Exactly two weeks after being done in by the handicap and going down to Lamha over a mile, LVR Deshmukh groomed Fire Power (Speaking Of Which – Roses In Bloom) was better prepared for a showdown in the B Marideshwara Rao Memorial Cup, Monday’s feature event. After a not-so-fluent start, Pradeep Chouhan brushed Fire Power and embarked on a pillar to post mission with the bay gelding.

Fire Power relished his front-running role and despite the threat looming large in the form of favourite Ashwa Raudee and True Icon in the straight, Chouhan kept him going under the whip. Fire Power had enough ammunition left in him to last the nine furlong journey and successfully evaded the clutches of Ashwa Raudee, True Icon and Akido, who finished in that order within a length behind the winner.

Trainer D Netto schooled mare Lagos (Gusto – Blumarine) successfully carried the public purse to victory in the Mica Emperor Plate, a sprint event for Category 1 horses. Lagos with Suraj Narredu aboard raced alongside top-weighted Smashing Blue as Wakeful and Skipton made the initial running. Smashing Blue tried asserting her authority when the heads turned for home but Lagos swooped down on her and went clear of his rivals. Scramjet’s attempt to challenge Lagos after Smashing Blue threw in her towel didn’t bear fruit and he had to settle for the second slot. Premier Action ended a faraway third with Top Secret close behind.

The bay filly Nugget (Excellent Art – Elouana) also notched her second success this season as Deshmukh’s trainee claimed the Shamirpet Cup earlier in the day. Favourite The Akhanda though making his appearance this season was backed down to favouritism on the strength of his mock-race performance. Abhay Singh took M Srinivas Reddy’s ward on a start to finish mission and saw no hoper Indian Temple trying to keep pace with her till the final turn approached.

Here Abhay gave The Akhanda his head but couldn’t steal a march over his rivals and drifted out from a straight course instead. Nugget, who racing on the haunches of the favourite, also veered out just when Chouhan was about to challenge the favourite. The Akhanda meanwhile hung out badly rendering Abhay’s task difficult whilst Chouhan recovered quickly to engage his rival in an intense duel. Nugget gave a superb response to her rider’s urgings and nailed her main adversary close home. Exclusive Luck gathered momentum in the straight and came the shortest way home to finish third while Archangels completed the judge’s frame after failing to quicken.

White Roses, bred as full sister to Fire Power and also hailing from Deshmukh’s yard, caught a tartar in Speaking Of Love, who is by Speaking Of Which out of Artesia, in the day’s curtain raiser. Rovaniemi was quickly off the blocks and led all the way with the fancied duo White Roses and Speaking Of Love chasing him and obviously waiting to pounce on him as soon as he calls it a day. Rovaniemi started dropping back with only two furlongs of the mile trip left to go. Chouhan and Akshay Kumar astride White Roses and Speaking Of Love respectively made their move at this juncture and the former gained the upper hand briefly. But L D’Silva trained Speaking Of Love strode out magnificently when Akshay asked her for an effort and the bay filly just drew away from White Roses and the others to record her maiden win. Hero Of The East, half-brother to the champion mare Temerity, warmed up late to finish a faraway third and had Voice Of A Dream following him home. Swiss Girl ran thereabouts to finish fifth.

Exotic Dancer (Air Support – Exotic Fantasy) improved on her last run to provide D Netto and Suraj with their first winner of the day. The bay filly made every post of the six furlong event a winning one and won untroubled all the way. Above The Law was in futile chase of the winner throughout while joint favourite Laurus and Siyavash ran on to take the minor places.

Malaala (Kingda Ka – Ashtoh) also showed good improvement after playing second fiddle to Hard To Toss in her previous outing. K Mukesh Kumar kept the Laxman Singh trained Malaala in close attendance of Top Diamond and Visionary till entering the home stretch and soon wrest the initiative from Visionary. Mukesh Kumar kept Malaala going and was beyond the reach of hard-ridden Ok Boss. Visionary had the consolation of keeping the third place with Top Diamond in tow.

The day ended on a sour note for punters as the 15 to 1 longshot maiden Aiza (Green Coast – Destiny) came with raking strides to pip Amalfitana on the winning post. Ridden by lesser known rider Aneel, the S Sreekant nursed Aiza was nowhere in the picture as Tales Of A Legend and Amalfitana were engrossed in a keen tussle as leader Challenger lost steam after bringing the field into the home stretch. Chouhan’s strong riding saw Amalfitana take charge and appeared to be in sight of her first success when Aiza came with a sizzling run to play party pooper for the punters and Amalfitana both.

It should be worth noting that the intermittent rains witness by the city had rendered the going soft at the Malakpet track. Hence, during the two-day racing programme, several fancied horses may not have found the wet underfoot conditions to their liking which may have induced a below par performance.