Amaretto lifts Juvenile Sprinters Million in style

The Manjri Stud Farm bred Amaretto recorded an impressive win in the Gr 3 Juvenile Sprinters Million, the feature event of Sunday’s races in great style. Amaretto virtually overhauled the entire field from the rear position to go clear inside the shadow of the winning post to land the spoils in his debut run in Bangalore. The local challenge headed by Loveatfirstsight and the rest could prove no match for the marauder from Mumbai. Jockey Trevor Patel who had narrowly missed out winning the Colts Championships, thus recorded his first graded race success through Amaretto.

Loveatfirstsight has proved to be an unreliable performer as she had run out at the final bend at Mumbai. Since she had impressed most in a mock race, she went into the race as a firm favourite though the odds expanded on her as the original jockey A Sandesh had injured himself in a fall in the first race of the day. His replacement, Ashhad Asbar was all at sea on the filly who tested his skills to the hilt. He was unable to keep the horse on an even keel and was boxed out of contention in the straight getting knocked round by the horses on his either side. Loveatfirstsight needs to be left alone till she proves her reliability.

Notredame showed plenty of speed to take charge of the proceedings followed by Free Law, Colour of Money, and Loveatfirstsight with Chul Bul Pandy, Vijays Conquer and Amaretto gracing the rear. Current Ray was lethargic at the beginning and ran a detached last and she ended where she began. Notredame brought the field into view but was soon overtaken by Colour of Money with Free Law essaying her challenge while Loveatfirstsight ran into one problem or the other and was struggling to get a clear run. Even as Colour of Money was beginning to assert his supremacy came the Cooji Katrak trained Amaretto on the wide outside with a strong gallop and surged ahead inside the final 100 metres to record a comfortable win. Vijay’s Conquer ran on to finish third.

Another Mumbai challenger St Catz made a smashing debut by winning the Smt Bhagirathi Memorial Trophy, a race for horses rated 40 to 65, in emphatic fashion. The Noshir Cama trainee had recorded an impressive win over seven furlongs in her last run at Mumbai and she was backed down spiritedly in the betting ring despite this being her first run on the Bangalore track. Touching The Town and Magnitude were the other strongly fancied runners. Sovetskaya led from the start with St Catz steadily moving up to be in striking second position at the final turn. The progeny of Royal Kingdom, St Catz smoothly accelerated on turning for home and left the field stranded to win as she pleased in a smart time of one minute 27.94 seconds in soft underfoot conditions. Magnitude gave a futile chase with Castle Town finishing an impressive third. Touching The Town was a well beaten fourth. Golden Rule, who had run a noteworthy second behind Arrow in Auto Mode in his last outing, took a slow jump and was never in contention.

Darius Byramji’s Shuddering completed a hat-trick of wins by winning the R S Nagendra Kumar Memorial Trophy by easily containing the challenge of Lad Diva and Spark of Silver. The last named came in for spirited betting but he was sluggish at the start and was left to cover plenty of leeway in the straight. He did well to finish a close third. Narayan Gowda trained Endurance won the lower division of the race at nourishing odds. Endurance had run below par in his last effort and as such, he was not enthusiastically supported, with the market inclined to go with Anna and Moves Goodenough. Don Diego was the pace setter. He spoiled whatever chances that Anna had by rolling out causing the fancied runner to break his stride. Endurance moved up with a strong run from about the fourth position at the final bend to go storming clear and easily held off the rally of Movesgoodenough. Drop of Honey who was the betting rage in the Division III of the race, had no problem in disposing of the opposition to provide trainer Tarun Thimmiah with his maiden success of the season.
Amit Cady’s Abby’s Baby had it easy in the Honeyday Plate (Div I) in the concluding race of the day which was held in pouring rain. Abby’s Baby skipped away from the rest at the top of the straight to record a facile win over Sky Rider and Spark of Knight. Rhythmic Dancer, who was a strong favourite, was stranded in the gate and came out of it only after the rest of the runners had gone a furlong away. Arabian Gold continued to disappoint with another dismal show. With ante post favourite Lighting Express being withdrawn from the fray, Steel King was made the favourite in the lower division of the race without any reason as he was making his debut and had not put in any noteworthy track. This was because one could not spot serious contenders in the race barring Saphira. The Dominic trainee was well backed in the end and she had no problem in winning the race at the expense of Emerald King who was not in betting limelight.

Ante post favourite Aegis was withdrawn before the runners reached the paddock, resulting in Scenic Blast being backed to the exclusion. In the event, Secret Punch showed how his talent was well disguised as he delivered a knockout punch on the rest by winning by a widening margin of over eight lengths. Mountain Splendour was far away second ahead of Miss Ching while Scenic Blast was not sighted.

In a race which did not throw any clear cut contender, lesser fancied Silver Court trounced the opposition over the nine furlong trip with Burning Ambitions being the only one who chased the eventual winner in earnest. Arsenio was a faraway third.