After Castle Key who promised much and delivered little,  the joke doing the rounds in the racing circles  is that the trainer Arjun Manglorkar  is  `Livin’ On A Prayer’ as far as the youngsters in his yard are concerned.  Well on Friday the trainer entered two of his youngsters,  Livin’ On A Prayer and Quaker Ridge, both fancied to shed their maiden status. As luck would have it,  both juveniles finished second much to the disappointment of his supporters. But the one positive  the sporting trainer obtained is that the bred in the purple Quaker Ridge is a very goodtype of youngster and is certain to graduate to a higher league in the months ahead.

The favourite and the more experienced China One beat Quaker Ridge who encountered rough passage at a crucial stage of the race and this cost Quaker Ridge dear at end.

In the opening event, the lower division of the Talakaveri Plate, the ten to one shot Kalinga from trainer Warren Singh’s yard who was fancied as a moral bet for place upset the applecart of the public choice  Livin’ On A Prayer.   

In the upper division of the event, the favourite All In from Narayan Gowda’s yard managed to justify favouritism thanks mainly to jockey Jagadeesh who for more reasons than one was soft on Nithyanand schooled Humming Bird who was in full flight in the final furlong.  That helped Imran Chisty guiding the fortunes of the favourite  to spare a `neck’ to the `Bird’ who is certain to fly home when next saddled.

The Suleiman Attaollahi schooled Schiavone  who lost a race which she should have won, Trevor losing his whip close home in her last essay, made ample amends, Trevor this time making no mistake while packing punch on the public choice in the K S Premchand Memorial Trophy run over a distance of seven furlongs.  Stablemate  The Artist it appears has gone of the boil and it will do a world of good to ignore this Suleiman ward until he retains the required form and fitness to make his presence felt in this class.

On top of the leader board, trainer S Padmanbhan added another to his kitty,  Regal Boast winning the S Rangarajan Memorial Trophy  in the hands of jockey Vinod Shinde. The Suleiman ward Azzurro on the strength of his fair effort in the winter Derby was the on-money favourite but all he could do was finish second ahead of Lucia, another fancied contestant in the event.  Lucia, it is clear is flirting and loses focus on the job at hand the moment she enters the straight and she may well prove to be a different proposition if her connections  put the blinkers on her.

In line for a hat-trick, Magnetize was strongly fancied in the upper division of the Classic Story Plate but the top fancy after a ding-dong battle with the Sriram Komandur schooled Adriphos failed to gain the day. Zermatt from Manohar’s yard caught the eye while finishing a suggestive fourth and it will not be long before she earns her corn bill.

In the lower division of the event, Shoot Out and Prince Academy garnered the maximum support. Icepick Willie too had a fair share of his supporters. But it was the Arvind Ganapathy-trained Prince Academy who sailed home without really needing to extend himself.  Arvind now has seven winners to his credit,  topping the list among all the new entrants pitching saddles this season.

Earlier, in the Manipal Plate, Joey was backed to the exclusion of his  10 rivals but this Darius Rashid Byramji ward  like Garv from his father Rashid Byramji’s yard  who flopped  last week  failed in his mission to justify the support. Fashion Flame from Mahesh’s yard  shocked the followers of form edging out Dontworrymonday and Tic Tac Toe.