Commodore, ridden vigorously by jockey A Sandesh, managed to upstage stablemate and favourite Arlene (P Trevor up) in the final furlong to win the Velvet Rope Trophy, the feature event of Sunday's seven-race card at Mahalaxmi
Commodore, ridden vigorously by jockey A Sandesh, managed to upstage stablemate and favourite Arlene (P Trevor up) in the final furlong to win the Velvet Rope Trophy, the feature event of Sunday's seven-race card at Mahalaxmi. Trevor Patel, who missed rides in the first two races because he was stuck in a traffic jam, did nothing wrong when he took Arlene on a start-to-finish mission as she has won all her races in identical fashion. On Sunday, however, Arlene seemed to be losing momentum in the final stages of the ten-furlong trip, and Sandesh overpowered her to post an authoritative victory for owners Pallon Mistry and DR Thacker.
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Odds confusion
For reasons which were not immediately apparent most races today saw wild upheavals in odds, giving rise to two of the seven races throwing up a strange case of favourites on the tote and in the bookmakers' ring being different. Interestingly, the winners in both these races belonged to the same connections!
Shazaan Shah, who was rather unlucky to lose his first career win in the stewards' room on Thursday, more than made up for it by winning two races on today's card. Dancing Lord trained by him was backed down to favouritism in the bookmakers' ring even as rival Sensex (P Trevor up) remained popular on the tote, won a narrow verdict over Sawgrass (Santosh up) to win the upper division of the Pradeep Vijaykar Trophy, while Trevor Patel rode Shazaan-trained Ancient Glory (tote favourite) to victory in the Ray Of Hope Trophy even as Franz Ferdinand (Neeraj Rawal up) remained a firm favourite in the bookmakers' ring.
Sandesh injured
In an unfortunate incident at the starting gates, hot favourite Sweet Temptation turned fractious, resulting in withdrawal from the race but not before causing injury to jockey Sandesh who then could not fulfil his remaining riding engagements. However, Sandesh had already ridden a double earlier with Commodore and Dancing Lord, a feat which was also matched by another rider, CS Jodha, who won the Kheemsingh Gold Cup for maiden horses with Spiridon, and followed it up in the last race of the day with Fashionable Gait trained by SS Shah.