kolkata races

Trainer Daniel David’s prized filly Star Perfection returned to the winner’s enclosure after her number of failures since lifting the Calcutta 1,000 Guineas in the winter season. Her victory in last Wednesday’s main event, the Sreepriya Cup, was easy and also sent out a warning to her rivals eyeing the monsoon season’s plums.
The Steinbeck-Santorini Star daughter however, looked slightly tucked-in during the paddock-parade, prompting bookmakers to push her odds up but the even-money favourite went about her task and scored a shade under four-length victory.Although the going remained good and the weather continued to be sunny, it was the front-runners who dictated terms throughout the afternoon. Among these were last outing winners, Zephyr and Q’ba who established long leads from the start and cashed in on their forward conditions to score at will in their respective events, the Avaglow Handicap and the Goldliner Handicap.Helegonia, another one trying to win from the start for a back-to-back victory, just about scraped through in the Annihilator Handicap. The Javed Khan trainee was somewhat lucky to win as her main rival Arrayal switched course, from the rails to the wide outside, for no rhyme and reason and lost all his chances. With Gastronomique pushing the front-running Helegonia hard nearing the distance-post, jockey D. Singh (Arrayal), instead of sticking to the rail-side wide passage, decided to take a circuitous route and lost by a whisker.The runaway victory of Q’ba earlier in the afternoon did boost the chances of his training partner Flying Jaguar and the confidence of his trainer Vikash Jaiswal in the Best Of All Handicap. The Delhi-based jockey Rajinder partnering The 2-1 favourite, allowed Valintine Dancer to call the shots till the top of the last turn before taking charge. The Diffident son kicked clear of the field once in the open. Genesis was a faraway second and Crystal Bounty, the second-favourite, finished a further four lengths in away after coming with a late run.Robin Corner’s Monticello, the favourite in the True Colours Handicap, came under immense pressure, in the final stages of the race, from Shafiq Khan’s Falaknuma and held on by a head. Jockey Md Islam, who partnered the winner, by Elusive Pimpernel out of Mont Rose, had the measure of the leader, Mozart, below the distance post and looked like holding on to his two-length lead before Vinay Jaiswal brought Falaknuma into the fray.Trainer Patrick Quinn’s Wonnabee walked away with the Super Sunrise Cup over 1,200 metes. The solidly backed 3-1 favourite, was ridden off the pace by Mark Reuben while an equally fancied Fast Love tried the start-to-finish tactics. The front-runner’s efforts came to a naught at the top of the home turn when Wonnabee came alongside and raced away from the field to give Quinn a perfect record in his new career. Big Thrill came from way back to place a good third in spite of his jockey Malcolm Maseyk’s negative efforts. The jockey was handed a four-week suspension after a Stewards’ enquiry.