Juliette juggernaut unstoppable

Representational Image (Pic Courtesy: iStock)

Wonder mare Juliette annihilated her rivals, including King's Ransom, in the C N Wadia Gold Cup (Gr 2), powered by Zavaray S Poonawala, the feature event of Sunday's seven-race Mahalaxmi card. In the hands of CS Jodha, Juliette raced in the famed "gold and brown" silks of the late Dr MAM Ramaswamy for the last time, as the Poonawalla family, just before she went out on the racetrack, had sealed the deal to buy her out. Juliette will undoubtedly prove a great asset for the breeding establishment of the Poonawallas. The proud new owners, Zavaray Poonawalla and his entire clan, were present at the racecourse to lead her in and receive the glittering gold Trophy.

Zavaray Poonawalla, who was the chief sponsor of the first edition of the Indian Racing Carnival, expressed joy that the Mahalaxmi season closed with a great show, and expressed hope that the Pune monsoon season will also open with a bang.

Three records eclipsed

The Karthik-trained grey mare, who was ridden confidently by CS Jodha, shattered the course record for the mile-and-a-half trip by clocking 2m:26.729s, erasing the earlier record set by Be Safe, who had also raced in the same silks on that occasion. Earlier in the day Northern Lights, trained by Pesi Shroff and ridden by PS Chouhan, had also set a new record timing for the mile trip, stopping the clock at 1m:34.677s when winning the Maharaja Sir Harisinghji Trophy (gr 3) on Sunday.

On Saturday too, the record for six furlongs was newly written. The Deepesh Narredu-trained Leopard Rock was given a powerful ride by his brother Yash to shatter the old course record for six furlongs, when he logged 1m:08.797s.

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Season's champions

Trainer Pesi Shroff (24 wins) continued his strnglehold on the trainers' championship trophy at Mahalaxmi. This was a record 16th championship for the ace professional, who has also bagged the Pune racing title five times in his 18-year career as a trainer.

Jockey A Sandesh, the boy from Matheran, topped the jockeys' table in style this season. Despite the truncated season he rode 26 winners from 104 mounts, at an impressive clip of 26%, and enjoyed a decisive lead over his arch rival P Trevor who finished the season with 20 winners out of only 75 rides, doing a shade better with 27% strike rate. Jockey Mustakim Alam became the champion apprentice rider as well as champion apprentice rider with allowances by scoring 16 wins during the season. Rookie rider Haridas Gore also excelled with 8 wins.

KN Dhunjibhoy, his partner Vijay Shirke and Ms Ameeta Mehra were three horse owners whose earnings crossed the Rs one crore mark during the season. Dhunjibhoy inched ahead on the final day to grab the leading owner title, while Ms Ameeta Mehra was adjudged "leading breeder" thanks to her Usha stud farm towering over rivals with 118 points.

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