Legends of the Googly - Part 2
A review of the races run on 14th September.
By Shiven Surendranath
14th September saw a track that had firmed up a bit with the penetrometer displaying a reading of 5.6 and one might have been fooled into believing that it would perform a little better. On the face of it, it did, but it took curious turn of events for that to happen.
Backstreet Bay, the favourite in the 1st, sat second behind Light Of Arabia for most of the race and went clear on entering the straight. It seemed that trainer Adil Dajee had bowled a straight forward ball as indeed he had but a “googly” had still been secretly bowled and surprisingly it was none other than jockey Sandesh who was the bowler.
Sandesh sat back on Alectar, the 2nd favourite, as if his saddle was a plush sofa and his horse a comfortable suite at the old wing of the Taj Mahal hotel. One could almost imagine him looking around to see if someone would help him light his cigar and bring him a glass of his favourite red wine as he rested his head back and let his steed stride beneath him on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
The unfortunate shouting and the screaming from the rail birds must have woken the champion up from his reverie as was evident by his decision to finally begin riding Alectar at 400. But it was a case of too little too late and Alectar could only finish a flying 2nd.
Sandesh’s laid back style of bowling the “googly” was unique to the extent that not a single bowler in the history of the game has been known to bowl one with such lazy elegance.
Greek God was too good for the four other horses in the 2nd and it was a no contest from the minute the race card was printed. Trainer Dallas Todywalla may have many talents outside the world of horse racing but cricket clearly is not his forte and he is no “googly’ bowler.
Greek God allowed the field to run with him till the bend, and then clearly bored of being held back he ran away from the rest to win by nearly a distance.
Greek God has been kept in good nick right through the Mumbai and Pune seasons by his trainer and full marks to him for keeping this champion going.
After two straighter ones in a row one could feel that things could take a turn for the worse any moment now and Flying Trigger in the 3rd made those fears come true.
The bookmakers, clearly not happy with favourites winning asked for the ball and bowled a “googly” that turned at a right angle when they opened Flying Trigger at 16/10.
Blackbean led Rising Wave into the straight with Flying Trigger showing no early speed and struggling to even stay 4th or 5th. Past the 400 Rising Wave gobbled up Blackbean and charged to the front. Zambian and Lex Luthor too decided to throw down their respective gauntlets. In a close finish Lex Luthor edged out Zambian to clinch it.
So effective was the bookies “googly” on Flying Tirgger that with a timing of 1:04.92 seconds this favourite would not have finished 1-2-3 even in the class 5 race run later in the day.
None other than the handicapper bowled a “googly” in Angeling’s race when in the rare instance of showing that he might have a heart, he classified the filly to run in class 4 even though she had run in almost the same time as Superlicious, a winner in class 3, on the same day. The 9th of August 2014.
Angeling did not disappoint to win as expected.
Cartel led the field with Allegiance and Feast Of Love sitting 2nd and 3rd respectively Angeling was taking no chances and was steadily moving up the field to sit 4th. Past the 600 Angeling decided to take the lead but received a strong challenge from Belmont. For the 600 to the 400 it seemed that Angling had a fight on her hands but Belmont packed as suddenly as he had picked up giving Angeling an easy win.
Belmont ran his first race of the season and though he ran a poorish 4th he should put up a vastly improved performance next time out.
Overjoyed after the wicket they had taken with Flying Trigger. The next “googly” the bookmakers bowled was to open La Femme Fleur at 2-1 in the 5th. They were supported in this in its entirety by the stable of trainer Janardhan who tipped the Fleur as a money plant, which would sprout currency notes instead of leaves.
The Fleur neither sprouted or spurted and was crushed to finally finish 3rd last. Hawker won the race so easily that he reduced the race to a no contest.
In the 6th race of the afternoon, The Panchshil Juvenile Million, Trainer Bezan Chenoy pulled out his second Derby hopeful in the Pune Season after Zabisco - Congressional. The odds of this potential champion however began to drift like a gas balloon whose string had snapped. Even if one took into consideration the defeat of Zabisco, to the not so highly thought of Al Shamsheer, this was still a bit much.
Trainer Chinoy being more old school than his contemporaries ambled up to bowl a more classic “googly”. He gave one air in the true tradition of none other than Bernard Bosanquet, the inventor of this ball. Congressional deceived all those who stepped out to play against him by actually winning the race instead of losing it. This “googly” of trainer Chenoy to suddenly win with a tipped horse instead of losing with it was a touch of genius that not many trainers could impart.
Shivaliks Glory, Mystic Romance and Saporelli jumped out to run 1-2-3 till the 800. Congressional then improved to 3rd from 4th with Satellite also moving up just behind him.
Into the straight the contest was reduced to just Congressional and Satellite. But try as Satellite may Congressional was just the better horse and won with guts to cover himself with glory.
While trying to take away nothing from the winner it would be prudent for punters to note that Backstreet Bay’s 1.28.64 in class five was only marginally worse than Congressional’s 1.28.02 of this race.
Fibonacci Sequence’s 7th after being slowly away had another story to tell and those who had backed it in race number 108 at 65/100 should thank their stars that the horse was withdrawn before coming under starters orders.
While trainer Sunderji, like Muttiah Muralitharan has the ability to bowl a “googly” on nearly any surface he seems to bowl straight when it comes to owner Rajesh Monga.
Desert Rage, owned by Mr. Rajesh Monga surprisingly opened at evens in the penultimate race of the day after running 12th in its previous outing. But be that as it may it was money in the bank as he sat second to Rising Angel till the 400 and went away to win impressively. Royal Sapphire tried to upset him and all the followers of money by coming to challenge from third spot but The Rage was a comfortable winner.
Abderus, in the last, had proved to be a quite “googly” when he foxed everyone in his previous start by winning when least expected. Now his connections expected him to make it two in a row and backed him down to favouritism against Affirmation.
Very little separated Mt.Tianmen, Affirmation, Classy Dancer, Natalian Express and Abderus till they turned for home. As the race took a more serious turn Abderus took the lead but drifted out so wide that he was almost on the outer rail. There, somewhere in the boondocks, he must have been shocked to discover a challenger in Ancient Treasure.
Fortunately for the supporters of Abderus the old “googly” master, Amyn Merchant, was on Ancient Treasure and he had pre decided to spin himself out of the race. While he succeeded in that effort it caught the attention of the match referees and he will almost certainly be looking at an extended holiday from the grinding job of being a jockey.
While on his vacation jockey Merchant should seriously consider enlisting the services of a good bowling coach who will without doubt whisper in his ear at some point in his training programme that a good “googly” is a “googly” that is difficult to spot. A week or two at Kishore Namit Kapoor’s acting Institute would be a bonus.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the author's personal views.)
