The dearth of good Class I horses on the Indian horseracing circuit has been a bane of the sport is a given but nobody ever thought that this malaise would reduce prestigious group races like the Nizam Gold Cup into a farce. Three horses, all from Bangalore including a luckless maiden, arrived at Malakpet to reap the rich harvest of nearly two million rupees offered as stake money.

No sooner was the final list of runners published, it was clear that the Nizam Gold Cup was at Suleiman Attaollahi nursed Lagarde’s mercy. It took a little over two minutes from the gates for Lagarde (Kingda Ka – La Terrasse) to make his connections richer by Rs 13.41 lakh. There was a bonus for Lagarde’s co-owners too as the winner’s stable-mate earned Rs 5.26 lakh for unexpectedly beating Sea Lion for the runner up berth. Lagarde with Trevor Patel in saddle found himself making the running all the way over the mile and quarter trip and accomplished his task with relative ease after Sea Lion ran out of fuel near the two-furlong marker.

Three horses from RH Sequeira’s yard – Crimson Rose, Juramento and Kancha, though making their first appearance this season, justified the enthusiastic support they received in the betting ring to fetch a lucrative treble for their master.

Crimson Rose (Equiano – Thurayaat) racing in the colours of owners Prabhakar Reddy and Rama Seshu Eyunni, the co-owners of Lagarde as well, chased Ivanhoe into the straight and fought hard to gain the upper hand in the straight. Thunder engaged Crimson Rose in a serious duel but Akshay Kumar's power-packed finishing effort kept his nearest rival at bay and helped the filly graduate from the maiden ranks. Ivanhoe had to be satisfied with the third place and had Protocol finishing behind.  Favourite Hugh Capet ran all over the place in the straight and if one were to give his rider Dhanu Singh Deora the benefit of doubt, his mount definitely suffered immensely and had to pay the price for his atrocious handling. 

Akshay completed a double with a similar effort astride Juramento (Oath – Starynessey) which helped the favourite earn his maiden success and also provided Sequeira his second win of the day. Juramento was at the wrong end of the field when Yaletown brought his rivals into the straight and found Dyanoosh come through the shortest way home to challenge his supremacy. Even as these two horses were sorting the issue among themselves, Juramento responded magnificently to Akshay’s call and unleashed a scintillating run to stun both Yaletown and Dyanoosh a couple of strides before the wire. Clefairy, who for some odd reason saw support waning in the betting arena, ran a tame fourth.

Sequeira achieved a hat-trick for the day with Kancha (Planetaire – Courtship) who lifted the Charminar Cup with a devastating run. Carlisle led briefly after taking charge from My Master at the turn but was soon overpowered by Coming Home. Favourite Briar Ridge, who was carrying the statutory penalty for his victory on Saturday, though looking dangerous at this stage was shorn of his brilliance and failed to quicken. Kancha meanwhile was set alight by apprentice Abhay Singh and the bay colt devoured ground with each stride and splashed on to the scene to pip Coming Home in the last couple of strides. Despite P Sai Kumar’s desperate whipping, Briar Ridge failed to his reproduce his previous feat and ended third. Both Hot Seat and Muaser caught the eye with their late finishing effort.

Ignored in the bookie ring as Happy Go Lucky and Above The Law attracted the flow of money, Sai Kumar ridden Cabello (Phoenix Tower – Leonessa) successfully landed the spoils for trainer KSV Prasad Raju in the Himayat Sagar Cup. The bay filly was at the tail end of the field at the halfway mark even as Above The Law had led the field into the home stretch only to succumb to longshot Different’s onslaught. Cabello, who was outpaced in the early part of the race, unravelled a stupendous run and came with raking strides to swoop down on Different. With a hundred metres still left for home, Cabello had the race was well sewn up. Precious Gift was happy letting her owner and stable mate corner the glory and finished second. Different stayed in the money and had the two vanquished favourites behind.

Relishing the shorter trip she was asked to traverse after her forward run last time out, Rising Queen (West Virginia – Beau Ideal) from Robin R Kondakalla’s string produced a resolute run in the hands of Md Ismail to record her third career win over the same trip. Rising Queen lay a handy sixth behind the front-runners as five horses headed by Hard To Toss disputed the lead. Ismail switched lanes to essay his challenge from the outer flank to get the filly to bridge the gap steadily and had the measure of Hard To Toss, who fought valiantly till hundred metres from home. City Of Bliss strangely lacked speed and ran a poor fifth behind Full Volume and Angel Tesoro.

S Sreekant schooled Star Cruise (Green Coast – Exclusive Monarchy) earned a bracket soon on his return to the lowest class. Kuldeep Singh astride Star Cruise kept his cool and drove his charge vigorously to escape the clutches of Akshay ridden filly Good Tidings, who came the widest of all after being the last one to enter the straight. Despite her spirited run, Good Tidings fell short by a head at the wire. Charmer ended in the money ahead of N R I Ruby, who covered the ground she lost by veering out at the start.