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A ‘STRIKING’ DIFFERENCE IN CLASS

By Epsom Ace | 23 Nov 2013 | KOLKATA


Trainer S. S. Attaollahi leading Striking Jockey (Trevor Patel Up), Winner of The Calcutta 1000 Guineas (Gr.3)

The first classic of the Calcutta winter season, The Calcutta 1000 Guineas, saw Sulemain Attaollahi’s Striking brush aside her four rivals with utter disdain. The blue-blooded property of Dr Vijay Mallya, sired by the highly successful Multidimensional out of Dazzling Skill (sired by Razeen), was given a flawless ride by young Trevor Patel. Said Trevor after the race, “ I had ridden her in Mysore and I didn’t want to show her daylight too soon in case she stops, so I waited for others to move in on the front-runner and it worked well for me”. Mentor Attaollahi was a contented man as he said “ The filly’s next target will be the Calcutta Oaks”.

The race itself saw Amarilla set a fairly good pace with Adiella and Striking in tow. The locally fancied runner Shaktiroop was tucked in along the rails while Artesia (C.Alford up) was last of five. The order remained more or less the same till heads turned for home where Adiella made the first move, followed by Chouhan on Shaktiroop along the rails. But they had no answer to quickfire acceleration displayed by Striking in the final furlong. It was in fact the fast finishing Artesia who occupied the runner-up berth. This half-sister to the illustrious Set Aside is thus one for the December notebook when the ‘Ladies Derby’ is scheduled to be run.

The Manvendra Singh stable suffered a setback in the curtain-raiser when their promising colt Aquino had to be put down after breaking his right hind and fore legs and collapsing in the straight. It was particularly sad for the two-year-old youngster as this was his maiden start and the poor little guy was trying his best to collar the front-running Azienda. It was truly sorrowful as he was running his heart out and didn’t know what hit him. The reason for his ungainly trip has not yet been ascertained. May his soul ‘Rest In Peace’! Jockey Christopher Alford, who was astride Aquino, had a fortunate escape and showed great resolve and guts to fulfil his engagements till the fifth race. Thereafter, Alford was substituted in the last three races.

The opening event was also the beginning of Shailesh Shinde’s quartet of wins as he piloted Vijay Singh-schooled Azienda (Win Legend-Aelenia) to a thumping start-to finish triumph. Her dam Aelenia had performed creditably as a sprinter at this centre and she kept the ‘family flag’ flying high.

Shinde’s next winner was the ten-to-three-on Argiano (Warrshan-Santarelle) in the Safari Handicap. The Vijay Singh ward was obviously being given a lung-opener for the 2000 Guineas in December and his none too impressive performance should be taken with a pinch of salt on this day. After collaring Sunny Sue, the colt was strongly challenged by first Al Attaturk and then Stupid Cupid but managed to hold on till the winning post.

A chance ride on Ademaro (after Alford was declared unfit to ride) saw Shinde notching up his third win in the Bid For Gold Handicap. As compared to his earlier outing, the colt showed a far improved character after sporting blinkers. Lying a handy second till the top of the straight, the big-made bay pulled away from the field to win as he liked.

 Shinde completed a successful day at the office with a bloodless victory astride Manvedra’s Sergeant Major who made every post of the mile race for the Kariba Handicap a winning one. The piping hot favourite Hamlet was struggling to hold position throughout the race and will be better off after this run. The runner-up berth went to rank outsider Dancing Dame while stablemate of the winner (Ace Elegance) was a close third.

The supporting cup event, The SS Bala Memorial Cup, saw PS Chouhan ride a flawless race astride the even-money choice Iverness. The Patrick Quinn-trained runner won as she liked from a hard-ridden Charlemagne and Salt. Chouhan thus completed a double as he had earlier piloted another on-money Quinn ward Little Love to a fluent triumph in the Favorite Handicap.

The most exciting finish witnessed was in the Cavalry Cup as heavily gambled Sartaj from Daniel David’s yard won in a dramatic scramble close home. Apprentice Arman Khan brought him down the centre of the straight despite traffic problems to peg back the likes of Black Caviour, Sreeyantra and Le Chocolat in an edge-of-the-seat thriller.