The November 24, the fourth day of the autumn meeting at the RCTC race ground, witnessed favourites falling like nine pins, leaving punters with gaping holes in their pockets. The wrecker in chief, on the fateful Thursday, turned out to be a momentous occasion for the small time jockey R.Vaibhav, who recently migrated to the City of Joy from South India. He had his cup of joy all filled to the brim. In his 14 years of horse riding career, Vaibhav had never scored a treble, leave alone a priced one.
It all started from the very start, the curtain-raiser, when Bharath Singh trained Eagles Flight, a 10/1 shot in the Pentire Handicap. Vaibhav sent the four year old filly on a start to finish mission, over the 1100m sprint. The filly held on to her lead gamely despite drifting out badly in the home-stretch. In the same race, the favourite Tres Bien (Imran Chisty) found the trip a bit sharp.
Multistarrer provided Vaibhav his second winner. In fact, the Rutherford Alford-trained horse turned out to a real shocker in the upper division of Hartnell Handicap -- a no whip race over 1200 meters. The seven year old showed sparkling acceleration from the rear of the field to sweep past the battling B.R.Reddy pair of Fresh Hope (B.R.Kumar) and Flamingo Road (Uday Kiran), and thus presenting Rutherford his first of the two winners on the day.
Vaibhav, packed up for the with another sensational victory of Bharath’s Norwegian Wood over the on-money favourite, Mysteriousstranger (A.Sandesh)1,600m Colonial Handicap. Norwegian Wood was taken to a start-to-finish mission and lasted out to beat the favourite by a neck.
Early in the afternoon, trainer Rutherford Alford’s Xtravagant Star had claimed the Allodium Handicap in the trusted hands of Imran Chisty who was seen at his best astride the long shot. In fact, the ground was taiore-made for Chisty after Sandesh had the course favourite, My Princess, kept far too back in the early stages. My Princess did covered the ground gamely to but fell short by a ‘neck’ at the all-important end.
Suraj Narredu was seen at his best while guiding brother Rajesh’s Australia narrowly to victory over the last start winner All Time Legend (Chisty), in the Aeronative Handicap.
The feature event of the day, the Delhi Race Club Cup, over 1600 meters, witnessed a close finish. It was Patrick Quinn’s Chopin (A.Sandesh-up) who just about managed to hold on to win from the fast finishing Stockbridge (B.R.Kumar) and Golden Warrior (P.S.Kaviraj) faded out after leading till distance post.
Trainer B.Mahesh’s consistent Marcolini (P.S.Kaviraj-up), claimed the lower division of the Hartnell Handicap, a no whip race, from Amalfitana, Artemis Zelda and Elite finishing in a cluster. Favourite Menjou’s Moustache, in the race, was withdrawn at the gates.
Notable Runners
Star Impact, Artemis Zelda, My Princess, Sea Eagle and Mysterious Stranger.