Favourites continued to hold the roost at Hyderabad with five of them dominating in a card of seven races at Hyderabad on Friday. Jockey P.S.Chouhan who had missed the second half of the Winter season was astride three of them. Trainers L.V.R.Deshmukh, S.S.Faisal Hassan and jockey Akshay Kumar scored a brace each.

Bay rig Veloz (C P west-Fathom Five), from M.Srinivas Reddy’s yard toyed with the other three runners en-route to an encore in the K Mahipathi Rao Memorial Million, the main event of the day. All the four runners were off to a level start and Veloz had no difficulty in getting to the front. Camborne tracked the leader with Dad’s Dollar and Lopamudra in tow. Inside the last 400 metres Veloz extended the lead effortlessly to almost 10 lengths with P.S.Chouhan not having to move a nerve. Camborne, Dad’s Dollar and Lopamudra finished on in that order.    

Deshmukh’s double came through Movie Moghual and Decathlon. Movie Moghual (Amadeus Wolf-Mina Girl) won the Own Opinion Plate, a seven furlongs trip for 3 year old horses in category II. Bound For Glory led the field till the final bend and Movie Moghual raced on its haunches. The bay colt rushed ahead to take charge even before straightening up and pulled away from the rest to register its second straight win in 12 days. Compromise finished second ahead of Symbol of Victory.

Decathlon (Phoenix Tower-Dancerllon) had it easy in the lower division of the Independence Cup. Handily placed with the front bunch till rounding the final turn Decathlon was guided by P.S.Chouhan to the front and the 4 year old surged ahead smoothly and was never threatened. Cristiano could only manage to beat Ocean Side for the second place.

K.Satheesh trained Sweet Candy (Hurricane State-Integral) just about managed to beat the favourite Racing Ahead in a thrilling finish in the higher division. The duo raced almost together right from the start but had five others in front till entering the last two furlongs. Sweet Candy made her move from around the front runners and Racing Ahead maneuvered through horses in front. Both of them were up in front quickly and matched strides till the winning post. Sweet Candy with Deep Shanker managed to cling on by a ‘short head’ at the wire. Palm Springs snatched the third place from Odalis.

M.V.Narayana Rao trained Hidden Power (Mull of Kintyre-Cozumel) wrapped up the B. Marideshwara Rao Memorial Cup with a sizzling gallop in the last 100 metres. Tejaswani took over the running from the favourite Shamrock Lady who seemed to be in distress on top of the straight. MEG joined Tejaswini soon and the two were locked up in a keen tussle. Hidden Power who was along the fence in last position at the bend was pulled out by jockey K.Anil with just about 200 metres left from the finish. The 5 year old brought out the ‘Hidden Power’ in her to respond to Anil’s urgings and produced a terrific burst of speed to fly in and pull off an upset. Tejaswini held on to finish second from MEG.

Trainer S.S.Faisal Hassan and apprentice Akshay Kumar together wrapped up both the divisions of the Vijayanagaram Plate. Care Less Love (Case Law-Capistrano) won its second successive start in the higher division and Star Engagement (Diffident-Star Board) in the lower divisions. Both of them justified the strong support in their respective races.

In the higher division, True Friend had made way for itself, squeezing between Dazzling Princess and A Horizontal Urge inside the last 200 metres and headed to lead the pack. Care Less Love began to gain ground from the outside and with a good burst of speed in the last 100 metres shot ahead to spare 2 ¼ lengths to True Friend at the finish. Novaya Zemlya was a close third.

Apprentice Akshay Kumar had to work a bit to get Star Engagement past Arudra in the lower division. Arudra set out on a start to finish mission with Star Engagement in close attendance all the way. Inside the last 150 metres both of them started to drift out of the straight course and the favourite managed to surge ahead of Arudra. Wolverton covered ground from the extreme outside to finish third.