Longshot Evaldo shocks rivals

Representational images

Lying last until the halfway mark of the Winfair247 Eve Champion Trophy (Gr 3), Evaldo trained by Prasanna Kumar put in a sensational gallop in the homestretch to decisively claim the feature event of the Tuesday card. Sandesh astride Evaldo started improving the horse gradually, but no one paid attention to them as the top two market fancies--Dyf and Jendayi--were getting ready for a duel behind front-runners Ruling Dynasty and Third Avenue at that point in time. Soon Dyf (Akhay Kumar up) dashed ahead of Jendayi, but their lead was short-lived as Sandesh urged Evaldo who lengthened his strides to sail away for a decisive victory.

Villanelle, ridden by C Umesh, bagged the supporting event, the Altaf Hussain Trophy. Villanelle was trained by Pesi Shroff who emerged as the only trainer to win more than once in the card when jockey G Vivek, manoeuvering between horses, powered The Panther for an easy victory in the Parisian Plate.

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Trainer Adhirajsingh's Thundering Phoenix (CS Jodha up) impressively won the August Handicap. The photo finish camera had to be consulted to separate Marcus (G Vivek up) and Lord Eric (Akshay Kumar up) in the Highland Crown Plate. The print showed Lord Eric, trained by Dallas Todywalla, a nose ahead of Marcus.

In the opening race, the Ronin Plate for 4y and older horses in Class IV, the Shazaan Shah-trained Eloquent was backed to the exclusion of all his rivals, and justified the faith of the followers by scoring a clinical victory in the hands of Sandesh who, with Evaldo later winning the feature race, completed a double.

Leo The Lion, the five-year-old trained by Narendra Lagad and ridden by Mustakim Alam, picked up the Unicorn Plate, beating four-year-old Uzi (P Vinod up), who caused a flutter when she led by several lengths all the way before getting overpowered by the winner 100m from the winning post.