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Shehzad, who has brought in Tom to ride for him, has been having one of the best seasons of his career. Shehzad led a brace while Tom was one step ahead, pulling out a great win for Prasad Raju. Shehzad’s second win was on Aloisia in the Raja Sitharam Bhupal of Domakonda Samasthan Memorial Cup. This race for three year-olds turned out to be a thriller with Tom showing his prowess once again. Aloisia who was backed down to the exclusion of the other runners after his runaway performance on debut, was in second, passing the 1,000 metres but lost position when the other runners began to crowd up. Star Prospect found himself in front while Guiding Light began to essay a challenge, passing the distance post. By then, Aloisia had improved position and Tom had started to make his move in between the two front-runners and in a split second decided to take the rails run instead as Star Prospect had started to veer out under pressure. With another splendid show of jockeyship, Tom brought Aloisia to get the better in a three-way finish. Guiding Light finished second pushing Star Prospect to third.
Prasad Raju’s Dancing Touch literarily grabbed the Umraolal Gupta Memorial Cup, in the shadow of the winning post. This race, run over five furlongs for horses in the highest category, turned out to be a handicapper’s delight with the first five horses covered within a length and a quarter. The weight probably was a stopper for Above The Line, who otherwise put in a grand show, only to surrender to Dancing Touch at the finish. One in All, Sprucespringstein and Raj Veer finished in a cluster in that order.
Prasad had earlier led in Royal Scotsman in The Dark Angel Plate. Imran Khan on Royal Scotsman bided his time, racing fourth behind Tiara, Shes Got the Luck and Royal Bay till the last 250 metres and, when he shifted gears, Royal Scotsman drew away from the pack to score a nine length victory. Canadian Girl moved in late to snatch the runner-up berth from Royal Bay.
Imran had a treble on the day to go clear in the jockey’s tally. The other two wins were in the opening and concluding races of the day, the two divisions of the Eagle Eye Plate. Imran rode Radical Player to victory for the home stable in the opener. After letting Scorcher do the front-running till the top of the straight, Radical Player surged ahead and won comfortably. Vintage Dancer finished second while the favourite, Jingles who preferred to run last till the last 500 metres finished a neck behind third even after taking the final turn almost seven horses wide.
Yours Mine N Ours had an easy going in the concluding race winning by four lengths from Arsham. Madho finished third after a forward run.
Zulima, with a swift move in the last 200 metres, won the Ch.V.Lakshmi Prasad Rao Memorial Cup. The favourite, Kohinoor Delight who finished second, beating Silver Rose lodged an objection against the winner for coming in sharply in the last 200 metres. The objection which lacked character and could be well-termed as frivolous was rightly overruled by the stewards.
The Higher division of the Members Cup was won by Man of Fire who appeared from nowhere to steer clear in the last 50 metres. Easy Touch with a late run finished second ahead of Kohinoor Diamond and Star Spellbound.
Onera Onera Onera got the better of Southern Spice to claim the lower division Baywatch Babe ended up third.
While Tom Mclaughlin and Imran Khan scored a treble, Trainers Shehzad Abbas and Prasad Raju won a brace each.
