An in-form Dedication proved to be too good in the Champion Sprinters Cup on Tuesday, the first major event of the on-going Delhi racing season. The victory of the dark bay horse was beyond expectations considering the fact that his strides better suit the mile.
In the field of nine, he sat eighth till the half way mark and improved a little before turning into the homestretch. With a furlong to go, Hope Springs, the then leader, was looking almost all set to pocket the feature before Dedication raised a fluent gallop from the outer-grass to canter away from the distance post. A chestnut gelding, Taurian, made a late dash from the fifth place but was unable to push Hope Springs back from the runner-up slot by a head.
Dedication, who hails from the yard of Ishwar Singh Parmar, had his last victory over the mile last week in an impressive manner and was considered the next best after the 1,200 metres’ track-record-holder Degas. Champion jockey K Narender never allowed the horse to rest by urging and goading him beyond the prescribed limit of eight times under which only the victory was made possible. On terms, yet another victory should come to the way of Dedication better over his past distance.
Yesteryear champion Rajinder was in the saddle of Hope Springs. He could have run closer to the winner if he had not charged the Steinbeck and Flower-of-the-forest's son too early. The distance was also not favourable to Hope Springs, who was the runner-up in the North India Derby. The seven-year-old Taurian, the son of Exclaibur's Lake and Always Above, and the last year Champion Sprinter, was looking as good as was in his prime time of life.
However, the talk of the day was the debacle of Degas, who was in to complete a hat-trick. He started off quickly but found Julia breathe down his neck till they crossed the top of the corner. Hardly, the former went for a clear lead, Hope Springs put up a sustain run and forced him to yield. The favourite gelding, who had earlier measured the sprints distance within under one minute and 11 seconds, could not find better place than to finish fourth by stopping the watch at 1:13.70 seconds.
Degas, whose try-out along with Image To Remember was not satisfactory before bouncing back on Sunday by clocking 24 seconds over the last two furlongs, ran nowhere even to the track performance. Conceding the weight to the counterparts and not allowing to lead with a clear margin may be the two reasons of his setback. He is expected to be in different shape in the next venture.
The day began with a close finish between Superba and Summer Sizzler, the former excelled under the ongoing champion jockey Rajinder Saini as the latter just failed to foil the start-to-finish bid of the former over the seven furlongs' Golden Ascot Plate. The victory brings Saini his tenth win with the facility of carrying the whip.
Striving Higher followed the suit of Superba making every post a winning one in the upper division of the William Wallace Plate. The gelding, who carried 61.5 kilos, never found the weight a stopper even though a filly Grace, a lighter than nine kilos to the eventual winner, tried hard to turn the table over him. Grace, who was kept on a slow work, should come up a lot in the next outing.
Jockey Syed Afsar Shah displayed a brilliant piece of riding on Oriental Speed in the lower division of the William wallace Plate. A three-part-of-a-length verdict favoured his mount to tame Tokaido, who was heavier by eight-and-a-half kilograms. The duo ran side-by-side in the straight and Oriental Speed was hanging in with Tokaido slipping through the fence. Shah had to work hard to prevent his mount from hampering the way of Tokaido. Oriental Speed, who is half brother to Hope Springs, can be followed up to the mile.
Triple Crown became the third horse of the day to emerge victorious in a pillar-to-post affair. Apprentice jockey and younger brother of K Narender Kumar - K Sunny Kumar rode the winner splendidly. Triple Crown, whose knee problem had forced the connections to keep him on slow work, bolted out first of the gate but was at once sending out a distress signal as Dream Debut started sharing the top honours before the distance post. On push, the gelding ran green but somehow Sunny managed to help him land spoilsport. Barchetta was summoned late from the seventh position to finish late third.
Saini, once again showed his prowess on Majestic Moment in the concluding event - the Diamond Lad Plate over 1,200m. The four-year-old gelding once again lost the valuable ground at the start but Saini did not lose his heart as he was very much familiar about the habit of the horse. He did exactly what the horse demanded, the duo took 600 metres to come from tenth to eighth place and the last 300 m saw them on victorious lap. Last N Impression, who finished second, has a scope to improve.
