Bollywood Star Urmila Matondkar, looking elegant and graceful, charmed the racegoers at the Pune Race Course on Sunday. "Urmila was gracious enough to accept our invitation and grace the occasion of the running of the Funtacy Ice Creams Juvenile Stakes here," said a beaming Capt. Appoo, Chairman, Fun Creaam Foods (India) Ltd., sponsor of the above race. "She has specially driven down from Mumbai for us and we can’t thank her enough for her gesture!"
The petite Urmila Matondkar, was style personified, wearing a canary yellow dress combined with elegant accessories. She looked absolutely at home on her first appearance at the racecourse. "Hello everyone and a happy Dussera to all," she crooned into the mike in chaste Marathi.
The race itself was as interesting though a small field of five faced the starter. Yana cornered most of the support while Sterne Royale and Star Flight were next in demand. Sterne Royale set the pace followed by Star Flight with Yana and Green Valley close behind; Destined Prince was in the rear. Yana (Dashrath Singh) - half sister to Indian Derby winner Starsky, sprang up on to the front-running Sterne Royale midway up the straight and finished with a flourish. This run augurs well for the filly for her Mumbai campaign. Sterne Royale held on to the second spot followed by Star Flight, Green Valley and Destined Prince.
The day's start saw Snow Ranger receiving heavy support in the ring despite the fact that he was on his first outing on the Pune track. The colt from Bangalore, however, failed to raise a fluent gallop and looked beat even before the bend. Blazing Speed lived up to his name and won untroubled from the word go. Cosmic Flower and Capriani both finished on well to bag the second and third places respectively, while the favourite Snow Ranger ended a dismal fourth.
The top-weighted Legendary (YS Srinath), on the contrary, looked formidable and justified the faith of his followers. Racing in box seat early on, jockey Srinath rode a confident race and waited even as Palermo (C Rajendra) inched alongside. Into the straight, Legendary responded well and surged ahead clear of the field to register a comfortable victory. Stud Of Gold ran a good third.
It was observed that jockey Rajendra dismounted Palermo and walked all the way back from the track. Prem Master was found to have broken a blood vessel.
Young Jockey Kishore Kadam rode a peach of a race on Royal Flash in the third race. Sitting sixth in a field of 9, Kishore stayed put, hugging the rails all through stubbornly waiting for the vantage rail run. His patience paid off and he seized the initiative surging ahead early in the straight. World War Three and Totalitarian didn’t help their cause by shifting wide out and had to be content to be second and third respectively. Nanjing disappointed.
In the fifth race, Call to Arms (DK Ashish) took early charge and enjoyed a handy lead as they turned for home. Pepe Junior had to make a lot of ground and also had to skirt around horses thus going wide in the straight. He, however, was the fastest moving horse and the winning post came a bit too soon. Pepe Junior is one for the note books. King’s Desire finished a decent third.
Medtias Pride, Game Of Power and Golden Flowers vied for the lead and ran close to each other in the sixth race with the first named enjoying a slight advantage, as the heads turned for home. Medtias Pride was soon challenged and passed by Golden Flowers with Game Of Power also putting in a fight. The final furlong proved decisive in favour of Golden Flowers, Medtias Pride held on to second spot and Game Of Power ended a good fighting third.
Three horses were withdrawn at the gates in this race. Classic Dream was found to have bleeding abrasions on both his fore legs; Vicereen got stuck in the gates and was withdrawn as a precautionary measure, while ST Moritz arrived at the gates with a sore right fore.
In the last race, Fire N Desire hit the front closely followed by Penny, Home To Home and Black Warrior. As they turned for home, Fire N Desire led briefly but was overpowered by Balck Warrior who got the rail run. Try Your Luck came to challenge on the outside. Black Warrrior warded off the stiff challenge from Try Our Luck and Fire N Desire. With the trio battling for top honours, Home To Home had to be content with a place on the frame, but one must notice the good effort by Timeless Majesty who came from a long way back to be fifth - in close distance to the finishers.
