Royal Mysore, trained by Prasanna Kumar, won the Winfair247 Gaming Trophy, the feature event on the opening day of the Pune monsoon racing season. Royal Mysore was ridden by P Trevor who settled him on the inner rails before angling out after the final turn. The moment Trevor asked for an effort, the four-year-old accelerated in spectacular fashion to leave the field standing. This was the fifth straight win for the peripatetic Royal Mysore who has conquered Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, and now Pune, during his winning spree since January this year.
Jockey A Sandesh gave a copybook ride to the Dallas Todywalla-trained Spanish Eyes who won the Season Opener Plate with a measure of comfort. Sandesh ended the day with a double as he also rode Mother's Grace to victory for trainer Adhirajsingh to bag the lower division of the D K Ashish Trophy. Interestingly, the trainer also won the other division of the same race with Aperol (CS Jodha up), and emerged as star professional on Sunday with a grand treble---having already led in Malet Spring who sprang a suprise in the upper division of the Vibrant Plate in the hands of jockey Shrikant Kamble.
Jockey A Sandesh gave a copybook ride to the Dallas Todywalla-trained Spanish Eyes who won the Season Opener Plate with a measure of comfort. Sandesh ended the day with a double as he also rode Mother's Grace to victory for trainer Adhirajsingh to bag the lower division of the D K Ashish Trophy. Interestingly, the trainer also won the other division of the same race with Aperol (CS Jodha up), and emerged as star professional on Sunday with a grand treble---having already led in Malet Spring who sprang a suprise in the upper division of the Vibrant Plate in the hands of jockey Shrikant Kamble.
Adding to the success of Spanish Eyes, Dallas Todywalla too saddled two more winners to share the professional honours for the day with Adhirajsingh: The upper division of the Elegance Plate was decisively won by his five-year-old mare Champagne Smile (N Bhosale up), and Portofino Bay won the Columbia Plate in the hands of jockey Akshay Kumar.
In the lower division of the Vibrant Plate, jockey NS Parmar saved the day for the MK Jadhav-trained Turn And Burn. The three-year-old veered out erratically after the jump, but Parmar cajoled him to gradually get going, and timed his challenge to perfection, beating the runaway leader House Of Lords (N Bhosale up) virtually in the final stride.
Deja Vu
The monsoon season began with a sense of Deja Vu for trainer Narendra Lagad and a group of horse owners from his yard who own Zip Along. Exactly like last Pune season (2023), the chestnut mare replicated her feat of winning the opening race of the Pune season when she overpowered Moment Of Madness (H Gore up) in the final 100m of the lower division of the Elegance Plate. Mustakim Alam rode Zip Along.
Credits : mid-day
