Rosie Sunshine (Lawman – Fresh Bread) enhanced her reputation as one of the fastest fillies in the game. She strolled to victory without even needing to as much as push herself at any stage. She settled behind Wings of Glory with the rest following closely. However, once they turned for home, Rosie Sunshine cruised past the leader and sailed clear within strides to romp home a stylish winner. She completely outclassed her rivals to notch her second victory this season (within 18 days) and her fourth career win from six starts.

Rosie Sunshine surely comes about as an exceptionally talented filly and her graph is taken to shoot higher. It wouldn’t be pre-mature or too early that she could improve to be one of the candidates for the Sprint championships later in the season.

Trainer Sandeep Manglorkar rose to the fore with a lucrative, yet well-backed double. His wards Herzeliyah and Fortune Hunter won their respective races with fair measure of comfort the connections reaped rich rewards as both horses were at nourishing odds.

Herzeliyah (Mambo Minstrel – Miss Padmini) who had gone winless from 18 outings finally earned her winning bracket in Pune, her last start. It was commendable effort from trainer Sandeep Manglorkar to have helped his mare maintain her winning form here in Mumbai after three months since her last start. 

Herzeliyah looked in fine touch as she sat right up alongside Captain Smart all the way into the straight. She soon took over effortlessly and accelerated extremely well to stretch away from them all. Arabian Glory with Sandesh up tried his best to catch up, but five-kilo claiming Sandeep Jadhav stayed clearly ahead to record his first win this season.

Manglorkar’s Fortune Hunter (Placerville – Only For Gold) scored a long pending victory and won readily as if his spirits had risen from the success of stable mate Herzeliyah in the previous race. He picked up an even more important race – The Mayor’s Cup.

It didn’t look too easy in the beginning when Mountain Song cantered away to massive lead soon on start. Fortune Hunter settled in third right behind Titleist unperturbed by the huge deficit he had to cover.

Mountain Song entered the straight still holding the fort by over 5 lengths. Fortune Hunter galloped with impressive strides to collar the leader within a few gigantic strides and spurted away to score a facile victory as easy as they come. Oriental Dawn ran on end runner up, while favourite Awesome Smile who was never in the hunt disappointed yet again and ended a tame third.   

Sandeep Manglorkar was delighted to receive the Trophy along with his wife. “It’s been long and it’s satisfying to see positive results when you plan and expect to win and it comes about in this convincing manner. Patience has been the key here. Both my winners have had their share of problems and to see them come out and perform in such a fashion is indeed pleasing. I agree it has been a long time since I scored a double, but it was worth the wait. I hope to be in the scoring line this season. I have started off well this season and hope to keep the momentum going,” said Mr Manglorkar.

Miss Miracle (Dancing Forever – Picture Show) was noticeable in the paddock as she had turned out well but she was rather ignored in the betting. Open Offer and Artist hogged all the betting trends. However, it didn’t matter to her and she was up in front alongside or just behind leader Double O Seven soon on start. Artist was not too far behind, but Open Offer was way too shy off the action.

Double O Seven was reluctant to surrender his lead and kept galloping even as Miss Miracle was drawing closer. He stuck to the challenger all the way and held on grimly to the next best position once Miss Miracle had gone past him. Artist, for a debut, didn’t do too badly and did well within himself to save the place money. Open Offer deceived with his paddock looks and ran below par.

Trainer Pesi Shroff returned a double with her Song Saa backed down as if defeat was out of question, and Protector Of Paris available at nourishing odds.

Song Saa (Noverre – So Swing) did cause a brief moment of anxiety when she seemed stuck between horses as they turned for home. Zervan had been in the mid-bunch until the turn but had horse all around him. Ice Gate showed good paces and had taken over the running form early leader Earth Orbit soon on turning for home. Miracle of Mercy joined him and started to challenge Ice Gate. Zervan got Song Saa out of traffic and once he showed her daylight, the filly produced a dazzling run to outpace them all. Song Saa showed an impressive turn of foot to come from some way back and the manner she demolished the front-runners left one lauding her for her superb finishing effort. She looks good enough to provide an encore.

 Jockey S Zervan astride Protector Of Paris (Noverre – La Cienega) then produced one of the most sensational rallying around to down favourite One Kept Secret literally on the last stride. One Kept Secret had done nothing wrong at all. Sandesh guided his through after a rather rough initial couple of furlongs and had the Sunderji trained favourite going once they entered the homestretch. Protector of Paris was hardly prominent in the early half of the straight and when One Kept Secret sailed past the group in front and took charge from long time leader You’re The Boss, it seemed all over for the rest.

One Kept Secret drifted out just a wee bit and on hind sight that looked fatal. He was well on course to a probable victory when he veered out slightly when Sandesh cracked the whip. He was quick to recover too, he moved back inwards, and in a close finish, it would make a difference.

There is no taking anything away from Protector of Paris though. It looked a Herculean task as the Pesi Shroff trainee was stuck on the rails with a bunch of horses marching on beside him. That was near the 400 m marker, just the time when One Kept Secret started to accelerate. By the time Protector of Paris wriggled out to make his bid, One kept Secret and certainly stolen a march and looked good to last it out. It was a sheer power-packed sizzling finish that Protector of Paris dished out that he managed to snatch victory from defeat on the wire. This was one of the most dramatic finishes of the season so far!

Dreams Of You and Snowing (Indian Haven – Cuix One) were joint favourites with the latter attracting smart money at race time. Bonobo led the field homewards and left it to the two strongly backed favourites to fight it out. Dreams of You was the first to take charge. She seemed well on course and Zervan still had her on the bit. Snowing then came with a sustained bid and easily zipped past Dreams of You without encountering any resistance. Snowing had timed her run well and clearly stayed the mile-and-quarter trip better. Dreams of You travelled well until she was challenged, then failed to quicken. It may be too early to write her off and its best to watch her over her next assignment.

Blue Swallow (Imtiyaz – Innara) found her galloping shoes and got trainer Asad Siddiqui his first winner this season. It didn’t seem likely to come by as Ibis hurried off after turning the bend. Favourite Edge of Glory failed to raise a gallop and petered out midway in the straight. Blue Swallow covered a lot of ground and was one behind Ibis with less than a furlong to go. Jockey Shrikant Kamble was persistent with the mare and caught up with Ibis in the last couple of strides to pip him on the post.  

For the professionals, Veteran trainer Sandeep Manglorkar and Pesi Shroff saddled a double each. Top jockeys Sandesh and Zervan scored a double each as well.