Calcutta: Thrills, surprises and successful gambles marked an exciting afternoon of racing at the Royal Calcutta Turf Club race ground on Thursday. The highlight came in the mile race for the Mysore Race Club Cup, where the 10/1 shot Ruling Star stunned the crowd.
The Sabeel Shariff-trained Ruling Star produced a fighting performance to edge out the fast-finishing favourite Charismatic (Suraj Narredu). Jockey Vishal Bunde on Ruling Star, set a scorching pace from the start and refused to yield. As Charismatic charged menacingly in the final furlong, Bunde kept his mount going resolutely and just held on at the wire.
The victory completed a remarkable hat-trick for Ruling Star, whose three wins have come under three different trainers — Deepesh Narredu, B. R. Reddy, and now Sabeel Shariff.
Despite the setback in the feature, Suraj Narredu thrilled his supporters with a stylish treble. He struck first aboard Neil Darashah-trained Surprise Fantasy. The piping-hot favourite made every yard of the 1,100m Whomakestherules Handicap his own.
Suraj followed it up with another polished ride on Togo, who swept past the favourite Cigar Galaxy (Trevor Patel), in the 1,600m Abbeville Handicap. Cigar Galaxy, who was ridden off the pace this time, could only finish second.
Suraj completed his treble in the concluding event when he guided Sabeel Shariff-trained Cash N Run to a comfortable victory in the Mr Gorgeous Handicap. Make a note of Trillionaire.
Earlier, the afternoon opened with last-start failed favourite Moneycatcher recouping losses. The Shafiq Khan-trained runner was given a perfect ride by M. S. Deora to land the 1,400m Fly Like The Wind Handicap.
Later, in the 1,600m Quasar Handicap, trainer V. Ajith Kumar’s Track Striking, ridden by R. Vaibhav, who was backed down from 10/1 to 3/1, easily overhauled favourite Dubai Prince in the final furlong. The win provided trainer V. Ajith Kumar with his first winner at the centre.
In the last couple of weeks, trainer Rutherford Alford has been producing winners at longer odds. One such runner turned out to be Mi Arion, ridden by Vinod Shinde, who made every post a winning one in the upper division of the Whomakestherules Handicap, favourite Cashable (Suraj) found the penalty for last victory tough to handle.