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Kamilah has it easy in the 1000 Guineas
Review: By: Goldie Boy
November 27 , 2021
   
   

Kamilah, trainer S. K. Sunderji’s unbeaten filly in her career’s two starts, fully justified faith that the western India heavyweight owners, Nagpals, bestowed in her while winning the 1,600m Arion Horse Company Calcutta 1000 Guineas at the RCTC’s race ground on Saturday. The Rodric O’Connor-My Lakshmi daughter was also given a perfect ride by C.S. Jodha on her way she pocketed a Princely Sum, of about Rs 11.5 lakh, and yet leaving the sporting Nagpals a thrilled lot. The afternoon also witnessed trainer Vijay Singh’s aging horse, Shivansh (R.S. Bhati), winning the 1,400m Mayfow Cup with ease. Favourites, however, had a major share in the afternoon’s seven-event card, winning as many as four races.

Thanks to damages caused by the pandemic, the honour of winning a Classic is far greater than prize money offered. In any case the completion was, as usual, tough and nobody expected the Trophy to served on a platter. In the race proper, trainer Suleiman Attaollahi’s course favourite Scruples (A. Sandesh) was seen closing up to front runners, nearing the home, having trailed the field in a slow run race. Kamilah, on the other hand, was just behind the early leader Aretha (C.Umesh) right from the start and was sent into the lead, turning for home. It was below the distance-post that Scruples changed gear and literally drew away from the leader. But much like a Hindi movie, the Mumbai challenger came with an unbelievable second wind to land the spoils.

 
   



Old timers did argue that Scruple had a short burst and she used it up a bit too early but the wiser lot firmly believed that the metric mile had weighed heavy on the 1,400m Trial Stakes winner. Trainer Aashay Doctor’s Delphini (P.S. Chauhan), too, found the slated trip a trifle long to her liking. The Bated Breath-Performer filly was always third on the wide out and her path was also cut across by the rapidly improving Scruple, about 200m from home. However, Delphini was beginning to look like a spent force around that point of the journey, and thus her failure to stop Alford’s Euphratus (Shailesh Shinde) for the third berth hardly came as a surprise.

If Scruples failed in the 1,000 Guineas, half an hour earlier, Vijay’s Shivansh, was able to score from an identical position and with a similar style of running, despite shifting out badly. Ironically, it happened in the 1,400m Mayfowl Cup which was presented to the winner, by the Nagpals. Inside the last furlong of the race, trainer Neil Darashah’s strongly fancied runner, Violin (S. Zervan) was shaping as a winner after taking over the running from the long time leader -- Daniel David’s Consigliory (P. Ajeeth Kumar) -- in came Shivansh on the wide out to spoil the filly’s party, about 50m from home.

Darashah had, however, saddled the winner, Sea Of Cortez (app. Sujit Paswan) of the 1,400m A.A. Apcar
Cup, 30 minutes earlier, after a close tussle with Vijay’s top weighted filly Silver Bracelet (app. Hasib Alam) and the Hydrabad migrant, Reno Star (Ajeeth K.). David’s Areca Legend (Rupal Singh) cut a hot pace, but Sea Of Legend and Silver Bracelet were always close behind. In the final 200m Silver Bracelet seemed to be travelling better along rails but in the whipless hands of Hasib Alam, the topweighted, albeit an equally fancied filly, just knuckled in the final three strides, to allow Sea Of Cortez to score by a neck. To add to the excitement, David’s Reno Star (Ajeeth K.) was brought into the fray with an amazing turn of foot to place an impressive third -- a further long-neck behind. Incidentally, it was Sea Of Cortez third win in-a-row.

Shivalik Gold (Chethan Gowda), another Darashah’s runner seeking a hattrick of wins, failed to run into a paying berth but he was a close fifth behind another Mumbai migrant, Agrami (Zervan) in the 1,400m Kariba Handicap. Agrami was brought into the fray with a late run on the wide out to easily beat a friendless Topnotch (Md Islam), a fancied Shamshir Sword (Paswan), the 9/4 favourite Nova (Jodha) and the topwighted Shivalik Gold – the last four named horses fought a desperately close contest.

Vijay had opened his day’s account with a runaway victory of another Mumbai migrant, Mogul (Paswan) in the 1,200m Cameron Handicap. Held back in the mid-division till about a furlong from home, the three-year-old was quick to put in daylight between himself and a yet another of Mumbai challenger, Exotic Queen (Zervan), trained by Faizal Abbas.

The afternoon also witnessed an easy start-to finish victory of trainer Javed Khan’s 5/4 favourite, Ahnika (Bhati) in the 1,200m Fly Like The Wind Handicap. Trainer Arti Doctor’s 6/1 shot Third Avenue (P.S. Chauhan) recorded a back-to-back win on his way to lifting the 1,600 Woolver Valley Handicap. Incidentally, Third Avenue was the only other local horse, besides Ahnika and Shivansh, to have scored in the day’s card.

 
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