Pronto Pronto enjoys highest billing
The summer season is all set to start on Saturday, with the reason promising exciting fare. Good horses are distributed among quite a few stables which should make for competitive racing. Gone are the days in the past when we could at this point of time point out one horse as being a cut above the rest. With breeding of horses in India showing a remarkable improvement, contests in classics will always be keen and each time we could end up having a different winner. Gone are the days of monopoly of horses like the one enjoyed by the great Elusive Pimpernel. It simply means that we have more equals among the horses with the top trainers in the country. One has often heard of veteran trainers saying that the horses competing in classics these days are not of good standard. There is nothing wrong with the horses. It is just they are in a time warp which makes it difficult for them to accept the fact that in the days of intense competition, total dominance of one or two is a thing of the past.
Imtiaz Sait trained Pronto Pronto enjoys the highest rating among the current lot of three year olds competing in the summer season. Pronto Pronto beat a creditable opposition in the Shapoorji Pallonji Breeders’ Juvenile Colts Championship after conceding weight to some good quality winners. This win marked him out as a horse of immense potential for the winners of this race in the past have all gone on to make a bigger impact in their career. The fact that he conceded weight to his adversaries who had a win under their belt also enhanced the value of that win. The trainer rates the horse high and he makes a return to the summer season after a longish break. One has to wait and see how this son of Major Impact progresses.
Pesi Shroff’s Picasso who emerged as a top horse by winning the Gr 1 Poonawalla Breeders Multi-Million has been rested and has not come to Bangalore. Possibly he will be campaigned during the Pune plums and then targeted for Indian classics if he shows further progress on his juvenile form. The champion trainer however has a top horse in Amadeus, the progeny of Choisir who finished a close third in the Poonawalla Million. Amadeus is endowed with a big turn of foot and he will be a handful during the summer action. Pesi has also brought the well performed Xisca to race in the graded races for four-year olds and over. This year we have a number of trainers from Mumbai in action, with Cooji Katrak and Vinayak also brining a few horses for the summer season. Altamash Ahmed who ended with a treble on the final day of the Mumbai season has brought Astapi who won a Million on the Invitation Cup day at the expense of Touching Town. The horse is shaping well. Dr Anil Kumar who has had success rare to come by, also has come with a horse.
Vittal Deshmukh has brought Super Duper who is also one of the top horses of Hyderabad. The grey has remained unbeaten thus far though he cannot be said to the best horse because that honour at this point of time is claimed by Windsor Manor who had the beating of Midtown Magic to her credit. Windsor Manor has been kept back at Hyderabad while another top horse of Kolkata, Dandified too will not be seen in action here, the connections preferring to win the plums back home against modest oppositions. Laxman Singh has a couple of horses who can make a mark here.
Locally based Irfan Ghatala and Padmanabhan have some good quality horses whose progress will be watched with great interest. The highest rated local three year old is Tiberius who recorded a hat-trick of wins though all by a small margin. Zultanite who made a smashing debut but was not seen in action thereafter, is a top quality horse. If all is well with him, this progeny of Zultanite will prove a handful. Similarly, Show Time is a good horse. There are quite a few horses from trainer Irfan Ghatala who will be vying to make a mark during the season and his horses appear to be on the boil, it may be profitable to follow his wards.
Padmanabhan has some top horses in the form of Speed Six, Touching The Town, Nearness of You and a couple of horses which are expected to show out during the season. The trainer should be in limelight. Becket among older horses is expected to do well though given the share of problems that he has had, it is difficult to see him regain the peak of Invitation Cup success.
Trainer Ganapathy has reason to look forward to the reason with renewed hope. He has two top horses in Star Marquees and Forest Regent, both of whom won with such authority in the winter season that they will be in the thick of things. Jaggy Dhariwal, who had a dream winter season, has always been in the limelight and he will have his usual quota of winners. Arabian Prince will be in the thick of action in the graded races meant for older horses.
Satish Narredu has some horses which are capable of winning their share of horses. Unfortunately for Darius Byramji, he lost the best horse that he had, namely Aidan who was put down following multiple fractures suffered in a workout during the fag end of the winter season. He has some quality horses but his horses have generally not corresponded to any kind of expectation that the punters may have. Arjun Mangalorkar is hoping that some of his three year olds live up to the hope that he has on them though at this point of time, it is difficult to pinpoint any future champion. He has a top quality older horse in Optimus Prime who should come out well by the terms of the race and make his mark in graded races. Optimus Prime though is a problematic horse and it will need all the skills of the trainer to keep him going with relatively less work.
About 75 outstation horses should contribute to lift the quality of the competition during the two and half month season. The Bangalore Summer Classics have always served as pointers for monsoon and winter classics and the current season too should live up to that billing.
For a change we have the pleasure of seeing the season start on time without the usual strife which resulted in uncertainty and postponing of the start. All vexed problems have been sorted out and hopefully an atmosphere conducive for good racing will prevail. Rains during the season have also contributed to add its own romanticism to racing.
There is one hiccup though. About 14 jockeys have not been issued licenses and the jockeys are threatening that they may not ride on the first day if the licenses are not restored. However, their threat may not go through because the authorities , in the past, have successfully managed to conduct races with the help of foreign jockeys, retained riders and apprentices even when the big jockeys struck work.
Imtiaz Sait trained Pronto Pronto enjoys the highest rating among the current lot of three year olds competing in the summer season. Pronto Pronto beat a creditable opposition in the Shapoorji Pallonji Breeders’ Juvenile Colts Championship after conceding weight to some good quality winners. This win marked him out as a horse of immense potential for the winners of this race in the past have all gone on to make a bigger impact in their career. The fact that he conceded weight to his adversaries who had a win under their belt also enhanced the value of that win. The trainer rates the horse high and he makes a return to the summer season after a longish break. One has to wait and see how this son of Major Impact progresses.
Pesi Shroff’s Picasso who emerged as a top horse by winning the Gr 1 Poonawalla Breeders Multi-Million has been rested and has not come to Bangalore. Possibly he will be campaigned during the Pune plums and then targeted for Indian classics if he shows further progress on his juvenile form. The champion trainer however has a top horse in Amadeus, the progeny of Choisir who finished a close third in the Poonawalla Million. Amadeus is endowed with a big turn of foot and he will be a handful during the summer action. Pesi has also brought the well performed Xisca to race in the graded races for four-year olds and over. This year we have a number of trainers from Mumbai in action, with Cooji Katrak and Vinayak also brining a few horses for the summer season. Altamash Ahmed who ended with a treble on the final day of the Mumbai season has brought Astapi who won a Million on the Invitation Cup day at the expense of Touching Town. The horse is shaping well. Dr Anil Kumar who has had success rare to come by, also has come with a horse.
Vittal Deshmukh has brought Super Duper who is also one of the top horses of Hyderabad. The grey has remained unbeaten thus far though he cannot be said to the best horse because that honour at this point of time is claimed by Windsor Manor who had the beating of Midtown Magic to her credit. Windsor Manor has been kept back at Hyderabad while another top horse of Kolkata, Dandified too will not be seen in action here, the connections preferring to win the plums back home against modest oppositions. Laxman Singh has a couple of horses who can make a mark here.
Locally based Irfan Ghatala and Padmanabhan have some good quality horses whose progress will be watched with great interest. The highest rated local three year old is Tiberius who recorded a hat-trick of wins though all by a small margin. Zultanite who made a smashing debut but was not seen in action thereafter, is a top quality horse. If all is well with him, this progeny of Zultanite will prove a handful. Similarly, Show Time is a good horse. There are quite a few horses from trainer Irfan Ghatala who will be vying to make a mark during the season and his horses appear to be on the boil, it may be profitable to follow his wards.
Padmanabhan has some top horses in the form of Speed Six, Touching The Town, Nearness of You and a couple of horses which are expected to show out during the season. The trainer should be in limelight. Becket among older horses is expected to do well though given the share of problems that he has had, it is difficult to see him regain the peak of Invitation Cup success.
Trainer Ganapathy has reason to look forward to the reason with renewed hope. He has two top horses in Star Marquees and Forest Regent, both of whom won with such authority in the winter season that they will be in the thick of things. Jaggy Dhariwal, who had a dream winter season, has always been in the limelight and he will have his usual quota of winners. Arabian Prince will be in the thick of action in the graded races meant for older horses.
Satish Narredu has some horses which are capable of winning their share of horses. Unfortunately for Darius Byramji, he lost the best horse that he had, namely Aidan who was put down following multiple fractures suffered in a workout during the fag end of the winter season. He has some quality horses but his horses have generally not corresponded to any kind of expectation that the punters may have. Arjun Mangalorkar is hoping that some of his three year olds live up to the hope that he has on them though at this point of time, it is difficult to pinpoint any future champion. He has a top quality older horse in Optimus Prime who should come out well by the terms of the race and make his mark in graded races. Optimus Prime though is a problematic horse and it will need all the skills of the trainer to keep him going with relatively less work.
About 75 outstation horses should contribute to lift the quality of the competition during the two and half month season. The Bangalore Summer Classics have always served as pointers for monsoon and winter classics and the current season too should live up to that billing.
For a change we have the pleasure of seeing the season start on time without the usual strife which resulted in uncertainty and postponing of the start. All vexed problems have been sorted out and hopefully an atmosphere conducive for good racing will prevail. Rains during the season have also contributed to add its own romanticism to racing.
There is one hiccup though. About 14 jockeys have not been issued licenses and the jockeys are threatening that they may not ride on the first day if the licenses are not restored. However, their threat may not go through because the authorities , in the past, have successfully managed to conduct races with the help of foreign jockeys, retained riders and apprentices even when the big jockeys struck work.
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