Spade of Ace continued his rampaging form and thumped Cornelia Supra in the last furlong to clinch the senior division of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Cup here on Tuesday. Trainer Magan Singh landed a fine treble with apprentice jockey Sameer Khan gained a double.

The Mohsin Khan-trained gelding, Spade of Ace, showed a powerful acceleration what generally a horse does not show while, tackling the contenders having high calibre. After winning a class three event, he took on the class one field bravely and the outcome made the racegoers keep their fingers crossed. Sitting up with the pace in the fifth place, he was not even alerted to the task till the horses ahead of him made the turn into the straight of seven furlong's contest. It was Cornelia Supra, who displaced the leaders to take up charge and before she tried to have a clear advantage, the gelding came at her with extraordinary strides to turn the table on her. The favourite Spot Hit showed a lack of preparation and that marred his performance finishing up poor fifth despite running close second behind the stablemate speedy customer El Dorado till the straight enough. 

"Earlier, We (owner) had a plan to run him in class II but seeing the handicap and suitable distance, we decided to let him run in the top class", Mohsin Khan, trainer, told me. "I was fully confident about his potential and Parwar digar (Allah) kept my head  aloft by making a division of two" he said. "Ever since he came into my charge, only this season I got a free hand to correct his shoulder problem and now he has been improving leaps and bounds", Mohsin added. "By the grace of Allah (God), he will continue to flourish until meets with defeat", the confident trainer said.

"I'm happy with the performance of Cornelia Supra, what one can expect much more than" magan singh, trainer, told me. "She has really been paying dividends as she has ever been on the board", Magan said. Just a race before, Gin and Tonic had brought cheers for the young Rajasthani lad Magan by annexing the lower division of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial cup and that through start-to-finish bid. The daughter of Celine Dion, a well known sprinter before becoming the broodmare, made the bottom weight of 46 kilograms much lighter than the carried one.

Champion sprinter of his golden era, the aged chestnut gelding was ridden with great confidence by jockey Faiz Ali Khan. But travelling widest of the field after coming from behind made the difference as the wire separated him by three-parts-of-a-length from Gin And Tonic. It is now very much understood with the age going by he has attained the staying power. The public fancied Golden Gun found the trip going against his nature finishing to be third.

Magan Singh-saddled Ganga Jal made the mockery of her companions by routing them mercilessly in the Bal Diwas Plate over six furlongs. She should be eyeing for an encore. Followed on the path of Gangajal, Sun Dancer earned his hard fought hat-trick by beating Silver Girl and Kerry Blue in a close call in the First Minister Plate earmarked for class III horses. The run of Kerry blue is best ignored. Silver Girl should make amends.

Divine Thunder proved his merit in the Chacha Nehru Plate. The gelding had all the reasons to sustain victory as he ran third behind Sun Dancer (who completed a hat-trick) and Quality Assurance (who is termed as a good performer) in his last outing.