Trevor Patel guided Castaway to victory in the 1200 metres Poll Ramachandra Rao Memorial Trophy, a race for horses rated 30 to 50, the feature event of a small card of six events that were gone through on Saturday at Bangalore. Diamond Rays had all the credentials to win the race but jockey Jagadeesh was not up to the task, riding in tearaway fashion which caused the favourite to slow down perceptibly in the closing stages of the race allowing Castaway who was ridden off the pace to win the race.

The pre-race expectation of a close contest between Diamond Rays and Anfia did not materialize. The latter who had won against the run of expectations on the last occasion was widely expected to pose a problem or two to the others, but the fancied runner struggled for speed and finished dismally in the end. Jagadeesh brought Diamond Rays to take over the running from the wide outside draw within the first 100 metres and this effort itself was to affect the chances of the favourite. Diamond Rays had a good lead going into the final furlong, but the runaway tactic was beginning to take its toll as the favourite drifted out with the jockey also unable to aid the horse but only causing more problems by persistent whipping. Trevor who had kept the lesser fancied last start winner Castaway in about the fifth position till turning for home, brought the progeny of Win Legend with a powerful surge on the wide outside. Castaway easily overhauled the tiring Diamond Rays after being shifted to the inside of the drifting favourite. Silver Dew finished third. Diamond Rays reportedly burst his blood vessels which could also be the reason why a sure shot lost.

The prospectus was unimaginatively framed resulting in poor quality of racing being offered one week after the Derby extravaganza. The form of the horses was not a guiding factor in these races, but the intention of the connections was of critical importance and this was difficult to gauge. Bazinga had run more than 15 lengths behind in his previous effort and hadn`t won for 645 days. As such it is difficult to expect a seven-year-old to be showing drastic improvement based on the previous effort. However, the market trend indicated that Bazinga would be in the money and true to expectations, made a powerful bid in the final furlong and succeeded in landing the spoils from late finishing Yellow Zone. Ocean Park was a close third. The upper division of the race saw an upset with Deepalika who hadn`t won for 345 days producing a strong effort in the final stages of the race in the hands of Surya to get control and reach the post safely. Favourite Ravishing Snow who had been in the news because of the fact that trainer Imtiaz Khan was suspended for one year with jockey Mubarak getting a six-month ban for not permitting the horse to run on merits on the last occasion, was backed spiritedly but the favourite made a late dash once again and found the winning post coming too soon for comfort. Strong Conviction who held the fort for a long time, weakened to occupy the third slot.

Aravind Ganapathy led in his second winner when the well-backed Play Safe lived up to the name by leading all the way in the 2000 metres Noble Princess Plate, a race for horses rated 15 to 35 and storming clear of the late-finishing Superb Success. Dynamism and Black Whizz were in the hunt till the final furlong but faded out after giving hopes.

Dheeraj trained Mahanati proved to be far superior to the rest in the 1200 metres Ramkirpal Plate (Div I), a race for horses rated 0 to 30. Mahanati was backed down spiritedly to oblige and the four-year-old filly did not disappoint, having a commanding lead from the start which she expanded in the straight without coming under any pressure. Cashmere ran on to finish second ahead of Tudor Prince who barely managed to save place money. In the lower division of the race, M R Singh trained Ramon rallied well to beat favourite Aqua Blessing. The latter overtook Ramon with ease at the final bend and established a good cushion. However, Aqua Blessing began to falter in the final 100 metres and Ramon came up with a second wind to get past the favourite close home to land the spoils at nourishing odds. Future Bright was third.

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Ramon (A Ramu up) winner of the Ramkirpal Plate (Div-II)

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Deepalika (Surya P up) winner of the Set Alight Plate (Div-I)

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Play Safe (A Imran Khan up) winner of the Noble Princess Plate

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Castaway (Trevor Patel up) winner of the Poll Ramachandra Rao Memorial Trophy

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Bazinga (Kiran Rai P up) winner of the Set Alight Plate (Div-II)

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Mahanati (Dhanu Singh Deora up) winner of the Ramkirpal Plate (Div-I)

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