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OUTSIDERS RULE AT RCTC ON FINAL DAY

By Epsom Ace | 30 Mar 2019 | KOLKATA


Trainer Vikash Jaiswal leading Kramer (Rupal Singh Up), winner of The Kalied Cup

Barring the last race of the day, favourites took a back seat at RCTC on the final day of the cold weather season. The day’s feature, The Kalied Cup, saw 12/1 outsider Kramer (Phoenix Tower-Meydana)from trainer Vikash Jaiswal’s yard, with apprentice Rupal Singh astride, get the better of Fortune Express and hot favourite The Kiss in a blanket finish. Jockey Sandesh on the last named left it far too late but for which she may have turned the tables.  After his previous outing, this column had this to say about Kramer’s run – “One is not quite sure just why the Jaiswal stable declared Trevor on Kramer for an also-ran effort from a normally forward animal. Possibly because there was no local jockey of ‘equal  merit’ toreplace the indisposed Chouhan who was originally supposed to ride the horse. It was a pathetic run that is best forgotten.” Does anyone smell a rat?

Sandesh however ensured the ‘jockeys’ championship’ sash by piloting Perpetual Winning to victory in the day’s last race. Vijay Singh was the champion trainer. The champion horse was Ajudicate and “the horse of the season” – Mustang with four consecutive wins. RS Bhati was declared the best apprentice after a keen duel with Rupal Singh which saw them tied, but Bhati’s greater number of seconds fetched him the prize.

The afternoon also witnessed the father-and-son duo of Richard and Rutherford Alford land a high-priced double with City Heights and Sheer Force. Both these runners had run three days earlier and were fighting fit for the fray. Eight-year-old City Heights (Ikhtyar- City Tamer) from Richard’s yard made every post a winning one in the seven furlong race for the Pa Bear Handicap.  Leading apprentice RS Bhati kept him going though Prince of Heart posed a serious threat at the distance post. Incidentally, Prince of Heart too had the benefit of a forward run three days earlier. Rutherford’s Sheer Force (Net Whizz-Celtic Manor) won in similar fashion with apprentice Tejeshwar astride. Devotion made a bold bid to overhaul the front-runner but the untiring colt kept galloping nicely till the winning post. The wins of both the Alford runners were long overdue and those punters who took a chance on them were well rewarded. 

Yet another horse which had run three days earlier and came good on this day was Jasbir Singh-trained Kefira (Net Whizz-Deep Springs). The speedster kept at bay 5/2 favourite Bojangles despite veering off a straight course in the home stretch. Both apprentices Rupal Singh and Sujit Paswan stuck to their task and the most recent runner prevailed.  Kefira’s win was long overdue. Though she has a blood vessel problem, she can win again as she will be well rested over the next three months. In this race, eight-year-old Scarlet Emperor suffered a heart attack and sadly passed away to a better world. Another eight-year-old Logano (Ontario-Victoria Cannon) had a more fortunate story to tell. He too had run three days earlier and reproduced that form with RS Bhati in the saddle to grab the day’s opening event from Modification. The latter needs a little more ground and will be worth following during the monsoon meet. In the youngsters race – The Kinkajou Plate – Vijay Singh-trained Astoria (Air Support-Saangre Azul) made every post a winning one in the hands of Hindu Singh.