The even-money-favourite Mercurial outclassed the opposition in the
feature event of Friday at Mysore. This Concordial-Mi Amante filly was
looking a picture of fitness, as the nine starters for the Chief Ministers
Gold Cup were paraded in the paddock. Cromwell jumped out first and
decided to go to the front with Mercurial happy to sit in second. The
second favourite Oksana, owned by MAM Ramaswamy, was a close third as
the horses swung into the homestretch. It ceased to be a contest thereafter.
Jockey Vivek on Mercurial was in total control of the proceedings, and
he had the luxury to look back for non-existent threats in the final
100 metres. Cafe Coffee came with a late run to finish ahead of the
tiring Cromwell. Oksana faded away to be a poor fourth.
This day will be remembered by the racing patrons for another reason.
It was a day on which two king-sized gambles went totally out of control.
The results were also totally different. The second race of the afternoon
was a sprint race for horses in the lowest class, with no restrictions
on the age of competing horses. Traner Nityanand had placed his 3-year
old filly Whisper Valley to take part in this event. This nice-looking
filly was ridden by jockey Imran Chisty. The bookmakers opened the odds
for this filly at 6-1, and in minutes it was backed down to 13-10 .It
was a stampede, as all and sundry wanted to climb onto this horse. She
went start to finish and was chased and finally seriously challenged
by Gampu in the final 300 metres of the race. Both the horses finally
finished on the extreme edge of the turf, with the favourite holding
on by half a length from Gampu.. Soon after, there was the siren indicating
an objection. The stewards heard the two jockeys and rightly decided
to uphold the objection. The results were altered accordingly. The bookmakers
were delighted.
The second big gamble on the day was in the sixth race of the day.
An unperformed 3-year old filly trained by Pradeep Annaiah, called Royal
Artist, was backed down to 11- 10 in the ring. Once again, there was
a huge hype about the chances of this filly. As soon as the race started,
jockey M Suresh settled the filly behind the early leaders Loremo, Touch
Me Honey and Windsor Square. It was apparent that the favourite was
travelling well at the bend as it was gaining on the leaders with each
stride. Three hundred metres to go and Royal Artist came on the wide
outside to lead the field. There was a wild cheer from her supporters.
In a trice everybody was silenced. The filly veered out very badly and
in no time was racing on the sand track. For the record, she finally
finished a tame fifth, behind the winner Windsor Square, who won her
second race back-to-back in the current season.
Golden Kiss in the hands of Jockey S Rajesh won her third race of the
season. While the odds of the pre-race favourite Rising Fame were going
up, there was fair support for the Suraj Narredu-ridden Splendid Glory.
Mint Royal led from the beginning and was overtaken by Splendid Glory
at the 200 metre marker. While the two of them were fighting it out,
Golden Kiss came on the outside and won with a measure of comfort. Rising
Fame dragged her rider into 4th place. Note this horse over a longer
trip and on a day when the right money comes on him.
Soul Music, Dom Perignon and Swiss Chocolate won their races in extremely
tight finishes. Trainer Md Sajid cornered glory while saddling two winners
during the afternoon.
