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Opera Queen romps home

By Sharan Kumar | 04 Jun 2006 | BANGALORE


Opera Queen (C.Alford up) winner of the Chief Minister's Cup (Gr.3)

Opera Queen won against the run of expectations in the Gr.3 Chief Minister’s Cup, a terms race for four-year olds and over, which featured Sunday’s races. Coral Gables who was expected to recapture his last year’s form which had seen him win this event, was a pale shadow of his former self though he was backed to the exclusion of his rivals. Coral Gables was a disappointing third. Opera Queen, who burst into the lead at the top of the straight, was not hard-pressed to win from Caprese. To make matters worse, the prolific performer from Hyderabad Coral Gables also bled after the race. Opera Queen has been a veritable money spinner for trainer Michael Eshwer. Coral Gables had been an outstanding performer and he has been on the boil for a consistently long period of time. After winning this event last year, Coral Gables finished behind Spectacular Quest during the later part of the season and thereafter won his only start of the Monsoon Season at his home ground Hyderabad. He was one of the four horses from India which took part in the Dubai Racing Carnival but he returned to India without any worthwhile run behind him. Since he showed out in a mock race, Coral Gables was expected to regain his touch on familiar conditions. But it was not to be as he faltered when the pressure was on him to catch up with Opera Queen who had the first run on her opponents. Caprese moved from behind to finish second. Opera Queen thus reversed the form on Caprese. The latter had beaten the former conclusively in the Sprinters Trial Stakes during the Bangalore Winter Races. Caprese who is a free runner in the front, could not maneuver into a favourable position early on and thus had a lot of ground to cover on the eventual winner. However, this run should help Caprese do better in her next assignments. Fabulous Emperor who had impressive performances to his credit at Mumbai, looked invincible in the 1400 metres M H Raju Memorial Plate, a race for horses rated 40 to 70. However, Hyderabad’s Arrow of Light came in for inspired betting, causing the odds of the favourite to drift to levels which should be considered generous under the circumstances. Arrow of Light did not look the part and though he was prominent till the final turn, he packed up without a trace. Fabulous Emperor was engaged in a brief tussle with Appreciate and stretched away in the final furlong to win comfortably. Mission Chief ran on to finish second ahead of Worth A Gold. Earlier, Man of the Match from Hyderabad, had slammed the opposition in splendid fashion. The Shezad Abbas trained challenger from Hyderabad was not considered by the race goers who went with Dynasty and Birthday Star. The latter came in for spirited betting as Dynasty’s odds started drifting out alarmingly. In the event, both these horses were not sighted as Man of the Match surged clear at the top of the straight and went away for a fine win over Connaught Square whose late rally him stave off Birthday Star from the runner up spot. Darius Byramji trained Alandra was not hard-pressed to win from Right Again in the Everynsky Cup (Div I). The daughter of Placerville, Alandra had the race well sewn up long way from home. Olympic Crown ran on from behind to finish third. In the lower division of the race, Vittal Deshmukh’s Glaring Godzilla who was backed to the exclusion of his rivals, won as he pleased, with the rest in the field proving to be no match. Craigielaw once again let down her supporters with a listless performance and Samar Singh’s Olympic Glory ended up a winner at lucrative odds. Whistling Straights had it easy in the Flirting Vision Plate, with favourite Heroines Beauty struggling hard to catch up with the eventual winner.