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Bath-trained Desert Dust collared front-running Bountiful Talent at the distance post and appeared to have the race in the bag. Realising that the favourite Colourful Lady did not have the requisite acceleration to sail past Bath’s ward, Mahesh displayed a great piece of opportunism to land the spoils.
The day commenced with Bharath Singh-trained Swiss King putting his best foot forward in the lower division of the Dorania Handicap. Able apprentice Sk Israil was unperturbed by favourite Chitrita threatening to put the issue beyond doubt at the top of the straight. He switched Swiss King to the outside and the ‘King’ lived up to his name. The Brown Wolf Cup saw both Christopher Alford and Md Islam declaring overweight of 2kg. Islam and Portpatrick decided to call the shots in this 1800 metres race. Vinay Jaiswal on Vijay Singh-trained Romantic Quest took over the running from Bharath’s ward in the straight and was travelling well enough to suggest he may come good. However, the mare drifted to the outer rails under pressure and Christopher Alford atop the on-money favourite Absolutely Royal hugged the rails to bring home the bacon.
A Calcutta raceday is not complete unless C. Alford completes a double and the champion jockey obliged his innumerable fans with a calculated victory astride Aymaras in the upper division of the Dorania Handicap. There was considerable betting on eight-year-old Waterwood which resulted in the odds of the favourite expanding to 5/2. The aged warhorse galloped resolutely as the gates opened for this 1000 metres scurry but had no answer to Alford’s bid for victory as he squeezed a passage between the front-runner and the rails. The other fancied runner, Bossy Boss, failed to match strides with Waterwood an drifted out in the straight.
Though Vijay Singh completed a deserving double with Absolutely Royal and Aymaras, two of his runners turned out to be ‘false’ favourites as they had no current form to suggest that they could carry their top-weight to victory. Neither were they blazing the track. They were Andeana in the Ballet Master Handicap and Ballantyne in the last race of the day, The Sunbird Handicap.
Fortunately for ‘favourite’ followers, Andeana was withdrawn after she threw jockey Gurung in the stalls. The rider had to be stretchered off. Super Flash thus closed as the favourite and he delivered the goods in no uncertain terms. A. Imran Khan rode the sprinter with aplomb and pegged back his nearest challenger Art of War without any problem whatsoever.
Backers of the on-money Ballantyne were however not so fortunate. As was expected, the colt ran like a dud and finished in mid-division. Here, jockey Rajinder atop the 5/1 shot Alamgir showed a great piece of opportunism to find an opening along the rails after a tardy beginning. Sephora it was the first to see daylight in the straight but the mare is known to have a very short burst of speed and that was her undoing. Rajinder egged on Alamgir to a brilliant victory.
Trainer Richard Alford’s She’s Superb seems to have found her running shoes this season. She made a start-to-finish affair of the Dangerous Romance Handicap. In her current impressive form, she is likely to reach the highest class very soon. Saarah Alam finshed a creditable second and will be worth keeping an eye on.
