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Usha Stud Farm, ranked among top breeders, chose to announce the retirement of their champion galloper, Multitude, on Thursday. Coincidentally, the day was billed for the running the 2,000m Indian Champion Cup. Not really intending to highlight Multitude`s retirement but whispers that Desert God may also be bidding good bye to the turf, merits a line or two about the two eight-year-olds champions, particularly because the former`s send off was very touching, but not as painful as Desert God`s defeat in the afternoon`s feature event that was claimed by the present generation`s king, Star Superior, in a close contest, from the princess named Adjudicate.
However, there was no official communications from S. Padmanabhan`s camp, pertaining to Desert God`s future. Quite likely, whispers may have been the emotional outbursts from the betting brigade that blindly followed the two ‘certainties as bearer cheques, and the general masses, banking on them in their pools. Further, punters will definitely rue their absence for whatever reasons – retirement or otherwise – until new stars are born.
Desert God wasn`t even a shade of himself on Thursday. The race goers yearned to see the 6/4 favourite, at the helm, but Vijay Singh`s Shivansh (C.S. Jodha), showed the way until Star Superior, in the hands of Suraj Narredu, decided to shoot ahead, 300m from home. Desert God (David Allan) never went beyond the third berth during the course of the running.
Now coming to Star Superior`s victory: It turned out to be a close contest between the two, almost equally fancied runners -- Star Superior and Adjudicate. The former won by mere half-a-length but suffice is to say that jockey Srinath could have further stretched Star Superior, or even guided Adjudicate to victory, had has his charge managed to get the galloping room along the rails, and not forced to switch out, 250m from home.
It was Suraj`s day and the jockey was in a good nick. The champion notched up a quadruple of wins, including two for Vijay who also ended the day saddling four winners. Suraj`s day started off with the victory of the vastly improved Abhay Gama and his engagements concluded after Vijay`s baby, Black Pearl, who demoralised the opposition with another amazing performance in the Indian 1,400m Champagne Stakes that the half-brother of Adjudicate won the way he liked, despite weight disadvantage. Unbeaten in his career`s three stats, Black Pearls`s brilliance may be judged by the popular opinion that the Plaintaire-Alvarita son may start as a hot favourite if his connections decides to take a tilt at the Poonawalla Multi-Milion, later during the Mumbai racing season.
Izzy provided Suraj his fourth win in the seven-event card. The failed favourite in the Calcutta Oaks, went around her business of winning the 1,400m Republic Cup without any fuss. However, the even-money favourite, may have been pressed, had the Hyderabad challenger Long Range (Nikhil Naidu), who placed second, had not burst blood vessel during the running of the race.
Besides, the runaway wins of favourites Abhay Gama and Black Pearl, Vijay also saddled two shockers named Excelsior (Nikhil Naidu) and Asmita (app. Hasib Alam) in their respective events – the Tolly 125 years Celebrations Cup and the Diabolical Handicap, each over 1,400 meters.
Trainer Shafiq Khan, too, notched up a smart win on a quietly fancied runner, Aggression (Afzal Khan), in the Albert Piperno Memorial Cup which also witnessed a back-to-back failure of Roxor (Imran Chisty) as a 6/4 favourite.
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Abhya Gama (Suraj Narredu up) winner of the S S Bala Memorial Cup
Aggression (Afzal Khan up) winner of the Albert Piperno Memorial Cup
Excelsior (Nikhil Naidu up) winner of the Tolly 125 Years Celebration Cup
Izzy (Suraj Narredu up) winner of the Republic Cup
Star Superior (Suraj Narredu up) winner of the Indian Champion Cup (Gr.1)
Black Pearl (Suraj Narredu up) winner of the Indian Champagne Stakes (Gr.3)
Asmita (Hasib Alam up) winner of the Diabolical Handicap
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