After ducking and fly-jumping at the start of the mile race, Oasis Knight came out of his berth five lengths behind the rest of the field. That can happen to the best of horses and it is up to an experienced jockey to ride according to the demands of the situation. What happened next was shocking to say the least. Instead of biding his time and gradually improving his position, Alford quickly covered the leeway and shot his mount into a three-length lead within the space of a furlong. Perhaps, he was under the warped impression that it was a 600 metres race instead of 1600! Or could it be some other more sinister reason? Had the reins been in the hands of an apprentice rider, his hurry-scurry scheme would have been understandable. In the hands of a champion jockey, it’s unforgivable.
|
The Wiseman Cup was a more open affair with several horses finding support from their different camps. At the distance post, four of the six runners were going hammer and tongs in a straight line. The aged Bath-trained Midnight Coup eventually pulled away with the favourite Thundering Hooves coming at him all guns blazing. That’s the way it finished with Cameo a game third.
The Navy Cup was annexed by the afternoon’s biggest outsider – Supreme Attraction, atop whom young apprentice JS Gowli showed a great deal of maturity. Owned and trained by his uncle Robert Gowli, Supreme Attraction had crept down the scale sufficiently to catch all and sundry unaware. Secret Gallop was a creditable runner-up while the favourite Southern Angel may have found the penalty of 7 kg for her last win too much to handle.
Taking a leaf out of his colleague’s book was apprentice Akshay Sundaram in the upper division of the INS Hooghly Cup. He was atop Vijay Singh-trained Accapella and managed to take the filly to the front at the top of the straight. Soon he was locked in a keen tussle with Manege. The young lad had to fight tooth and nail to keep the race by a short-head.
The lower division of the same race was picked up by the sole favourite to oblige during the day – King Of Dance. The Daniel David-trained horse was Imran Khan’s first winning mount of the afternoon and he won by a widening margin of seven lengths. The David-Imran Khan duo completed a well-deserved double when Celtic Charm was brilliantly piloted to land the spoils in the Beat The Distance Handicap. The top-weight was covered up till the top of the straight and then shot through along the rails. Adriano was a game second and may have found the trip too sharp for his liking.
It was a case of morning showing the day as neglected India Jones from Deepak Karki’s yard raised a rare gallop in the straight and got the better of Mirror Image and Simply Perfect to bag the afternoon’s opening event, The Our Owen Handicap. D. Ashish, who rode the winner, narrowly missed a double as Manege succumbed by the proverbial whisker in the day’s final event.
