Lotus Pond Wins a Cliff-hanger
By Pearcey

Mysore, June 3. 2009

A small card of six events was gone through in quick time on Wednesday afternoon at Mysore. Although the fields were packed, the quality of racing was extremely mediocre.  The lone trophy event of the day was the RWITC Ltd Trophy, a terms race for Indian horses, three years old only. Winners of an earlier race could carry the statutory penalty and participate in this event. With the withdrawal of Aqua Gladitor, only ten maidens reached the starting gates. Theworldismine was an overwhelming favourite to win this race. This horse had run a blinder in his maiden start, and finished close behind the winner. The stable was overconfident of his chances and his connections were brave enough to entrust him to a rookie called Ravi. The boy was a five kilo claimer before losing the allowance to his advancing age. The whole exercise was done to get a better price with the bookmakers. The turf accountants were equally clever, as they offered a measly 90/100 on the favourite. Second-in-demand Lotus Pond had done some excellent track work, based on which the Juniper filly was quoted at four to one.
 
The race was run at a decent pace with Rich Rouge showing the way to Lotus Pond and Theworldismine. The rest of the runners were outpaced from the beginning and dropped out of contention. They entered the straight in more or less the same order, before Rich Rouge shortened his strides and faded away from the scene. Lotus Pond seized the advantage, and tried to run away from the favourite. Theworldismine was caught wide all the way, and it took a while for Ravi to get him on an even keel. After a keenly fought battle throughout the length of the straight, Lotus Pond was able to keep his nose in front of his challenger. He won by a proverbial whisker at the end. It was evident to all concerned that the favourite could have won this race, but only with better assistance in the saddle. Many stables try to get better odds by declaring lesser known jockeys, but rue their decisions at the end of the day. Wednesday's feature was another example of this phenomenon. Lotus Pond was ridden by B Mahesh for trainer Monappa. Theworldismine was a good thing getting beat today, and should be supported again in the future.
 
Rakesh-trained Magical Spirit showed a clean pair of heels to her rivals in a seven furlong race for horses in class II. With this performance, the seven-year old won the third consecutive start of the season. She started in class IV, and after today's performance, should find herself in the highest class. A friendless Magical Spirit galloped kindly for Paswan, and showed amazing acceleration in the straight while winning today's race. She was eased up much before the winning post to win from Sandokan, Lyra and War Head. She is capable of making it four in a row.
 
Jockey Gnaneshwar rode three winners during the afternoon, and all three victories were achieved in tight finishes. Two of them hailed from Darashah's stable while the third one was trained by Monappa. He started the day with Artic Princess. She had been knocking on the door for a long while, but had always found someone better in her recent efforts. Today's start to finish style culminated in a narrow win ahead of a late finishing Khushi. The second win astride Monappa's Always For you was also gained in identical fashion. He was racing alongside Pat On The Back for most of the way, before gaining the upper hand in the closing stages of the race. Suryarath was a heavily whipped third. He closed the day's card with Pal Joey. He assumed control in the straight, and had to use all his skills to keep Cruise Control at bay. The latter began to gallop when the race was almost over. He should win before long. Royal Liason was able to hold onto third place ahead of a disinterested Serious Warrior.
 
An improved performance from Chocolate Brownie saw this horse winning the fourth race of his short career. He had won all three starts during the Mysore main season before running a faraway fourth in his only start this year. He had obviously benefited a great deal from that effort, as he came with a fluent gallop and cruised past the front-running Kandiate. Chocolate Brownie has shown his penchant for longer trips, and this should be of great advantage to him in the long distance races slotted in the higher classes.



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