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| Aboline |
Another performance that matched the feat of the brilliant three year old came from champion jockey Suraj Narredu. This gifted youngster showed why he is the "Champion". It is rare to see a professional score a hat-trick in three consecutive races. A four-in-four is almost unthinkable. He was fortunate that Dr Vijay Mallya's racing establishment had four there year olds running in consecutive races in the day's card. Arabian Prince, Six Shooter, Corbett and Chintz were his mounts from the powerful stables that have retained him in recent times. He had an armchair ride to victory on Six Shooter, but had to draw on all his reserves and judgement in the other three races.
Arabian Prince was lucky to find his nose in front in a photo that most predicted would go the other way. Leonardo had overtaken Arabian Prince and seemed to be travelling well ,before Suraj cajoled his mount to produce a final effort. In a bobbing of the heads, the "Prince" gave Suraj his first winner of the day. Six Shooter made it a quick double with his frontrunning effort in the next race.The others led by Spark Of Joy were no match to him. The Dhariwal stable was apparently confident of their charge, as they had slammed him down to on-money favouritism. He showed glimpses of the quality of his illustrious dam Six Speed. The third victory came astride Corbett. This horse had failed as a very short priced favourite at the beginning of the season, but the punters were ready to forget that performance. He was strongly supported again, and this time in the hands of Suraj, was able to retain his early advantage. Suraj rushed him to the front upon straightening for home, and drove him relentlessly thereafter to hold a belated challenge from Davenport. The last named is one of the better horses that have arrived from Hyderabad for the summer.
The fourth link was completed on expected lines, as Chintz looked outstanding in her event. The daughter of Littleover was opposed by the modestly bred Rashida. The latter recieved a fair bit of support, as she had worked brilliantly in her morning trials. Jockey Gnaneshwar was totally at sea on Rashida, as the two of them got knocked around and found themselves in a hopeless position as the heads turned for home. Suraj and Chintz moved smoothly through the middle , and to a standing ovation, returned victorious. Royal Bank and Pinaakini were able to save place money by pushing Rashida into fourth place.
The Dharamprakasha L S Veakaji Rao Memorial Cup, a class I handicap, saw Suraj trying to make it five for the day with favourite Salsera.The filly had good form, had worked well in recent times and was handicapped at the bottom of the scales. With all that going for her, Salsera had no answers to the vintage performance put up by Southern Charge. Wayne Smith was unable to keep in touch with his opponents, and Southern Charge was seen racing at the rear end of the field till well into the straight. The lead had been changing hands between Dare Don, Green Bax and Salsera. Just as Salsera was being hailed as the winner, Southern Charge was pulled towards the outer portion of the track. Padmanabhan's ward produced an amazing turn of foot and covered acres of ground before retiring as an easy winner of this race. Racegoers were talking in hushed tones about this performance, even till well after the last race of the day.
Frenchman R Breux finally won his first race in India.Neil Darashah offered him a golden opportunity by declaring him astride Social Climber. The winner of a maiden start, Social Climber was lucky to find herself in the lower division of a sprint race in class IV. Most people considered her to be a "moral certainty"in this race. She won accordingly, but not without a hiccup. Breux and Social Climber seemed to be in a spot of bother as they found themselves in the midst of a bunch of tiring horses . With hardly any place to move out, the Frenchman waited for an opportunity to extract his mount from this situation. The field opened up thereafter, and like any good horse, Social Climber seized the opportunity and sailed away from an older Gentleman's Glory and Gara Fluid.
The other highlight of the day's races was the great performance from the Kunigal Stud Farm. The horses bred from this farm recorded six winners in a row.(First six races) The Kunigal team has been doing a wonderful job and must be complimented on this feat.
