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

STAR EMPIRE MAKES SNOWSCAPE EAT HUMBLE PIE

By Epsome Ace | 27 Aug 2013 | KOLKATA


Trainer P Quinn leading Star Empire (P S Chouhan Up), winner of The Tangiers Cup

It was a Tuesday that most Calcutta punters would like to put behind them. Not a single favourite obliged in a card of seven races. That is not to say that racing was not form-oriented. In fact, quite the opposite! Those who missed out on a winner or two have only themselves to blame. The Calcutta Monsoon races is really not for the faint-hearted or ‘followers of money OR jockeys’. Unless one does one’s homework well, it’s really not worth attending.

To give an example: In retrospect, the win of Tasveer in the Prudential Handicap was very much on the cards after her last superb essay in the same class and at the same mark over a sprint. The filly is known to revel over a mile and 1800 metres and that run should have been indication enough to invite a touch on her. Those who missed out (including this correspondent) have only themselves to blame. Moreover, at four years, she is still improving whereas Tintoretto and Sheriff are both climbing down the ladder. Lady Ship can only be termed as a ‘false favourite’ as there was really no positive factor in her favour. Kudos to trainer Jasbir Singh for a clever placement of his ward.

Trainer Patrick Quinn once again displayed that he is alert to opportunities as he declared ace jockey PS Chouhan astride Star Empire in the Tangiers Cup after the latter’s good second to Dandified in the Gumaan Cup. To prove his point, his ward was backed down to be a close second favourite after Snowscape. The Calcutta Derby winner’s second consecutive debacle has left punters with burnt fingers. It’s quite possible that the grey has lost his penchant to sprint after his thumping Derby triumph. Right now, he looks reluctant to raise any kind of gallop when hustled. Trainer Vijay Singh may have his hands full with this colt till he hoists the winning flag again.

The Class II race, The Darcy Handicap, saw the top-weights Ares and Super Hero exchange leads before Royal Honour swept past all and sundry to win comprehensively. The winning sprinter (earlier under Quinn’s care) is currently with the Farley Rodrigues stable. Apprentice Zarar Alam did well to ride him off the pace before making his bid on the outside. Shailesh Shinde astride Sokudo did his utmost to finish third and it seemed that the trip was a little too sharp for his mount.

In the curtain-raiser, La Dominique was backed to the exclusion of all others in spite of her lack lustre runs this season. She nevertheless ended up a decent runner-up to 10/1 shot Gonna Be A Rokstar. The latter was one of three Vikash Jaiswal wards and neglected by most in view of his ‘leap-year rider’ rather than his form. After all, he had finished second to Vaani last time out, ahead of favourite Hurricane Bird. The top half of the field had no form to go by and they duly ended up behind the bottom three weights.

Javed Khan-trained Moonlit Sky (European-Sunlit Moon) proved that her bloodline is cut out for middle distances as she quite easily accounted for the favourite Self Directed and second favourite Valerosa in The Affection Handicap. The filly was piloted judiciously by Kadam as he kept her handily behind the front runners before taking over the running in the straight.

Kadam rode another well-judged race astride Rembrandt from Bhungard’s yard in the afternoon’s final event. He kept the grey handily placed behind front running Riverdown Empress till the straight before taking over the running and holding on to his lead from a fast finishing Antara. The latter is a good type of filly and needed the experience of this run. She will be better off for it.

Bhungard had earlier led in Apical Finala in the Prince Manoj Handicap. Ranjeet Singh piloted the four-year-old to victory despite shifting off a straight course in the home stretch. The on-money public choice Copernicus finished a tame third and should improve after this effort.