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MOON’S BLESSING IS IN CLASSIC MOULD

By Ikram Khan | 02 Nov 2021 | BANGALORE


Trainer S S Attaollahi leading in Moon's Blessing (Akshay Kumar Up), winner of The Royal Calcutta Turf Club Cup

Always an early bird, Suleiman Attaollahi recorded another double after Cosmic Ray and Schafenberg brought joy to the leading trainer on the opening day. Suleiman first struck through the money-back favourite De Villiers in the Novice Plate before Moon’s Blessing produced a heart warming effort in the Royal Calcutta Turf Club Cup run over a distance of seven furlongs on Tuesday.

The Rajesh Narredu-trained Knight In Hooves was the overwhelming top fancy despite the fact that Moon’s Blessing had beaten the Rajesh Narredu ward by three lengths in a mock race in August. Add to it the talented filly was in receipt of 5.5 kilos weight from the debut winner Knight In Hooves. But all this data was simply ignored, the pundits advocating that the `Knight’ had finished fifth behind the classy Miracle by only 6.6 lengths in the Poonawalla Multi-Million at Mahalaxmi and his debut victory had stamp of class.

Knight In Hooves was offered at (13/10) while Moon’s Blessing was quoted at (7/2). The bookmakers  not willing to increase the price on the favourite even when some smart money started to flow on the Suleiman ward. The result delighted the Suleiman camp. They were on the `Moon’ and it was a repeat of the mock race, Moon’s Blessing finishing three lengths in front of the `Knight’ in a smart time of 1:25.36 seconds considering that the track was holding. Was Knight In Hooves a trifle rusty? No is the answer. The favourite was beaten by a talented filly in the classic mould and it is the progress of Moon’s Blessing which will evoke interest this season.

All the hype and hoopla about De Villiers proved false when the public rage survived by a `nose’ to register his maiden success. The unfancied Sacrament from trainer Padmanabhan’s yard piloted by   Ranjeet Singh gave the money-back favourite a big scare and the third placed Domina from Arjun Manglorkar’s yard was only half length behind the first two. Many knowledgeable were of the view that the Novice event would prove to be a cake walk for De Villiers but it proved otherwise, the Suleiman ward scampering home by the closest of margins.

Arjun Manglorkar, who normally warms up a couple of weeks after the start shared the training honours recording a nourishing double through the five to one shot Stockbridge and the long shot Allabouther, who edged out Jack Ryan in the concluding event, the upper division of the Vedavati Plate run over a distance of seven furlongs. Antony Raj booted home Allabouther after producing his best astride Stockbridge to snuff out the challenge of the heavily backed Mistletoe by a `head’ in the Dudhsagar Falls Plate run over a mile. Mistletoe from trainer Prasanna Kumar’s yard opened (16/10) in the betting ring before her supporters went bang-bang and smashed the price on the favourite to (8/10). It was a good gamble which went down only at the post. And it will pay to follow this Prasanna ward again when saddled next. Stockbridge too appears a goodtype and his progress too will be keenly monitored.

Back after his thrilling success, Antony made every post a winning one on Allabouther much to the delight of Arjun who opened his account this winter through Baltimore on Rajyotsava Day. Suleiman’s Katana opened the favourite in this event but soon money came pouring in on the Ganapathy charge Classic Charm who was smashed down from (7/2) to (2/1). But the charm quickly faded the moment Allabouther and Jack Ryan assumed control and Classic Charm was not equal to the task. The Ganapathy ward eventually finished in the ruck while Allabouther managed to peg back Jack Ryan to help Antony and Arjun post a double.

The opening event, the lower division of the Inauguration Plate saw the four to one shot Gazebo Talk from Neil Devaney’s yard edge out rankoutsider Chulbul Rani in a thriller. The `Rani’ piloted by lesserlight Deepak Patel almost landed the pillar to post effort which certainly would have jolted the railbirds after the good run on the opening day. Light Of Love and Iconic Princess garnered fair support in what appeared a very open event and that is how it proved to be at end. The close third choice gaining the day.

The upper division of the event saw Marco Polo from Pradeep Annaiah’s yard come up trumps in convincing fashion. Shan E Azeem from M R Singh’s yard was fancied sweetly but he failed in his mission to make a race of it and so did Adela piloted by Imran Khan who surprisingly was not in the hunt at any stage of the race.

Another fancied contestant from Neil Darashah’s yard who is enjoying a good run, good number of winners at Kolkata before he led in the piping hot favourite Etosha on Monday was Christopher Wren. The half-money favourite who in the past has creditably performed against higher rated rivals failed to produce his best in the lower division of the Vedavati Plate. The performance was too bad to be true and Christopher Wren deserves another chance to redeem himself. Almanach from Pradeep’s yard surprised most scoring in the hands of jockey Arul to the delight of the Aggarwal brothers, Rajan and Gautam.

Watchmystars was the one other on-money favourite to post a facile win and this filly from Irfan Ghatala’s yard is set to provide an encore.