|
Quietly fancied Witness from Bharath Singh’s yard proved to be a thunderbolt in the mile race for the Zanibar Handicap. After allowing Betelgeuse to call the shots till the bend, lightweight Dashrath Singh extracted a winning gallop out of him. Fancied runners, Happy Memories and India Jones were utter flops.
C. Alford completed his double with Pesi Shroff-trained Extraordinaire in the upper division of the Chianti Cup. The gelding quite easily collared front-running Malikah. The rage of the ring, Kuhaylan, finished an unimpressive fourth but will be better for this run. While Malikah’s run was disappointing to say the least, both Focus and Ashwa Gamini finished on extremely powerfully occupying the minor placings. Favourite Rithambra bolted and had to be withdrawn from the lower division of the Chianti Cup. This made things that much easier for Crush On You as there was none left from her age group to match strides with. It was left to aged Waterwood to set the pace. The winner with A Imran Khan astride quite easily collared the front-runner in the straight.
The presence of Vinayak in the paddock made Chios the centre-of-focus in the race for the Royal Challenge Handicap. Though the six furlong trip was a tad sharp for her, she managed to come from behind and win the sprint in the hands of C. Ruzaan quite easily. Thundering Hooves closed as the favourite but he was no match for the property of the Dhunjibhoys. Despite taking the bend five wide, Chios won the race quite comfortably.
The day’s final race, The Wind Song Handicap, was the most disappointing one for the followers of money. Vijay Singh’s Washington Irvine was being tipped by most seasoned punters as a ‘good thing’. The three-year-old colt by Razeen out of Magic Fountain was in fact being rated as a ‘Derbycandidate’ before the race. He ran so poorly that he will be lucky if he sees the starting stalls of the major classic. He failed to collar front-running Aquaglow while recent winner Local Warrior produced an encore while conceding almost 6kg to the favourite. Barring this trio, there was none in the race whose performance was noteworthy.
