B R Sharan Kumar

Irfan Ghatala trained Tiberius fought a resolute battle with front running Preordained and surged ahead in the closing strides of the race to win the Gr 3 Heroji Lad Bangalore Juvenile Million, the feature event of concluding day’s Bangalore Winter Races on Saturday. The Hazara Stud Farm bred Tiberius was thus recording his third straight win of the season. Nirmal Singh who owns the Hazara Stud Farm, is also the owner of Tiberius and surely the performance of the colt is a good advertisement for his sire Rebuttal who already has a couple of graded race performers from his first crop, in the first season itself. Tiberius was the on money favourite to win the race by virtue of his two impressive wins. Casanova who was originally scheduled to run the mile long Colts Championship last week at Mumbai, was brought back to race in this million after he had showed out in his final spurt. He was well supported to win as the expectation of a good performance from him was quite high. However, he...

Apprentice jockey Rajesh was in limelight with a lucrative treble on the penultimate day of Bangalore Winter Races on Friday. Rajesh’s bag of wins included that on Camorra in the feature event, the Sandur Trophy, Youre Chilubuli and Foswell. Rajesh has emerged as a jockey of immense potential and his three wins was in keeping with the rapid strides that he has made during the season. Camorra had recorded a comfortable win in her last outing and on the evidence of that run she had the capability to record an encore. Satish Narredu trained Accurate who had already recorded a hat-trick was strongly supported along with Gazaki in what appeared a competitive race. Rajesh had Camorra dictate the pace from the start and had the progeny of Brave Act quicken for home in the final furlong. The lead that he established held him in good stead as Accurate and Crown Vision charged home with big efforts. Camorra spared half a length at the finish to Accurate who in turn was an identical distance ahe...

Arjun Mangalorkar trained Optimus Prime confirmed his status as an eminent sprinter at this centre with an authoritative decimation of the field in the 1200 metres Stewards Trophy, a race for horses rated 80 and above, the feature event of Saturday’s races. Barring an odd race, all the races in the eight event card saw one sided contests as fancied runners faced timid opposition. The Dashmesh Stud Farm produce had his share of problems which had seen Optimus Prime race just three times in the last two seasons. After a lung opener early in the season, Optimus Prime had smashed the opposition and was expected to keep his winning spree. However, the opposition he was taking in the Stewards Cup had many accomplished runners in the fray with Carla who had recorded a very impressive win being the overwhelming favourite. Carla has never been a model of consistency and to compound her problems, she also bled which hurt her chances and the hopes of those who had pinned their faith in this horse...

Arjun Mangalorkar trained Mountain Range proved too superior to the opposition while winning the 1400 metres Sringeri Plate, a race for maiden three year olds, one of the highlights of a lacklustre card of eight events that was gone through on Friday. The quality of racing on display was poor and given the fact that the season is soon to end, perhaps it is only to be expected. Mountain Range, Arabian Gold and Magnomical were all equally well supported to begin with but the first named firmed up as a favourite close to race time. Mountain Range had run third in his first outing before running listlessly at Hyderabad where he took a fly jump, stumbled and then was out of contention. The progeny of Razeen had made good progress in the intervening period but the fact that his last run was bad was the reason why the connections of Arabian gold and Magnomical who had run a forward race in the Governor’s Trophy had a number of takers. One horse which impressed in the paddock was Hill Rising ...

Trainer Sharat Kumar has worked wonders on What A Friend who recorded his third win of the season when getting the better of Hatsuhana yet again in the 1400 metres Kanteerava Cup, a race for horses rated 80 and above, the feature event of Saturday’s races. Hatsuhana was better placed over What A Friend in scales vis-à-vis their previous encounter but the latter yet again asserted his superiority with a powerful charge in the final furlong. What A Friend had run behind Fleeting Arrow in his debut run and the latter went on to win several classics. The expectation on What A Friend was higher than that on stablemate but the horse had a setback and faded out from the scene. After it changed stables, Sharat Kumar has been able to get the six-year old gelding to realize his potential albeit late in his career. He has been able to sort out the problem which prevented this progeny of Placerville from living up to expectation. Hatsuhana has had his share of problems but has bounced back well th...

Rashid Byramji led in a winner after a longish interval through lesser fancied Caspian Sea who just about managed to reach the safety of the winning post before Captain’s Lover could extricate from the rails after being kept there for a long time by Brunetta, in the Nilgiris Cup, a seven furlong race for horses rated 60 to 85, which featured races held on Saturday. The eight event card did not throw any major surprise though Hamsafar won as a long shot. She had been consistent but as she had had not won, she was not considered as a possible winner as the focus of attention was on other horses who have the habit of ending up as favourites with little or no credentials because of the hype they enjoy. The public also cannot be blamed because more often than not such horses have obliged without solid racing form especially when they are running in lower classes. Bucephalas who had run a forward race was more supported than the rest in the Nilgiris Cup. There was significant thrust on Capta...

There had been persistent debate whether the format of the Invitation Cup races needed to be changed for the last several years. The plea was to make it as a weight for age race without penalties like the Arc De Triomphe which is the richest race on grass in the world. The protagonists of this move wanted the best horses of classic vintage take on older accomplished and classic winning horses. The traditionalists had shot down the proposal as they felt change was unnecessary. This issue came up once again at the Turf Authorities of India Meeting on Monday. With Hyderabad Race Club and Madras Race Club opposing the move, a compromise was struck in the form of framing a new race, to be held on rotational basis on December 25. The race, named Indian National Championship Trophy, is to offer stake money of Rs 1 crore. It will be open to four year olds and over and without penalties. The colts and geldings will carry 57 kgs and fillies and mares will care 55.5 kgs. The modalities needs to b...