fourth, in close company of Spirit of Ecstasy, Blessed and Starsonboard.    

The fight was confined to Gottawearshades and So True when the latter emerged from the rails to tackle the leader. So True loomed large past the distance post, but Zervan was not to give up easily. He fought out the last furlong; however, So True added that knockout blow in the last fifty to sail away with the race in style. Spirit of Ecstasy kicked on to earn place money warding off New Star in the process.

The last race of the day took a dramatic turn off the turf as there were questions in the mind on the way Martin Dwyer handled the 6/4 favourite Ice Age.  As the field was let off from the gates, Prize Fighter took his time to hit the front and did so past the 1000 meter marker. Close behind him were Always Smile and Zoe. A fairly long back were Ice Age and Blue Casper. Ice Age, near about 800 meters veered inward and made contact with Blue Casper.

On straightening up, Prize Fighter kicked on and was going at a good gallop when Always Smile started to inch closer. Sherlock Holmes was next behind just about to make his move. Ice Age again went inward and then started to veer out again. He also was beginning to quicken well at that juncture. With 200 to go, Prize Fighter was working hard to tackle the serious challenge coming from Always Smile. Sherlock Holmes too was right alongside these two. Ice Age was gaining on the trio and it appeared he had enough speed going to get them on the post.

At this crucial juncture, Ice Age once again drifted in, very severely this time and banged into Sherlock Holmes. Martin Dwyer on impulse, tried to steer away to the left in an attempt to avoid a serious accident. In the process, the horse’s head tilted towards the left giving an impression that Dwyer was yanking the horse.  It did look shocking and a jockey of Dwyer’s caliber certainly looked awkward. The fact that Ice Age looked the fastest moving horse in the final 100 and this impulsive action that was obvious on the TV screens had the punters screaming for Dwyer’s head.

The hapless jockey had to take another route to the weighing room as the race goers vented their anger. People started pouring into the paddock and started hurling abuses and whatever they could lay their hands on into the jockeys’ weighing room.

The stewards in any case would have called for an enquiry, which they did immediately. Sensing the sensitivity of the situation, the stewards immediately ruled to declare Ice Age a non-starter, effectively all bets on the favourite to be refunded.  The punters were agitating that the race be declared ‘null and void’, however, as Mr KN Dhunjibhoy later clarified, that the only question was that of the running and riding of Martin Dwyer atop Ice Age. It would not be fair to the other horses that ran a true race and were at no fault. Hence ruling the race ‘null and void’ was out of question in all fairness.  

In a similar incident involving a horse named Celsius not being ridden on merits was declared null and void earlier in the season. The Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr Pradhyuman Singh was seen explaining to the agitated public that in that case a couple of other horses too were found wanting in the efforts of their respective jockeys. So declaring that race ‘null and void’ had a lot more substance to it. However, the same could not be applied to the current race as only Ice Age’s run was under suspicion.

The stewards have directed the stipes to conduct a detailed enquiry and submit a report within seven days.