Horse racing: Super Sunday for trainer Shroff, jockey Chouhan

This picture has been used for representational purpose

The Sunday card at the Pune racetrack was dominated by the trainer-jockey pair of Pesi Shroff and P S Chouhan. The two veteran professionals combined to win three races on the nine-event card. The jockey, in fact, did better than the trainer as he also rode one more winner for another stable, Leopard Rock trained by Malesh Narredu, taking his day's tally to four. Outside of Hyderabad where he plied trade as a leading jockey in his hey days, this was P S Chouhan's first quadruple on the western India circuit from where he had migrated to the Nizam's city several years ago.

Making amends

The Shroff-Chouhan partnership actually began on an unlucky note when, in the opening race of the day, their Exotique failed to put her nose ahead in a three-horse photo finish despite devouring ground with gigantic strides in the final furlong. But they soon made amends by romping home with popular choice Shamshir Sword in the upper division of the Bourbon King Plate. Shroff's next winner in the hands of Chouhan was the first-timer Miracle who unleashed a powerful gallop midway in the homestretch to post an impressive victory in the Pleasure Hunt Plate.

The third and final success for the pair came up when, in the Warsaw Pact Plate, Chouhan gave a vigorous ride to the Shroff-trained Costa Rica who finally broke her maiden jinx in her fourth career start. Keeping Costa Rica on the outside to ensure a clear run, Chouhan galvanized her to a fluent gallop near the furlong marker when the heavily gambled upon El Capitan (P S Kaviraj up) shaped like a winner after courageously exploiting a narrow gap to take up the lead.

The only other professional who scored more than once on the card was trainer Adhirajsingh Jodha who saddled Golden Era (Neeraj Rawal up), the winner of the supporting event, the General Obaidullah Khan Trophy. He had also won the opening race of the day, the lower division of the Bourbon King Trophy, with long shot Beejay (C S Jodha up).

Shocker in feature

As expected, the experienced duo of Fast Rain and Multiencrypted, installed as clear first and second public favourites respectively, bit the dust at the hands of first-timers in the feature event of the day, the Gool S Poonawalla Trophy (Gr 3), when the least fancied of the eight horses in the fray, Amare, trained by Karthik Gnapathy and ridden by Bhawani Singh, posted a shock victory at the tote odds of 25 to 1, beating another first-timer, the S K Sunderji-trained Flying Scotsman, by a length and a quarter.