Calcutta: Wednesday, was the first of the four double-day fixtures during the last leg of the winter season. Three more such programme follows as the season heads towards the closure, on April 12. The fact that RCTC has done an excellent job with a limited numbers of horses stabled at the beginning of the cold weather season, the additional lots, the new arrivals and purchases, have continued to add credence to competitions.
A cursory glance at most of the recent fixtures gives indication of cosmopolitan fields, in view of imports from various turf centers, mainly because of past ‘Covid’ months. Situation, however, is bound to improve in the coming months as a new breed of horse-owners is taking some interest in the sport. It is now the responsibility of the turf club to do the needful to attract more such investors.
Of late, among the lesser mortals like trainers Patrick Quinn, Vikash Jaiswal and Suraj Shaw, for instance, have been ruling the roost. It, therefore, hardly came as a surprise when Wednesday’s six-event card witnessed the likes of them, saddling winners.
Quinn, for instance, lead in two public choice to the winners’ enclosure and Shaw, too saddled a brace of wins while Jaiswal packed up with a solitary success, his regular quota.
Quinn’s day started with the victory of his recent purchase, Shai, late Hunar (P.S. Chauhan-up), in the 1,600m Prince Royal Cup. The four-year-old horse won from the start to take an easy measure of the top-weighted runners – Asterix (Sujit Paswan) and Algoze (R.S. Bhati). Make a note of the last named horse who was impressive in defeat.
Chauhan, again, combined with Quinn in the concluding event, the 2,000m Arisen Handicap that, too was an easy pick for the trainer-jockey combo’s 5/4 favourite Dubai Gold. Chauhan allowed Jaiswal’s Thar (app Hasib Alam) to call the shots till about 600m from the post and the victory was ensured over his stable-mate, Dubai Star (Sujit), a long-shot.
Riding a well-judged race on the speedy, Weronika, jockey Akshay Kumar not only delivered the good in for Shaw, in the 1,200m Gurkirpal Handicap, he also demonstrated the art of controlling the pace up-front to made the victory look a formality.
Jaiswal, on the other hand, trusted the Delhi-based Akash Rajput, to partner Morning Star, a 9/2 shot in the 1,200m Oriana Handicap. The champion rider though was hard-pressed to beat the long-time leader, Timur’s Choice (Bhati) and Dr Doom (Paswan) but the verdict being a decisive ‘neck’ victory, Rajput had reason to celebrate, and also had a valid reason to make regular trips to the city of joy.
Akshay, atop Lion Queen, also helped Shaw to notch-up the curtain raiser, the 1,100m Vibrant Handicap. It was run of the mill victory and so was trainer Imtiaz Sait’s top-weighted runner Sinner, an even-money favourite, in the curtain raiser, the 1,400m Ramkirpal Handicap. Both horses are capable of winning again.