Corfe Castle demolishes opposition

This incredible performance makes him a strong favourite for the Sprinters' Cup (Gr 1) which will be run at the same Mahalaxmi track next month.

The Leo D'Silva-trained Corfe Castle produced a stunning gallop in the hands of jockey P Trevor to win the Dr SC Jain Sprinters' Championship (Gr 2), the feature event of Sunday's eight-race card at Mahalaxmi. Corfe Castle, bred at the Poonawalla stud, is the joint property of Ramakrishna Reddy, Tinder S Ahluwalia and the Poonawalla Racing & Breeding Pvt Ltd.

The local duo of Iron Age (Y S Srinath up) and Kildare (A Sandesh up) jumped out smartly and vied for the lead, while P Trevor astride Corfe Castle chose to settle near the rear of the field, with only Augustus Caesar (Neeraj Rawal up) behind him. Iron Age brought them all into the homestretch, and the moment Corfe Castle straightened up, Trevor angled him out, grabbed the outer lane, and asked him to go. Within no time, the game galloper unleashed a bundle of energy to sweep past his rivals. Corfe Castle's turn of foot was so spectacular, the others appeared almost motionless as he rocketed past them.

This incredible performance makes him a strong favourite for the Sprinters' Cup (Gr 1) which will be run at the same Mahalaxmi track next month. True, many more aspirants will descend onto Mahalaxmi on that occasion, but it will take an exceptional horse to pose a serious threat to Corfe Castle, and I doubt if there is any lurking on the horizon right now.

Mayoress graces

The winners of the two divisions of the Mayor's Trophy, the supporting event for which Mumbai's mayor, Mrs Kishori Pednekar, was personally present to give away the trophy, were ridden by jockeys who are generally booked to ride very few races. The lower division was bagged by Superleggera on whom jockey H Zeeshan landed a sweet gamble for trainer Shazaan Shah. The upper division was won by the Pesi Shroff-trained Theodora, the same horse on whom the same jockey, rookie Kshitij Bhagat, had opened his career account on this track after drawing a blank at Pune.

Interestingly, both Superleggera and Theodora clocked almost identical time for the six-furlong trip, which was only 7/100th of a second apart.

Day's honours

Jockey P Trevor, who handled Corfe Castle, also won the S A Wahid Plate with the Imtiaz Sait-trained Circle Of Love, thus registering a brace for the day. His performance was matched by jockey C S Jodha who rode two winners in Maplewood (Jayramdas Patel Gold Trophy) and Flying Scotsman (Lt Gen Govind Sing Vrc Trophy). Trainer Shiraz Sunderji, for whom jockey C S Jodha bagged the two trophies, ended the day with a treble, when jockey A Imran Khan steered Titanium to victory in the last race on the card.

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