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Red Eagle lands the Sprinters Million

By Sharan Kumar | 25 Jun 2006 | BANGALORE


Red Eagle (Suraj Narredu up) winner of the Juvenile Sprinters' Million (Gr.3)

Red Eagle heralded his arrival as a horse of immense potential when he smashed the opposition in the Gr.3 Juvenile Sprinters Million in splendid fashion on Sunday. The Padmanabhan trainee made a belated start this season owing to an injury to the hoof but he has recovered remarkably and showed that the lack of a run was not a hindrance when winning in an excellent timing of 1 minute 12.8 seconds with wide false rails, in soft underfoot conditions. The eagle has surely landed. Red Eagle had come out of the maidens ranks in winter in splendid fashion but he ran below par against Southern Empire in his subsequent outing. It appeared that all was not right with him at that time as his performance now showed. Taking on more seasoned performers, Red Eagle spread-eagled the opposition, leaving his pursuers legless to win pulling up. The quality of the win was such that great things can be expected from this talented son of Placerville. Red Eagle has the speed and the class to last out longer trips and this should see him at the busy end in his subsequent outings. Flaming Glory went into the race as a strongly fancied on-money favourite though the filly’s reputation had been made by finishing behind stable mate Haunting Memory in the Gr.1 Poonawalla Breeders’ Multi-Million. Flaming Glory had won her first outing in Bangalore, earlier in the season, beating Rain Splasher whose forte is not speed and as such, the solid support for her was indeed surprising. Flaming Glory had the outside draw to contend with and jockey Imran Chisty could not maneuver into a striking position as the filly did not have the speed to get into a prominent position from the draw. Red Eagle was well settled behind Appreciate who set the pace, with Flaming Glory working herself into the third position only when the final bend approached. Dynasty was in striking distance of the front-runners. Red Eagle smoothly sailed past Appreciate inside the final 350 metres and in a trice sped away, leaving the rest stranded. Jockey Suraj Narredu had the luxury of easing up his mount in the closing stages of the race. Dynasty moved from behind to finish second ahead of Appreciate. Flaming Glory ran a poor sixth and may be she is over rated. Imran Chisty’s poor performance on Flaming Glory affected his other rides of the day as well. Astride a reasonably well fancied Roda Rosen in the B Khanna Memorial Cup (Div.I), he received a bad check as he ran into Alagi and this perhaps cost at least a possible place among the first three. Lesser fancied Blairgowrie held on to win from a late-finishing Tina’s Triumph while Ashwaraaj was third ahead of Power of Dreams and Roda Rosen who finished in close order. Favourite Zooming was never in the hunt. Jockey Imran Khan who drove out Blairgowrie to victory was also astride the well backed Distributor who won the lower division of the race. Distributor was brought with a well timed run from behind to land the spoils ahead of Super Estrella who came up with a late bid but the winning post was sighted before she could collar the front-runner. Chisty did not give a smooth ride to Maple Fondant who finished second best to Gem of a Lady in the Richelieu Plate (Div.I). Gem of a Lady who had let down a few times as a fancied runner won against the run of expectations. Oro Neiro who was backed to the exclusion of his rivals in the lower division lasted out to win from Little Robin. Jockey Suraj Narredu, who did a neat job on Red Eagle, however gave a poor display on Sloane Square. He didn’t wait with the on-money favourite, over intent on hitting the front and bolting to the lead well before the final bend. The daughter of Glory of Dancer went clear of the field at the top of the straight but her inexperience told as she perceptibly slowed down. Stafire came up with a flourish to overhaul her and his victory indeed looked flattering. One of the most impressive winners of the day was Samar Singh trained Chand Tara who had the race well sewn up well before the final bend in the nine furlong affair, with the rest flat-footed. Jockey Jagadeesh repeatedly looked back in the straight to see if any one was within sight but there was none.