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‘Fired Up' Srinath Goes 'Full Throttle'

By North-End | 23 Mar 2008 | MUMBAI


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YS Srinath can't seem to do anything wrong, be it judging the pace or timing his run. On Sunday, the Bangalore-based jockey retained to ride for Shapoor Mistry, was in his elements punching home two winners from a seemingly implausible position to wrest the issue closer home. Fired Up was racing in the rear soon on start of the Rajcoomar Gujadhur Trophy with Wild Vegas and Federicia (Tograllu) doing the front-running. Spiritual Flame (PS Chouhan) improved near the turn and was in striking position in the straight. Wild Vegas weakened near the distance post, when Federicia came by and soon Spiritual Flame started to quicken. Fired Up, meanwhile, got into top gear and gathered momentum to challenge Spiritual Flame who by then had the measure of Fredericia. The two fought out every inch of the last 100 metres and Srinath managed to get the bob of the head right on the last stride. The slow run race worked to perfection for the Dallas Todywalla ward and Srinath played a vital role in ensuring the 'upset'. Spiritual Flame and PS Chouhan were gallant in defeat and the Nirrad Karanjawalla filly will live to fight another day. Federicia is on her way forward and Wild Vegas would do better over seven furlongs. Prince Lochinva broke a blood vessel. Srinath scored another sensational victory in the Naiade Resorts Cup and collard an elusive Premier Queen (Narredu) who shaped like a winner until the final 50 metres. Premier Queen shot into the lead soon on turning for home and initially accelerated very well to establish a sizeable lead. Past the distance post, the others looked beat and only Full Throttle was in position to make a race of it. Srinath got the whiff of a chance as he got to about two lengths adrift of the hot favourite and sensing that it was not all over, Srinath used his whip judiciously and got Full Throttle moving in a hurry to speed fast the Imtiaz Sait charge to clinch the issue. This was a memorable moment for young trainer Vinay Lagad, who is the nephew of veteran trainer Narendra Lagad. Full Throttle got Vinay his maiden race victory and this victory would give the impetus to the Lagad lad to emulate his uncle and make a place for himself. "I am delighted and this is a landmark moment for me. I represent the third generation of the Lagad family into the racing Profession. Bal Lagad started his career in 1950 while Narendra Lagad started his in the 1980s. I have just embarked on the journey and I hope to do justice to the enormous success my peers have achieved and intend to keep up the high standards they have set," stated a visibly elated Vinay Lagad. Rage Of Angles (Dashrath) was surprisingly quoted at 2 ¾ in the small four-horse field. The Amjad Khan ward benefited in the prices thanks to the huge amount of betting on Benfica who was backed down to 2/1. The field was further reduced to three actual contenders when Polar Glow veered away at the second turn to take no further part in the race. The top-weighted Urban Warrior took it upon himself to call the shots and led the field all the way into the straight with Benfica in pursuit. Two lengths away was Rage of Angels ridden with oozing confidence by Dashrath Singh. Passing the 400 m, Rage of Angels surged forward with being extended and sailed through for an impressive victory. Urban Warrior didn't do too badly and was beaten by a better horse on the day. Benfica will have to show a lot more improvement to fuse confidence in her again. Focus (Fargeat) who was the hotly fancied one, was a bit sluggish at the start but was quickly alerted by the jockey to get well in touch with the front running Wild Torronaado. Quand Meme (SN Chavan) improved rapidly from the tail-end to be 5th or 6th in the straight. Wild Torronaado could not sustain and gave way to Focus who didn't exactly surge ahead. Seizing the opportunity, Quand Meme came with telling strides and nearing the winning post collared the favourite who was relegated even further to third by the late finishing Arks Angel (TS Jodha). Quand Meme and Arks Angel were together past the 400 m wherefrom the former bounded ahead to register a comfortable victory. Firecracker ran a poor race and ended in the rut. Fidel Defensor ran better to figure in the frame. The Tirol Million was a keenly fought race and the winner was identified only in a photo finish. Divine was the first favourite and in a tightly packed front bunch found himself in the thick of the traffic in seventh or eighth position till the turn. Black Sapphire (Anil Baandal) was even worse off languishing in the 13th out of 15 runners as they turned for home. Colorfull Lady was the first to be sighted and was hotly chased by Cyclades. Algorithms came with a fighting run to head these two and Divine got out of traffic to put up his bid. All the while Black Sapphire was moving with giant strides on the wide outside and came in the picture for all to take notice. However, Suraj Narredu really went hell for leather and got Divine to stretch to the winning post barely keeping out the massive assault of Black Sapphire in a scintillating finish. It was a blinder of a finish and in the end Divine was fortunate to have timed his finish to such perfection. Black Sapphire was unlucky and is worth following. Divine too ran a brilliant race and can repeat. Algorithms ran a decent third as did Cyclades to fill the frame. Mister Fixit could never reproduce his last effort and made no impression at any stage. The Dreamer (Vikram Jodha) in fact put in a nice effort to get into place money. Arabian Pride (TS Jodha) was the last one to turn for home and had to skirt around horses for a clear run. This cost him the race as he literally flew towards the end and would have nailed Ring Bearer had the winning post been a solitary stride later. However, there is nothing to take away from Ring Bearer who produced a terrific run to score a narrow victory much closer than his last start success in the lower class. Arabian Pride is worth considering in his next start over a similar distance or perhaps a furlong longer. Grey Storm had shown enough promise in his last outing and was definitely considered in the betting, fancied only after Mercedes. Sitting alongside the leader Te Quiero, Grey Storm took charge early in the straight and warded off any possible threat by galloping away, maintaining a safe couple of lengths all through the straight. Mercedes just couldn't quicken and faded without bothering anyone. Latest News was in his consistent self and religiously ran into place money finishing a good second while Phi failed to grab a winning opportunity and ended third. Above All was the only other horse worthy of mention as he too showed out briefly and this effort awarded him a place in the frame. The timing of all the races was remarkably slow raising a question mark as to how the track behaved. Even in the fighting races, none of the timing clocked was anywhere near the yardstick mark of the horses in their respective classes compared to last few weeks. This was perhaps the only Sunday of the season where the timing for every race was painfully slow. Jockey YS Srinath was the lone professional to score a brace.