Malesh Narredu trained Enabler, ridden brilliantly by his son jockey Yash Narredu scored an emphatic victory to claim the Pune Derby ( Gr I) beating hot favourite Jamari convincingly in the final furlong of the 2000 meters race held at the Pune Race Course on Sunday.
Jamari, the overwhelming favourite to land the spoils, was prominently poised in the second spot behind early leader Capitolium who led the eight-horse field all the way into the straight.
Yash settled Enabler at the rear end of the front bunch in the fifth spot biding his time to step up pace. Jamari, with jockey Trevor in the saddle, charged ahead soon on turning for home. They had a fair advantage being ahead by at least three lengths. Yash started to coax Enabler to accelerate and the three-year-colt responded with a sizzling burst of speed and timed his final burst to perfection.
The moment Enabler made his presence felt, Jamari came under pressure and Trovor had to ride hard all through. Enabler collard Jamari about a furlong from home and in the final few strides, sailed ahead to notch up an impressive victory. This is the first occasion when a father-son duo has won the Pune Derby. However, Bangalore based trainer Satish Narredu and his son Suraj Narredu are the only other father-son to have won a Derby combining together in the southern region.
Malesh Narredu holds the record of having won the Pune Derby 7 times as a jockey. As a trainer, Malesh lead-in his third winner in Enabler.
While Enabler won well and looked the winner midway down the straight, Jamari went down fighting to finish runner-up and will live to fight another day. Dream Allaince finished on well to pick up the place stakes.
