It was a short neck at the wire in the Rajpipla Trophy, the feature event of the lone day’s racing scheduled for the week. Advantage, Augustus Caesar, who pipped Awesome One to claim the event, on the 12th day of the Mumbai racing held at the Mahalaxmi race course, here.
Horses in the highest class attracted a small field of just four runners, but still produced an exciting finish between the two market fancies, the favourite Augustus Caesar, a progressive five-year-old trained by Altamash Ahmed and the Deepesh Narredu trained Awesome One who was conceding 8.5 kilos to his rival.
Augustus Caesar hit the front from the beginning of the seven furlong journey looking to exploit his weight advantage but was joined midway up the straight by Awesome One coming with a strong run and the pair battled it out all the way to the line with both jockeys going hell for leather and asking for everything.
The weight advantage probably had it’s say in the end as Augustus Caesar won by a whisker and refused to relinquish his lead holding on grimly by a short neck at the wire.
The winner completed his third straight win in-a-row and looks likely to continue on his upward curve while, Awesome One was gallant in defeat and lives to fight another day.
There are rare occasions when a horse proves to be vastly superior to the field and defies Murphy’s Law to still emerge triumphant. Such was the case for the Pesi Shroff trained Del Mar in the Damodardas C Shah Trophy.
He was squeezed out at the start by Baku and God’s Plan and forced to drop back to second last, some 10-12 lengths behind the leader. Coming through the shortest way along the rails to save ground, he came into contention, only to have Properly Posh veer sharply across him causing him a severe check and forcing him to switch around horses to the wide outside.
To his credit, Del Mar still produced an electrifying finish, sprouting wings in the final 100 yards to swoop down on the leaders and save the day for P Trevor. A truly remarkable performance from a horse who looks to be going places. Five favourites obliged in a card of eight events with jockeys David Egan and P Trevor booting home a brace of winner’s apiece.
