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Trainer Vijay Singh`s charge, Zander (S. John-up), raised a winning gallop, albeit after quite a wait. The six-year-old had been struggling to make a mark at the top level but the opposition of a similar kind in 1,100m Malpensa Cup, the main attraction in Wednesday`s card, came handy. In fact, it was John`s power-packed riding which not only gained the verdict in the feature event, the jockey also came close to making four wins from as many Vijay`s rides, having narrowly missed the chance on the trainer`s The Talisman by a whisker.
Zander was always up with the leader, Make Way for Me (Neeraj Rawal), who found the going tough insider the final 300m, and thus passed the baton to trainer Manvendra Singh`s last outing fluent winner, Midnight Star (Hindu Singh), to get close to the ultimate winner.
John-Vijay partnership started rolling, early in the afternoon as the stable`s Half Volley put his best foot forward in the 1,400m Jewellers Handicap, having wastes his winning chances over six-furlong trips, early in the season. The Tariq son led from the start and drew away from long time chaser, Mizuno, about 250m from the winning-post. In the same race, trainer Javed Khan`s Dancing Lord (B. Mahesh) performed poorly, though heavily fancied.
Half Volley`s victory was followed by a narrow miss on the 5/2 favourite, The Talisman who, in spite of a near six months of lay off, fought out a courageous battle with Khan`s well-tuned joint-favourite, Star One (Neeraj). Trainer James Mckeown`s Invincible Prince was a promising third in the race.
John also guided Vijay`s Blue Zone to a business-like victory in the 1,100m Idaho Handicap. Also a 5/2 chance, the aging mare fought out the battle with his young stable-mate, Fury (app. Nikhil Naidu), virtually from the start, before taking the measure of the stubborn youngster, 100m from home. Manvendra`s Praise Her Gaze was also a good third in the race.
The curtain raiser, 2,000m Arcade Handicap and the concluding event, the 1,100m Dominate Handicap produced contrasting results. Trainer Bharath Singh`s Blazing Bullet (Dashrath Singh) excelled over the middle distance race, after many failures while Jasbir Singh`s heavily fancied youngster`s Aileen (Mohit Singh) made a heavy weather of her victory against trainer Deep Karki`s speedster, Bournville (C. Alford).
Another youngster, Diamond Creek (app. Naidu), an 8/1 chance from Bharath`s stable, took her fancied stable-mates in that shade on her way to winning the 1,100m Super Sunrise Plate, a baby race.
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Zander (S John up) winner of the malpensa cup
Blazing Bullet (Dashrath Singh up) winner of the arcade handicap
Half Volley (S John up) winner of the jeweller handicap
Star One (Neeraj Rawal up) winner of the steinlen handicap
Blue Zone (S John up) winner of the idaho handicap
Diamond Creek (Nikhil Naidu up) winner of the super sunrise plate
Aileen (Mohit Singh up) winner of the dominate handicap
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