Dream Debut, who may not have had a dream run in his debut last year, registered a stunning upset in the Indian Navy Cup, on the day which saw four fancied runners failing to sustain in a card of six events.
After breaking out fifth, Dream Debut improved a little before entering the straight and seeing the early leaders running out of steam, the local ace jockey Rajinder triggered him off for a narrow victory over Divine Heights and Time Warner. "For me, the success came unexpectedly," Deepak Kalra, the owner and trainer of the gelding, told me. "Everybody says after the race that one was sure about it, but I do accept without any hiccup that he had a place preposition only and he ran par above the expectations," Deepak said. "The way he was finishing on in the previous outings, I simply took a chance by putting the best jockey in the saddle and now I am quite hopeful that he should definitely make it in the Class 3, sooner or later," Deepak added.
Chestnut filly Divine Heights, who was running after a gap of 45 days, should make amends. The five year-old mare Time Warner, who had her blood vessel broken during the last outing and was in after being well rested, may have cursed herself after losing the valuable ground at the start over the six furlongs. Jockey Pawan Sharma, who never disheartened himself despite hanging on behind the pack in the early two furlongs, kept alerting her and in return she responded promptly. However, the gap of a mere one-and-a-half-length that separated the trio, made all the difference between her, Dream Debut and Divine Heights. She should definitely make a winning run soon. The second favourite Trusted Friend, a Mumbai runner, was in without the support of blinker, and drifted out alarmingly before the bend and crashed himself out of the contention running though the stand side. He bears watching especially with the blinker.
The opener saw Fantasia Burino coming out of the maiden status in a convincing style. Sitting fourth behind the path guiders, she came with a sparkling stride in the final furlong. The daughter of English Daughter, who was an upper-class local miler and equally good over shorter trip on many occasions, ran true to her pedigree. She is expected to follow the path of her mother. Rich Gallery, Insas, Jannie Jamun shared the rest of the berths in a close finish. However, Young Anna, whose mother Anna Purna was also a top-notch runner in Delhi, failed to improve upon after finishing fourth in the last outing. She had the lead before running green in the straight and finished close fifth. She has ample scope to follow the suit of her mother.
The aged grey gelding Clean Bowled prevailed over the rest of the nine horses in a-start-to-finish attempt over 1,000 metres INS Dronacharya Plate (Div.I). The grey was from the stable of Capt Sunil Chauhan. Interestingly, the lower division of the same plate was at the mercy of his father SR Chauhan-trained Shaitan, who incidentally also retired home in a wire-to-wire affair.
Meanwhile, Ruby Rosa emerged victorious with ease carrying a massive weight of 61 kilos. She should repeat. Just like Woman got her long overdue victory through jockey Ram Parvesh in the Class 2 Admiral Plate. Insaaf, who came from behind after overcoming the obstructions, finished to be an eye-catching second. The run of Dilnawaz is best ignored.
