Mumbai: With three wins in five outing, Juliette from Kartik Ganapathy's stable appeals the most for the Darashaw, Indian St Leger Grade 1, the feature event on the 14th day of the Mumbai meeting to be held at the Mahalaxmi racecourse here on Sunday.
On sheer merit, the highly reputed Juliette looks hard to beat although Parisian has shown tremendous strength and improvement through her short career. Juliette has abundant experience and has battled with the best, both on home turf and away. She stretched Adjudicate in the Indian Turf Invitation Cup last year and after a longish break was back in business winning both her assignments on the Pune track after a break of over nine months. The manner of victories she dished out was most impressive and she displayed her class on both occasions. In her last outing, she accounted for Parisian pretty convincingly over 2000 meters and that form places her firmly as the prime favourite to win this one.
Parisian is the one most likely to trouble Juliette. Her winning streak was broken by Juliette and that remains the only loss for Parisian who won post that defeat taking her win tally to four from five outings. Both Juliette and Parisian tower over the other rivals and with Juliette having already put it across Parisian, earns the top billing to land the spoils.
On a day with two Grade One races on card, Miracle, with two wins under her belt look the best bet for the Poonawalla Breeders’ Multi-Million, which wears an open look.
Miracle, showed great maturity in her first run itself winning it by a healthy margin and then followed it up with another resolute victory beating favourite Dragoness with a late burst, but then Dragoness did most things right until beaten by just a length.
At the end this 14th day of the Mumbai racing has lots for both the bookies and punters alike.
First Race 1.30pm
Selections
1. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy Div-2 (1000m): 1. Super Girl (2), 2. Little More (5), 3. Dowsabel (9)
2. The Kumar R Dalal Gold Trophy (1600m): 1. Troucaille (3), 2. Lightning Bolt (2), 3. Truly Epic (5)
3. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy Div-1 (1000m): 1. Noble King (2), 2. Desert Fire (5), 3. Divija (8)
4.The Isn't She Special Plate (2000m): 1. Melisandre (5), 2. Mandeville (3), 3. Silver Storm (8)
5. The Florrie & Freddy Sopher Gold Trophy (1000m): 1. Aegon (2), 2. Highland Lass (1), 3. Exotic Queen (3)
6. The Intervalve Poonawalla Ltd Trophy (1200m): 1. Petronia (13), 2. Multiencrypted (5), 3. Raffaello (6)
7. The Poonawalla Breeders' Multi-Million (Gr.1; 1400m): 1. Miracle (11), 2. Dragoness (10), 3. Knight In Hooves (3)
8. The Darashaw Indian St. Leger (Gr.1; 2800m): 1. Juliette (5), 2. Parisian (6), 3. Anjeze (4)
9. The Dr Goolam E Vahanvati Trophy (1400m): 1. Dreams (1), 2. Black Cherry (7), 3. White River (6)
Day’s Best: Juliette (8-5)
