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| Often referred to as the Ladies Derby, The Calcutta Oaks, run on Sunday produced an expected winner in the form of Grand Madame. The bay filly by Razeen out of Averoff was ridden flawlessly by jockey B. Prakash for an easier-than-verdict victory over Colourful Lady. Keeping his mount in mid-division while stablemate Sensational Star set a cracking pace, Grand Madame smoothly took over the running after heads turned for home. Once his mount saw daylight, Prakash ensured that she stayed there with a couple of reminders. As for Colourful Lady, she had her chances but met a tartar on this occasion. Jockey Chris Hayes who rode Colourful Lady had earlier partnered the Bharath Singh duo of Galashiels and Sanqusar to facile triumphs. The former trounced the opposition in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy while the latter left the field standing in the B.K. Poddar Cup. The much-hyped Mischievous Rose was simply outclassed. That Prakash was in his element on this day was evident by the manner in which he rode Mustang Royal to victory in the Mysore Race Club Cup. Fighting Star tried to make it a start to finish affair but was collared close home by the top-weight on whom applied relentless pressure. Romantic Tactics continued his nonchalant demolition of the opposition when he won the D.L. Dorji Memorial Cup by a widening margin. He seems to be the Samurai Syndicate’s sharpest sword and his next stop is likely to be the Derby on February 28. Both divisions of the Vijay Sicka Memorial Cup were claimed by outsiders. The 10/1 shot Vignet made every post of the upper division a winning one with apprentice B. Srinivas Rao opening his account. Artillery was handled well by Mark Reuben but lost to a better animal on this occasion. The lower division saw Our Dragon show a clean pair of heels to the pair of fancied runners, Astro Boy and Aymaras. The favourite in the Calcutta Gold Cup was Regal Connection but he was never in it. Diabolical carried his crushing impost to a spectacular victory. The presence of trainer Vinayak at this centre was not enough to lift his two runners Aquilo and Priapus sufficiently to get the better of the runaway top-weight. The latter finished a creditable runner-up. Bath-trained Going Starry completed the afternoon’s formalities by winning The T.N. Banerjea Gold Cup. Trainer Daniel David ended the day with a lucrative quadruple for his patron MAM Ramaswamy. |
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