Indiarace.com - india's first & foremost horse racing portal

Brown Sugar breaks down

By Sharan Kumar | 04 Jun 2005 | BANGALORE


Forever Elegance (B Prakash up) winner of the K N Guruswamy Memorial Cup being led in by trainer Mr. Ganapathy

For sheer guts, it is hard to find anyone better than Brown Sugar. His victory in the Gr.1 Deccan Derby is still etched in memory, Brown Sugar running the final stages of the race practically on three legs as it were and still managing to hold on to the initiative to win the race. After being sidelined for more than one year, Brown Sugar returned with a bang in winter, winning a race and then running a game second in the Gr.1 Stayers Cup at Chennai in March. He was all set to win the 1800 metres K N Guruswamy Memorial Cup, the highlight of Saturday’s races, despite carrying the top weight of 62.5 kilos when he went into the lead and was traveling comfortably ahead of a hard-pressed favourite Forever Elegance. Unfortunately, he broke down at the crunch situation and this made way for Forever Elegance to survive a scare. It remains to be seen whether the injury is serious enough to keep Brown Sugar out of the track permanently but it is a pity that he is being sidelined because of an injury which has prevented him for living up to his potential. When Brown Sugar surged ahead inside the final 250 metres with relative ease, he was being hailed as a winner because Forever Elegance was struggling to cover the lee way. Brown Sugar perhaps felt his legs as he almost came down to his knees and lost his chances. Forever Elegance thus maintained her unbeaten run of wins at this centre, stretching the winning sequence to five. Hyderabad horses have been in the limelight, Bhangra Knight recording an impressive win in the Brig V P Nair Memorial Plate (Div I). Bhangra Knight was out of action from the track for a fairly long period of time but his track work indicated that all was well with him. It was because of the setback that he had not moved up in scales. Rivage led the field from the start, with Bhangra Knight in the rear of the field but the son of Local Talent flew home on the wide outside to win with a great deal of comfort. Rivage has advertised her fitness and she can pick up a race during the season. Equally Good occupied the third slot. The tongue strap made no difference to the way Stride To Glory performed. The lower division of the race went the way of Proud Tradition who managed to stay in front comfortably till the end. Missedent came up with a late bid while Black Berry had too much ground to cover in the straight. Trainer Ganapathy has been going through a lean patch considering his strike rate right through his career. Star Force was backed to the exclusion of his rivals in the Star Supreme Plate, a race for horses rated 10 to 25, but the full brother to the celebrated Southern Regent made no show and lost miserably. Wistling Straights went away for a decisive win. However, the victory of Star Salute and Forever Elegance made up for some of the disappointment of the season. Star Salute showed out in the paddock parade and the benefit of a race run helped as the daughter of Steinbeck staved off the challenge of the Seis Corona. Seis Carona is a shade dry-coated and she has been unlucky to find one better for the fifth successive occasion. Past performance pointed to the success of My Winning Charm who had run a bottling race in winter. However, Matter of Opinion swung public opinion in his favour as he came in for spirited betting in the ring. In the event, My Winning Charm proved too good and drew away from her pursuer with great ease. There was misplaced support to Rossi who has always shown out in workouts but not translated the same on race track. He once again let down his supporters with a poor show. Global Gal who was backed by people in the know, won from end to end at the expense of Turf Raider who put up a good show to finish a creditable third. Regal Romance appeared to be out for an airing. In the day’s other action, there was a confusing scenario with odds on Satish Narredu trained Diamond Tops shortening appreciably in the ring and that of Just Perfect going up dramatically. As it happen always, the one with the higher quote won. Just Perfect managed to keep Diamond Tops at a safe distance to win without much fuss.