What a day it proved to be for the new Dulha of Indian racing. Trevor Patel back after his wedding won the plum event, the Karnataka State Police Cup on the on-money favourite Sea Lord and later in his bid to come up trumps in the principal added attraction, the Southern Empire Trophy, the darling of the railbirds was dislodged from the lesser fancied Sheryl, dislocating his wrist resulting in a minor surgery that will keep the leading pro out of action for a minimum of six weeks.

 Attorney General, Imran Khan astride was moving up to take command, Trevor in his effort to push Sheryl who was full of running through a small gap came down much to the dismay of all his supporters. The debutant, it was clear lacked the experience to shoot through and in fact shied away before the gap quickly closed and down went Sheryl. It was a bad fall, but Trevor is lucky to have escaped with only a wrist injury. Well for the many who are still debating would Sheryl have won if not for the fall.  Possibly yes, taking into account that the bred in the purple filly from Arjun Manglorkar’s yard was gaining ground on the two fancied horses, Adulation and Attorney General at that point but all credit to the Neil Darashah-trained Attorney General who displayed good temperament, seizing the initiative before fighting hard to snuff out the challenge of Star Nijinsky to emerge a gallant winner on debut. Well with four youngsters from his yard including Namid and Proserpine in the winners’ circle this season, Neil Darashah on a high after recording a classic double through Battalion in Nilgiris is enjoying a good run to say the least. The young trainer was confident that Attorney General would take a lot of beating in this event and the ‘Attorney’ won the case, justifying the confidence of his trainer. Star Nijinsky made a favourable impression while gaining the runner-up spot and Sheryl too may get a chance to test the best fillies in the first classic, the Fillies Championship Stakes. Well if that happens, Arjun will hold a whiphand with Aster Rose, Commonwealth and Sheryl for the big one on June 12.

The half-money favourite Sea Lord appeared a little rusty in the plum event. Trevor needed to make free use of the stick on the public rage to first get the better of Garuda and then peg back the belated effort of Heaven Is Here in the mile long event. On class, Sea Lord was head and shoulders above the rest and it was his class that carried him through. This Suleiman ward, it is needless to mention will come on a lot after this effort and will add a couple more wins in the months ahead.

The Arvind Ganapathy-trained Krieger disappointed most in the Sir M Visvesvaraya Memorial Cup run over a sprint. The speedy son of Arazan who won a million beating a few goodtype of youngsters in Mumbai flopped in his attempt to score in Ooty on Derby day and on Saturday, he went phut like a pricked balloon. It is learnt that a testicle problem prevented him from producing his best and he now needs to be gelded. But that still does not answer the query, what went wrong in Ooty and how on earth did he lose to a local horse Mantra. Well that’s for Arvind to answer but one thing is certain that Krieger will sit out this summer. With Spirited Regent, another good youngster from his dad’s yard also on the injured list, problems aplenty for the Ganapathis. 

The ten to one shot Havelock Prince confidently piloted by apprentice jockey won the event from another outsider Hillsboro while the six to one shot Downton Abbey only saved the place money.

After the on-money favourite Ninja from Darius Byramji’s yard took a lot of good money down the drain in the opening event, the lower division of the Astounding Plate, Cool Springs from Narayan Gowda’s yard stealing the limelight, the big bettors recovered a major portion of their losses, punting big on another public rage Vicious Circle from trainer Nithyanand’s yard in the next event, the Lady Gibraltar Plate run over a distance of seven furlongs. The winner romped home without really extending himself and is set to provide an encore. Active Grey impressed most while finishing a game second ahead of Industrialist and is one for the note book. Brabus was only there to get a run under his belt and it will pay to keep a watch on this Padmanabhan ward.

After garnering the maximum support in the betting ring, the Neil Darashah-trained Glittering edged out rankoutsider Artic Attraction by the shortest of margins in the Kunigal Stud Plate run over a sprint.  Flame’s  Fury who opened the favourite before Glittering was installed the overwhelming favourite at end raced in patches and eventually finished third ahead of Golden Diamond who made the frame despite not being in the hunt.

The final race, the upper division of the Astounding Plate was claimed by the favourite Millrose from Arjun Manglorkar’s yard who made every post a winning one in the hands of top pro S John. Though Millrose won with ease she cannot be recommended to score again taking into account that she was up against a very moderate set and quite a few were just not interested to make a race of it.