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Atmosphere takes Stewards down memory lane

By True Blue | 14 Jan 2007 | MUMBAI


The Hurricane (C.Rajendra up) winner of the Nitco Million being led in by owners Mr.Dinsha Shroff, Mr.Shapoor P.Mistry, Mr.& Mrs.K.Dadachanji

Jockey C. Rajendra partnered The Hurricane (Senure-Untold Story) picked up momentum at precisely the right juncture and swept his opponents away in a whirlwind-like run to claim the Nitco Million. Earlier, Casual Look showed the way to the field till the bend and gave the mantle to favourite Open Opinion. The property of Dr M. A. M. Ramaswamy did the flattering chore for a while. With B. Prakash and Open Opinion showing no real intent of becoming millionaires through this race, Rajendra took the cue and swung into action on the Altaf Hussain nurtured colt. The Hurricane took just a couple of seconds to inflict the damage on the field. Rank outsider Labuan suffered in the rear till turning for home and then wove his way to end a good second and was followed by Reflected Glory, Ramaswamy's ignored contender. Open Opinion retired to be fourth but this run needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Remember Atmosphere? The filly which was given a horrendous ride by C. S. Jodha at Pune in October last? And that her rider was in receipt of some extraordinarily lenient treatment by the Stewards, the champions of fair and clean racing? The Stewards remained unmoved even after the vociferous protests of one of Atmosphere's part owners and trainer Mansingh Jadhav when the filly vindicated their stand by winning in her very next run at Mumbai. Jadhav and the owners of Atmosphere were obviously shattered yet couldn't do a thing about it. But Atmosphere, it seems, felt that she still had a task ahead. She went on to shock Rejuvenite in Class I and once again came good in a terms race where she faced the challenge from a seasoned runners like Evatina and Dynasty. Atmosphere had Mark Gallagher replacing the originally declared rider P. S. Chouhan in the saddle. She ran unconcerned till approaching the grand stands and then unleashed a sparkling run that left many including the RWITC Stewards speechless. Atmosphere won comfortably from Oyster Cove, who was slightly hampered when Atmosphere surged past him. At the end of it all, Atmosphere will never know whether she had done enough to convince the compassionate Stewards of the fact that she was not allowed to run on her merits at Pune, irrespective of the argument that she is yet to win a race at the satellite centre of the RWITC. The punters, of course, feel they know the truth especially as Atmosphere has won not once but thrice in a row since Pune. As for favourite Evatina, she ran on to be a close third but her manner of running suggested that all creatures connected to Ramaswamy had taken a day off. Earlier, Dannenberg dropped jockey Colm O'Donoghue on her way to the starting gates in the second race and bolted riderless. Ganapathy's request to withdraw the horse was granted and it eased the task of Desert Dust (Glory of Dancer-Warning Shadows), who cantered away for his maiden win after Boss Elements played bluff master for a while. Narendra Lagad, however, was industrious on Sunday. He led in a brace of winners, Beau Monde and Wow Factor, both making improvement by leaps and bounds. Jockey Sunny Chinoy astride Beau Monde (Warrshan-Momentous) got straight down to business as the gates opened and helped the four-year-old gelding carry the top-weight to his maiden victory. Honeyday and Siberian Siren followed harmlessly. In an identical display of sorts, Wow Factor (Alnasr Alwasheek-Hopesville) made every post of the Romantic Blaze Plate a winning one to the amazement of all. Saregama though strikingly poised at one stage dropped back suddenly and though recovering from that lapse failed to lessen the impact of the Wow Factor. Fear of Tears (Alnasr Alwasheek-Champagne Polka) provided jockey S. Bhadke a rare win and a pot of gold for his connections. Fear of Tears had been on a weight-reducing mission since his arrival at S. N. Joshi's yard and his true ability came to the fore only after jockey T. Bernard got suspended. Jockeys R. Rupesh and P. Belose atop Beaming and Striking Out respectively were dislodged in a mishap that occurred during the race after Incomparable tried to avoid being squeezed by Queen Adler. Harish, the rider of Queen Adler, came from the outside to grab the lead but this attempt was termed as dangerous and consequently the mare was disqualified. The decision was arguable and as such the relegation of the horse and the punishment meted out to Harish seemed quite harsh. Harish later partnered Habituated but was an expensive failure. The bay filly Enceladus (Black Cash-Selerina's Song) from Bezan Chenoy's barns gave a spirited performance when exhorted by Nirmal Jodha and went sailing clear. Bezan had a back-to-back-double when Hazelhead (Glory of Dancer-Comfort Zone) made ample amends for his earlier failure. Priapus, shown early daylight by Malesh Narredu, found himself short of a crucial run when Y. S. Srinath powered Hazelhead to oust the even-money favourite by a neck at the winning post. Alamshaara ran an impressive third ahead of Call To Arms, who is gradually being tuned for a game performance. The Brave Heart (Conquering Hero-Double Starlet) upset all calculations when S. P. Ranjane drove the Hormuz Antia trained gelding to a start-to-finish win. Helmsdale and Ring Bearer were clearly outpaced and outwitted by the winner. Lunar Queen ran when it was all over bar the shouting. The Dominator was the best of the beaten brigade.