Great Guns prevails in nail-biting finish

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Deepak Rajpal is a veteran commentator. The popular race caller in western India has more than 30 years of experience under his belt, and rarely makes an error. He was, however, in for a surprise on Saturday when the judge announced the verdict of the Times Of India Trophy, the feature event, declaring Great Guns (R Ajinkya up) as winner from Aah Bella (A Sandesh up).

Rajpal had called out Aah Bella as winner trusting his naked eye judgement, but so close was the photo finish that the digital camera image made it clear that the winner had won by only a thousandth part of a second. You read that right! Great Guns stopped the clock at 1m:37.746s whereas Aah Bella clocked 1m:37.747s.

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The first two races on the six-race card were both won by apprentice riders--Haridas Gore and Mustakin Alam, both five-kg claimers. Gore steered Toussaint for trainer Sanjay Kolse (indiarace.com Trophy) for an easy victory, while Alam took trainer Narendra Lagad's Northern Singer on a successful start-to-finish mission in the Race Mirror Trophy.

Interestingly, both the rookie jockeys' mounts ended up being strong first favourites. By contrast, the two top jockeys at the center--P Trevor and A Sandesh--both notched up one point each astride horses that were less fancied. P Trevor spiritedly drove the 7-to-1 Balenciaga, trained by Dallas Todywalla, to swoop on the favourite Pyrrhus (CS Jodha up) in the final yards to win the Hindu Trophy; while A Sandesh steered the 9-to-2 Finch for trainer Vinesh to bag the Dopahar Trophy.

In the last race of the day, the RacingPulse.in Trophy, trainer Hosidar Daji and jockey K Nazil led in Mysterious Girl who ran friendless at 8-to-1.