Apprentice Zervan showed rare maturity while guiding the fortunes of favourite Angelfire in The HB Gundappa Gowda Memorial Cup at the Bangalore races on Saturday. The filly was making her debut in the highest class and was facing a group of seasoned sprinters. Her current form as well as the low weight assigned to her in this race, were two major reasons that saw her heading the betting boards in the day's feature.

One may have to go deep down memory lane while checking the last time such a thing happened on the local track. An apprentice boy riding the favourite in a top class sprint at Bangalore is definitely a rare sight. A major credit for Angelfire's victory must go to this talented youngster, as he rode her with strength and confidence. The two kilos claimed by the boy saw her receiving 15 kilos from Atlantus and Rare And Precious.

Based on her last run a couple of weeks ago, Mumbai import Slickkit was the second choice of the punters. This five year-old mare had lost ground at the start on that occasion, and finished powerfully thereafter, to take the third spot behind Firezone and Magnanimity. Angelfire, Slickkit and Rare And Precious were backed to the exclusion of their rivals today. Ticket To Ride charged out of the stalls and set a good pace ahead of Soberano and Angelfire. The others were strung out at the back as the runners traversed the first half of this race and made their way towards the home turn.

The supporters of Angelfire were happy to see the posture of Zervan in the saddle. She was being given a beautifully balanced ride, and for a change, was being held back for her final assault. They cheered wildly when the favourite started to make her move. Angelfire cruised past the front runners and sailed for home. She skipped away to establish a winning lead over her nearest challengers, and it looked very difficult for anyone to close this gap.

With her rider waving the whip, Angelfire lengthened her strides and made her way towards the winning post. A gallant Atlantus made a charge from the rear and came with a beautifully timed run to take the second spot. Soberano and Ticket To Ride hung on to their minor berths. Those present at the race course were unanimous in their praise for this performance.

Zervan has been having a wonderful Summer Season and is on the verge of taking his winning tally into double figures. To be matching strides with the "big boys" like Suraj Narredu, Sampson, Imran Chisty and PS Chouhan is definitely creditable. With this victory, he completed a double for the day. The win astride Md Khan's Inspired Move earlier in the afternoon, had been equally sensational.

The filly had missed the kick and lost about six lengths at the start. Zervan refused to panic and kept riding a normal race. Inspired Move gained ground with each stride and was able to join the field near the bend. She was asked to make her move on the rails and the filly responded to Zervan's call. The pair of them stormed onto the scene and got the better of Devil Grandma near the winning post. Incidentally, this was the first time in his career that Zervan had won more than once on the same horse. Since he had ridden both Angelfire and Inspired Move to their previous victories, this was a "double bonanza" for him. The other performance to catch the eye was the one from the Neil Darashah stable.

The young professional thrilled his fans by saddling a popular double. The exciting nature of the two victories added to the flavour. Suraj-ridden Youre Kiss's Due was making an effort to repeat her previous winning performance. She had been lightly treated by the handicapper as the winning margin on that day had been very small. Lucky to find herself racing amongst the same class of horses, Youre Kiss's Due was a firm favourite in this race.

Suraj took a nice jump with this filly and allowed a bunch of no-hopers to go ahead of him. For some strange reasons, a fair amount of jostling took place at this stage. The main sufferer was Youre Kiss's Due, who suddenly found herself at the tail end of the pack. Suraj saved ground for most of the way thereafter, and took his chances on the rails. To the delight of her supporters, Youre Kiss's Due found some galloping room on the inside of Sky Drive and Grand Topaz.

Not being one to miss such golden opportunities, the champion jockey rose to the occasion and punched the filly to a popular victory. It is learnt that the stipes have decided to have an enquiry into this incident. Ryan Marshall rode Juno to complete the double for Neil's stable. The filly was racing over a sprint and was opposing the strongly fancied pair of Missoni and Day Trader. Since Juno has always run well for Ryan, the trainer had little hesitation in entrusting the job to him. The race saw Agent Archie setting a strong pace ahead of Missoni and Day Trader and the three of them were alongside as they entered the straight.

A tired Agent Archie and an equally fatigued Day Trader were unable to handle the heat, and their respective riders were quick to call it a day. The Missoni camp's jubilation was short-lived when they saw the late acceleration from Juno. With Ryan timing his challenge to perfection, the free-striding filly got up on the last stride and nailed Missoni on the post. Only a nose separated the two runners. Corleone did well to finish a close third.

The day's proceedings commenced with a couple of exciting finishes in the two maiden races framed for the afternoon. The first was a seven-furlong race and there were some well performed horses taking part in it. Attaolahi's Athabasca Star and Arjun Mangalorkar's Work Force shared the favouritism. The small made Athabasca Star was taken to the front and jockey Sampson was able to slow down the early pace in this race.

Work Force chased her till the bend before retiring from the scene. It was left to Suraj Narredu and Hi Life to go in chase of the leader. The two fillies fought a close battle in the final furlong and were locked together at the wire. The judge confirmed that Sampson had been able to coax Athabasca Star to a narrow victory. The second maidens event was over a scurry.

Mumbai-based Scionic (Diffident -Battle Star) came into this race with a big reputation. It was said that today's race was only a formality, and that she was worth following on her return to Pune. Scionic was the unanimous choice of all track reporters, as she had been working better than some top class horses. She received one-sided support and started as an even-money favourite in this race.

The punters got a shock when they saw her antics at the starting gates. She reared up a couple of times before dislodging her jockey. She subsequently lost balance and was seen sprawled on the ground. Her backers began praying for her to be withdrawn at the gates. However, the officials had different ideas and they insisted that all was well with the favourite. Scionic was a bit lethargic at the gates and was seen racing a few lengths behind Don Diego as they made their way towards the home turn. She responded to Merchant's urgings and was soon challenging the leader. In a ding-dong battle for supremacy, Scionic managed to score narrowly from Don Diego.

C Alford was quick to raise an objection against the winner. He stated that the winner had bumped him repeatedly in the last furlong. The stewards viewed the evidence and after a lot of questioning, took a unanimous decision to overrule this objection. Trainer Ganapathy scored a rare winner with Noble Breeze in the concluding race of the day. The one-time leading stable has been going through a lean phase as it has scored only thrice in the first fourteen race days of the season.

Noble Breeze scored from start to finish and ran away from Supreme Arch and Ice Mint. Imran Khan rode with confidence and managed a few cheeky looks in the final stages of this race. Since this was the first career success for this four year-old filly, it may not be out of place to say that she has the scope to improve from her present mark.