Calcutta: The sound of hooves were back at RCTC tracks, on Saturday, albeit a trifle late as the opening day's programme was cancelled due to paucity of entries for the November 5 races.
Four clear favourites obliged on the day, with the feature event The RWITC Cup for horses in the highest class over 1100m won by the Chennai import, Anastasia (Trevor Patel-up). The Deepesh Narredu trained four year old filly won in an emphatic manner from Hidden Gold (Neeraj Rawal) while Full Volume (P.Tajeshwar) placed third. More races are in store of the winner, a Multidimensional filly.
The day, however, belonged to Patrick Quinn and P. S. Chouhan who combined for a well priced double through Compliance and Dream Chaser – respectively winning the opening event and concluding events. The Ardelis Handicap for horses in the lowest class saw Compliance being backed down from 5/2 to 13/10. Sitting in box seat till turning for home Compliance collared the leader Lion Queen and went on to score from the late finishing Beautiful, who clearly needed this run. The Chennai migrant Salvador finished a late third.
The Sangfroid Handicap for horses rated 41-66 saw two the 1000 Guineas hopefuls take on each other. However, it was trainer Neil Darashah’s Queenstown (Neeraj Rawal) who garnered maximum support over the Hyderabad challenger Arabian Queen (P.Trevor) despite giving weight winner, scored easily with her rider using hand and heels only. Whistle blower was brought with a late surge to finish third.
With the withdrawal of Stormwatch on veterinary grounds, the 1,600m Relevance Handicap, the race was at the mercy of Aashay Doctor trained Harvestime (Y.S.Srinath). The horse justified his short odds to win from the stalemate Roka (P.Tejeshwar). The top-weighted Mandolin finished third.
The Serendine Handicap for horses rated 61-86 saw Arti Doctor trained Third Avenue (P. Tejeshwar) notching up his fifth win from seven career starts despite appearing on the race track after nearly eight months. Content to sit fourth of five runners as Livisilla led by a couple of lengths from Galen with Circle Of Love further three lengths behind. Turning for home Galen took over the running with Third Avenue challenging on the outside while Circle Of Love tried to slip through the rails only to find the gap being closed at a crucial juncture. But jockey Tejeshwar drove the four-year-old Third Avenue past a tiring Galen. However, trainer Shyam Habbu’s Basharat who was sluggish at the start covered enormous ground to get the measure of Galen to finish second.
The concluding event saw the odds on Dream Chaser drift out from 3/1 to 8/1 as money came pouring on Vijay Singh's trained Island Lass (Hindu Singh). Bread N Butter (Md. Islam), Jinsuko and Battle Ready were the early leaders in the race as Island Lass looked rusty in movement most of the way. In the stretch run, Bread N Butter kept going well with none of those in pursuit making any impression, the stage was set for Chauhan to bring Dream Chaser with a strong gallop to collar and beat the long time leader in the last 50m of the race. Jinsoku finished third but it will pay to follow Bread N Butter.
Monday, 06 May 2024