B R Sharan Kumar

Pesi Shroff trained Berlusconi made a winning debut in Bangalore when coming up with a spirited run and overhauling Balmoral Castle in the final strides of the race in the 1600 metres Karnataka Police Cup, a race for horses rated 80 and above, which featured Saturday’s races. Balmoral Castle led all the way except at the post. Berlusconi was backed to the exclusion of the rest to land the spoils as the progeny of Iktiyar had won his last outing at Mumbai and was showing out in the workouts. Balmoral Castle was second in demand. Neeraj Rawal had Balmoral Castle in front from the word `go’ with stablemate Topkapi in close attendance while Berlusconi who was in striking position, lost ground at around the 800 metres as Mighty Heart was falling back on him. Jockey Prakash had to check his horse in order to prevent it from clipping the front runner. This however did not cause any harm to the favourite’s chances as Prakash was able to recover ground quickly as the pace of the race was modes...

Jockey Y S Srinath suffered an unfortunate injury to his knee following a fall astride Preordained on Saturday in pre-race parade in front of Grand Stand and he could not fulfil his engagements on Sunday. The jockeys who replaced him reaped a rich harvest, with four of them being winners including D’Artagnan in the Gr 3 Jayachamaraja Wadiyar Cup, the first of the 14 graded races programmed for the summer season. Sunday’s card was a mixed bag for punters, with Prakash profiting from two chance rides to open his account with a double. In the absence of any horse which enjoyed clear cut superiority in the 11-horse field in the fray for the feature event, D’Artagnan who hadn’t won for quite some time but had been figuring at the finish in graded races at Mumbai, ended up as the favourite based on blazing workouts. D’Artagnan had initially raised great deal of expectations as a juvenile but had not lived up to that promise unable to carry his front running tactics up to the winning post. Pr...

Ironically the only favourite that won on the opening day’s races of the Bangalore Summer Season on Saturday was Carla who had let down as an on-money favourite in her last run in winter. Carla managed to get the measure of Sirono in the final strides of the race to win the Kirshnaraja Wadiyar Cup, a race for horses rated 80 and above, the feature event of the day. Samar Singh’s Lovely Kiss smashed the opposition in the day’s other highlight by recording a very impressive win. The start to the eagerly anticipated season was anything but bizarre for punters as the first three races of the day were consumed by lesser fancied runners. Lad King had the credentials to win the opening race of the day, the 1200 metres Welcome Plate, a race for maiden three year olds, but he certainly did not deserve the one-sided support. Arabian Gold who is bred as half-brother to classic winning Flaming Arrow is a capable horse though the fact that he was essaying a trip that was reckoned to be sharp for hi...

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 pa...

India’s top jockey Suraj Narredu is all set to break new ground when he leaves India on Thursday evening to Chicago to ride at Arlington Park. The ambitious young jockey has the unique distinction of being the first Indian to complete 1000 winners in record time and he has always looked for opportunities to achieve newer targets. The chance to ride at Arlington Park should help Suraj hone his skills further and he should come back as a stronger jockey in every aspect. Suraj will have a stint of a month and half which he could stretch depending on the way things shape up. There are many Indian jockeys who have achieved much more than Suraj but they did not have his adventurous trait. In fact, one or two of the top Indian jockeys had shied away when presented with opportunity to ride abroad. Only Srinath rode with big success abroad, at Macau where he had more than 20 winners in one season. To-date this rates as the best performance by an Indian jockey abroad. Suraj who tasted big succe...

With all the thorny issues that could have hurt the start of the summer season having been resolved well in time, the stage is set for the prompt start of the Bangalore Summer Season on Saturday, May 14. This is a departure from the past as the previous season had all been affected by some strife or the other which had seen the first week’s races being cancelled and the resolution to the problems taking its own time, causing frustration among race goers who wanted the action to begin after a small break. Nothing cheers race goers more than the sight of horses in full flow. The Bangalore Summer Season is also eagerly awaited because racing action is confined to only Bangalore and Mysore during the summer months. Bangalore attracts quality horses from all over India which makes way for quality action in graded races. As many as 14 graded races will be gone through during the season which lasts less than three months. Unless the horses are on the boil, it is difficult to win during the se...

English poet T S Eliot had pointed out that tolerance is the responsibility of those with wider vision. Perhaps this might well have helped resolve the crisis caused by Bangalore Turf Club’s new set of rules which some in the committee were hell bent on pushing through. These moves were aggressively resisted by the Karnataka Racehorse Owners Association and Karnataka Trainers Association, threatening to disrupt yet again the prompt start of the Bangalore Summer Season scheduled for Saturday, May 14. The acrimonious exchanges that happened in the Stewards room a week before was just short of getting much more than verbal. Given the grave nature of the happenings, the quick resolution to the problem, with the turf club agreeing to restore status quo in all respects must be hailed as a pressure exerted by the sensible few among members of the club. The reversal was also a big blow to the Managing Committee of the Bangalore Turf Club which has time and again has tried to force issues wit...