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Jockey Suraj Narredu who was on the verge of achieving the landmark of riding 2000 winners got to the rare feat when he guided Prasad Raju trained Guiding Force to an emphatic win in the 1400 metres Crown Treasure Plate, a race for horses rated 40 to 65, at Hyderabad on Monday.
Suraj had been tantalisingly close to becoming the second jockey after the late B Prakash to ride 2000 winners and the two wins that he needed to get the milestone came in back to back races. Earlier Suraj had driven home Vittal Deshmukh trained Ruletheworld in the 2000 metres Salarjung Cup, a race for horses rated 40 to 65, the feature event of the day and followed it up with victory on Guiding Force.
Guiding Force was bidding for a hat-trick, but the major chunk of the betting was attracted by Dandy Man to make amends for his failure as a favourite. After King Maker did the front-running and weakened going into the final furlong, Suraj Narredu pushed Guiding Force to take charge. The lesser fancied runner responded brilliantly and went storming clear for an easy win. Dandy Man came late on the scene and could only snatch the runner-up berth from King Maker. Jockey Akshay Kumar who rode the runner-up has often been lucky because he gets to ride good horses, but his sense of positioning is poor, and he has often lost races where better understanding of the race would make a difference to the outcome of the race.
Coming back to the feature event, Call of the Blue who had reeled off three wins in a row was the favourite but the drift in odds suggested that something was amiss. Ruletheworld came in for solid support possibly due to the favourite losing support. Call of the Blue who failed to keep in touch with the front-runners and midway through the race it was apparent that something was bothering the three-year-old gelding who fell back alarmingly. The Great Gatsby was taken on a start to finish mission by jockey Nathan Evans and the progeny of Speaking of Which ran freely in front and had expended his energy approaching the final furlong. Ruletheworld, another progeny of Speaking of Which who was handily positioned by jockey Suraj Narredu, took charge from the long-time leader and went storming clear to win by a widening margin of four lengths with Pentagon being a surprise second ahead of Exclusive Blue. Call of the Blue made some progress in the stretch eventually finishing a dismal fourth.
A fine piece of riding by Trevor Patel enabled debutant Bedford to win the 1100 metres Megatop Plate, a race for maiden two-year-olds. Bedford was inclined to run out and Trevor had considerable difficulty in preventing the filly from running wild and wide. Trevor waited till turning for home, got the horse to balance herself before riding out the lesser fancied runner to produce a winning gallop down the final furlong. Bedford covered ground briskly and measured the front-running Belle Springs close home. Beautiful Luv close with a rush to edge out stablemate Belle Springs from the runner-up berth.
Visiting jockey Nathan Evans recorded his first win in India when he guided the well-backed Apollo to victory in the 1200 metres Tribute Plate (Div I), a race for horses rated 20 to 45. Evans had Apollo settled along the rials in about the third or fourth position as the bottom weighted Let It Be Me led from the start. Apollo got a smooth run on the outside of the front-runner on turning for home and the three-year-old gelding produced a strong gallop to have the race sewn up in the final furlong. Let It Be Me stayed on to take the second position ahead of NRI Vision who failed to change gear when it mattered and was resigned to the third position. Lesser fancied Tough And Go from the stables of Shezad Abbas won the lower division of the race with a start to finish dash and held off the late flourish of Troubadour. Spiritual galloped in snatches and could only save place money by snatching the third place from Ashwa Calvary. Free Way who cornered considerable support was never in the hunt falling back to the rear within the first furlong and staying put there. Something might have gone wrong with her.
Favourite Magic Street was withdrawn at the gates on veterinary grounds in the 1200 metres Greener Plate (Div II), a race for horses rated 20 to 45. The race had an open look about it and the withdrawal of Magic Street added to the confusion. Long shot Running Fire who hasn`t won for over 400 days led all the way and enjoyed a good break but weakened closer home. Story Teller rallied well and his job was made easy as Hurricane drifted out giving a clear run to the eventual winner. Hurricane finished third. The ante-post favourite His Excellency who had just one piece of reported work was the ante-post favourite at cramped odds, but the odds had changed dramatically when the odds opened for the race. Crimson Fire coming for one-sided support in the upper division of the race. After Best Friend led from the start and put up dogged resistance, Crimson Fire managed to overhaul the front-running in the shadow of the post to land the spoils in the hands of apprentice jockey Rohit Kumar. Human Touch ran on to finish third.
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Bedford (Trevor Patel up) winner of the Megatop Plate
Apollo (Nathan Evans up) winner of the Tribute Plate (Div-I)
Tough And Go (Afroz Khan up) winner of the Tribute Plate (Div-II)
Story Teller (Jitendra Singh up) winner of the Greener Plate (Div-II)
Crimson Fire (Rohit Kumar up) winner of the Greener Plate (Div-I)
Ruletheworld (Suraj Narredu up) winner of the Salarjung Cup
Guiding Force (Suraj Narredu up) winner of the Crown Treasure Plate
Glendale (Akshay Kumar up) winner of the Flirting Vision Plate
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