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Credit Swap, not too surprisingly, was the second on-money Alford mount to go down. His performance rating thus far has been nothing to write home about and the top-weight failed to match strides with the front-running Must Be Magic. It was left to the well-performed Regal Bearing to issue a serious challenge to the Daniel David ward but Imran’s hard riding fetched the honours.
The rider, donning the brown and gold silks for the MAM yard, rode a similar sort of race astride Burst of Speed in the very next race, the Zifi Handicap. The filly’s got a big heart and she did not disappoint her backers. Arctic Force was coming back after a long lay-off and that probably did him in.
The last two races saw outsiders to the fore. Vijay Singh-trained Romantic Concept was extremely well prepared by none other than apprentice Ajoy Roy and the lad rode him confidently over the mile trip. This full brother to Conceptual (who is known to be an extremely reliable stayer) lapped up the mile trip in his maiden start. He collared the runaway Highland Magic before kicking clear of the favourite Flamingo Fantasy.
Last, but not the least, was a superb gamble from the Richard Alford yard. The speedy forward filly Successful was prepared over the last couple of months for this calculated gamble. The filly was backed down from 10/1 to 7/2. As she is wont to do, front-running Easter Lily drifted out, leaving the rails clear for Surjeet Singh to make his move astride the eventual winner. Surjeet however was given a scare by Imran Khan on Legendary Emperor but he pulled out all stops to bring home the bacon.
