Saturday, August 22, 2009

Bookies day out

Pune remains a happy hunting ground for bookmakers in recent years, the results sometimes are so surprising that at least a couple of punters are numbed and shocked enough into quitting racing forever. As for me I had only one good thing in the day...that too a place of Angelo, who managed to finish third easily.

In the first race, usual bookie delight Graces once again funded them in a big way, as always Graces was installed favorite for god knows what reason and it was speedy Ran Banka who made every post a winning one, and delivering good for a number of supporters who wagered on the horse giving owner Jagjit Singh something to sing about finally.

In the second race, it was a ding dong battle between Dutch Art and Wings of Angels, but as the winning post came near, Wings Of Angel showed a bigger heart and drew away for a win without bothering judge to call for a photo as it appeared the race was heading for a finish at the wire, credit also must be given to young Rathore who is improving his riding skills by the day. Nymp argubly the best bred in the field, was not the first choice of most bloggers sums up the chances of her winning, she doesn't seem to be a quality animal.

Race three saw another ding dong battle, the thundering of hooves on the railings and excitement of the crowds was perceptible but Shodaan failed to deliver and Fluent Victory who always had better credentials than it went past and won the race, though to be honest P Kamlesh didn't have the best of rides and some of his actions in the straight when every jockey has to do his best are questionable. However one of the tipster in the cyber space Golimaster completed a well deserved quick double, and insured his followers will be safe from bookies beating hereafter.

Unfancied Telstar funded the bookies tremendously, they had all the bets pocketed as there were hardly any takers for Telstar apart from small time punters, it was obvious the owners didn't go with Weizho, and went instead with Go Guzzi Go as many had predicted earlier and run of Choti Begum was dismal to say the least.

River Knight, Angelo and Treasure isle were expected to shine apart from Onasis and Vacheron, Angelo has tracked extensively well especially in Bangalore and was comfortably beating Natouchka, who later won there... River Knight won with some measure of comfort while Treasure Isle was given a hard ride only to stay second, a little disappointing was the timing of the race which undoubtly was due to monsoon track.

Fire Streak provided another fund raiser for bookies who may not have had so good since last year Pune season ended and lesser fancied Classic Star provided further profits to their undertakings, looks like most tipster must have bitten the dust today, if they don't fail like this on occasions, bookies will cease to exist.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Kolkata Kash out

Most of my known avid race goers had a perfect day at Kolkata off course race day, followers of C.Kumar of www.racinginfo.in had a day big enough to ensure that the festive season starts on an auspicious note. As Ganpati is being heralded in Western India, Eastern India's lone turf club RCTC proved to be a pot of gold for so many equine sports lovers here,who will engage in Ganpati celebrations in a big way now, a friend is buying a new car at this occasions from the winnings of the day, as usual the day's best of C.Kumar obligied, but what happened before was tremendous, lucrative priced, Superman, Bravo Italiano, landed spoils for everyone, followed by colorful lady and Adriana.

The confidence was such that a few had kainchi's of Superman, Bravo Italiano, Mysterio, Colorful lady and Adriana, and the result was Kolkata Kash out. A little time ago I had written an article about the performance of days best of C.kumar, well, a Rs. ten thousand roll on winners provided much much more than the 1000 Rupees roll on place bets of days best over a period of sixt days.

C.Kumar has a few die hard fans and his fan base is ever increasing, may god give him godspeed for enriching his followers.

Monday, August 17, 2009

TURF REPUTATIONS....ANTONIOS SCORES OVER SET ALIGHT AGAIN!

Once again Antonios redeemed itself while Set Alight failed. This weeks racing at various turf clubs had a few reputations held high while a few were tarnished. The wonder filly 'Set Alight' lost the Nizam Gold cup to Ice Breaker...not so long ago Ice Breaker lost to conceptual, and now Ice breaker decimated Set Alight, if Set Alight had a set back, the racing public was kept in dark, if Set Alight had not traveled well, this fact was also not known, in any case the performance of Set Alight was very much unlike the racing style of the filly, the resounding gallop she used to display approaching the bend and in the straight was missing, the filly appeared game, having no room she extricated herself on the outside and showed signs of a fight, but something was not well with the filly, her heart was set on winning but her body didn't support her and thus she couldn't come close to Ice Breaker, it was another shocking result and shows the vagaries of horse racing.

In Pune meanwhile the best 1400 meter horse ever trained by ace trainer Imtiaz Sait, had a very poor opposition, since it was tracking rather well, Beyond Belief was a solid place bet for me and also a decent win bet. Many people scoffed at my choice but for me, the field was unproven of the class of horse they were competing against, Beyond belief has rubbed his shoulders with great Class I horses and acquitted himself creditably, recent tracks showed tremendous improvement and all those of had a win and place bet on this game big hearted 1400 Mtrs horse laughed all the way with enough in their pockets. Beyond Belief certainly held up his reputation if not enhanced it.

On Sunday in Pune another horse that did wonders to his reputation was Antonios, very few tipsters gave it a chance and he was available at 4-1 in the ring, the word going around was that this horse was giving weight all around, it is funny to hear such logics from educated racing fraternity, the colt who won Indian derby in record shattering time, carried sixty kilos, and if one deducts 1.5 KG usually a handicap given to fillies, and the manner in which he had won earlier and the company it had run with surely showed that it had a much better handicap than the rest, it is sometimes baffling how pundits handicap, and also shocking for me was to see such lucrative odds on it. All the pundits have a sad tale post race and conspiracy stories as to Yana's performance, but if one will see the replay of the race it was clear the moment this colt came up in the straight, the race was over, Yana even found it hard to beat Mr. Greedy in third spot, and finished where she deserved to...in second place.

Mr. Greedy has come up to Class I after starting a winning sequence from lowest class,and has redeemed himself and done a huge to his reputations and certainly this horse has a few wins in store for him in higest class for a couple of years to come if it remains fit.