Scionic wins Fillies Trial Stakes

Altamash Ahmed trained Scionic won the Gr 3 Deccan Bookmakers’ Fillies Trial Stakes, the first classic of the season, on Sunday. For young trainer Altamash, this was his first classic success in his short career. Incidentally, the Fillies Trial Stakes was a deemed classic all these years but with the graded status having been accorded since this year, the race is a classic in all respects. The success of Scionic should boost trainer Altamash’s career. He has won a fair share of races back home at Mumbai with a relatively small string. The fact that he is ambitious and wants to win big races is big plus point for Altamash who graduated from Rashid Byramji’s yard.

Pune challenger Sun Elegance was the favourite with Couleur Rouge who had beaten Kohinoor Wish in her last assignment also being strongly fancied. The race itself had a very open look about it as none of the runners had towering performance to back their credentials. Scionic had run a fair race in the F D Wadia Trophy and she had earlier won a race during the Bangalore Summer Season following a Stewards enquiry. The daughter of King’s Best Constantina was also expected to run a great race as her sire had two sired the Epsom and Japanese Derby winner this year. Vijay Damini who had proved her mettle over shorter trips was also expected to run a big race.

The speedy daughter of Elusive City, Vijay Damini led the field from the start with Scionic in close proximity, with the rest of the runners spaced out behind. Vijay Damini held the initiative till the final furlong but Scionic got stronger close home and stretched away from the long time leader to record a convincing win. Scionic is by Diffident out of Battle Star. Couleur Rouge ran on to finish third while Constantina appeared hopelessly one paced and struggled to pick up steam and was a disappointing sixth. Ice Bound ran on to finish fourth ahead of Golden Queen.

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