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

SNOW BIRD TAKES AN ‘OATH’ AS A STAYER

By Mirror Image | 30 Dec 2013 | HYDERABAD


Trainer K Satheesh leading Snow Bird (K Anil Up), winner of The Lingapur Cup

Snow Bird (Oath-X Factor) a 4 year old filly from the stables of K.Satheesh is shaping out to be a confirmed stayer. The daughter of Oath, property of Dr.M.A.M.Ramaswamy, carried the ‘Goldie Brown’ silks to score an encore in the Lingapur Cup, a 2200 metres trip for horses in the highest category. Snow Bird, the winner of the Bangalore Oaks was installed as the firm favourite in the race following its win over a similar distance three weeks ago. Vijays Champ brought the field into view, chased closely by Naughty Gal, Vijayshaurya and Snow Bird. Vijayshaurya took charge quickly from the stable companion on top of the straight but was no match when Snow Bird came tearing down. Vijayshaurya, Castle Town and Vijaykeerti, all of them from L.V.R.Deshmukh’s yard filled the frame in that order.

Satheesh saddled a double with his youngster Star Player (Noverre-Sharadany Girl) galloping resolutely inside the last furlong to score its maiden win in the Romantic Fantasy Plate. After a good jump from the gates, Star Player settled well in third after the favourite Rapidest went ahead to lead the field followed by Kohinoor Karishma. Inside the last 300 metres Rapidest was failing to improve on the advantage and Star Player responded to Deep Shanker’s urgings to gather momentum with a furlong left and stormed ahead to win by over three lengths. SundayBeauty managed to peg back Rapidest to be the runner-up.

Zoheb Shaikh trained Equalizer (Mull of Kintyre-Pupa Fiorinity) held back Roma Rouge to win the Amaravathi Cup. The favourite Montauk went on a start to finish bid but lost steam on top of the straight. Jockey B.Dileep brought Equalizer with a sustained gallop from around the front runners and surged forward to take over the running inside the last furlong. Roma Rouge also came up strogly from the outside but fell short by a ‘head’ at the finish. Jerrel rallied along the inner fence to finish a close third. The favourite Montauk finished a tame fourth.

Machine Gun (Rebuttal-Maria T) from L.V.R.Deshmukh’s yard completed an encore in the Haridwar Plate. Ice Barrier in its customary fashion cut the wind followed closely by Machine Gun right from the start. As they approached the last 800 metres Greek Star made a quick move to join Machine Gun on its outside.  Jockey Nirmal Jodha on Machine Gun pushed his way through to get to the front with about 300 metres left in the race and stepped up the pace. Greek Star started to come up with a challenge but could only reduce the margin to three parts of a length. Kohinoor Thunder finished on being third in front of Fairy Emperor.

The biggest upset of the day came through SK Kassam trained Triple Eight (Hymn-Freedom) in the Olympic Flame Plate, paying a dividend of Rs.297 on a fiver in the totalizator. Turning for home Triple Eight was last of thirteen runners. Pulled out by apprentice A.K.Pawar to make its bid on the extreme outside, Triple Eight picked up on each of them in front and just managed to beat Chayanandan on the last stride. Sugar Deal finished third while the favourite cascading Glory finished fourth.   

Sk Kassam packed a double through Kohinoor Desire (Eljohar-Barcelona) in the higher division of the Wishful Thinking Plate. The 3 year old bay gelding improved steadily in the centre of the track and sped past the long time leader Amazing Weapon under K.Anil. Whats Up warmed up late to finish second ahead of Amazing Weapon.

Laxman Singh trained Ray of Light (Duja-Naval Guardian) extended the length of its shadow to over nine lengths in the lower division, the opening race of the day. The 3 year old filly was withdrawn after being accepted to run at Bangalore during summer as she was found trotting lame on right hind following a fall on its way to the saddling enclosure. She had not raced since then and was going into the race as a debutant. Sent in as the favourite at 10-4 ‘on’, Ray of Light was quick to get to the front, maintained a lead of within a length over Grenada till rounding the final bend and stretched out effortlessly to extend the lead to over nine lengths. Rock Heights, Star Wings and Ziv filled the judge’s frame in that order.

L.D’Silva trained Laurel Canyon (Noverre-Shao) whose last win was almost 16 months ago, came good under A.Sandesh to beat the favourite Winjoy in the Cyndy Plate. Kianoosh led the field from the start and had a lead of over three lengths as the raced into the last 300 metres. Winjoy started to pick up speed and bridged that gap to get to the front. Laurel Canyon, which trailed the field till passing the 600 metres board creeped up along the shortest way to improve its position and with a good rally sped past Winjoy to win by a length.