Shiraz Sunderji trained Market King trounced the opposition in tremendous fashion in the 1200 metres Amarnath Gupta Memorial Cup, a race for horses rated 40 to 65, the feature event of Monday’s Hyderabad races. Highly successful at Mumbai, Sunderji shifted his base to Hyderabad this season and had many fancied runners on the opening day of the winter season, out of which Market King obliged in taking style, giving promise of more wins in the coming months.

Market King appeared to have been well prepared and was strongly backed along with Watch My Stride to be in the thick of things. Jockey C S Jodha brought Market King with a powerful burst of speed down the final furlong and the progeny of Leitir Mor simply swept past those in front and was hailed a winner a long way from home. The well backed Watch My Stride found foot when the cause was lost and his finishing effort could only fetch him the second spot. Kingston was third.

Trainer Ravinder Singh’s horses are known to spring surprises when you least expect them. New Look who had won earlier in the season hadn’t done anything of note subsequently but brought off a big upset in the 1400 metres Telangana Cup, a race for horses rated 40 to 65. Fire Power, Soloist and the hat-trick seeking Icicle were the fancied runners but all of them disappointed giving a timid performance. New Look tackled Southern Princess in the final furlong after having chased the front-runner in the second position. Closer home, New look asserted her supremacy. Soloist ran on late to take the third position.

The 1200 metres Own Opinion Plate (Div I), a race for horses up to 25 turned out to be eventful, with jockey Mukesh Kumar becoming an unfortunate victim of a bizarre incident. Thunder Road who was well backed to win, was on course for an easy when he stormed ahead in the final furlong. Unfortunately for the jockey, a dog cut across the path, causing his horse to shy away, sending the jockey was a toss. The jockey escaped with minor bruises. There were reports that he had suffered a hairline fracture. He will be sidelined from action for some time now. The dog menace is quite common in racecourses and quite often they run across the horses. Fortunately, more often than not, they have only served to scare but accidents like the one that happened was rare. However, the onus is on the authorities to take corrective action so that such incidents don’t recur with any frequency. The safety of the horses and the jockeys will be seriously impaired if no measures are taken. For the record, Queen Blossom won the race at fancy odds with Grand Duke and Winning Player occupying the next two slots. The lower division of the race went the way of Prasad Raju trained Furious Fun who swamped the opposition in the hands of apprentice jockey Santosh Raj, winning as she pleased at nourishing odds. Golden Forza and My Master finished in that order behind the winner. Favourite Amalfitana ran without hope.

Laxman Singh trained Blue Origin had all the credentials to record an encore in the 1400 metres Tenacity Plate (Div I), a race for horses rated 20 to 45. Sunderji trained Flying Scotsman carried a lot of hype though the three-year-old gelding was running after a longish break. Blue Origin who raced up with the pace, shot clear in the final furlong to win in great style from Red Snapper in the hands of jockey Akshay Kumar. Nightmare was third while Flying Scotsman was buried in the crowd. Akshay Kumar was also astride the winner of the lower division where Show Me Your Walk readily justified the favouritism taking control in the final furlong. Sweet Melody who was gracing the wrong end of the field, went very wide in the straight but nevertheless finished on well to take the second spot ahead of Mauser. Nolan who was in the betting perhaps needed the acclimatization run on the local track.

Akshay Kumar’s persevering efforts on Faiyaz Ali Khan trained Unsung Hero saw the fancied runner make a late dash and literally snatch the verdict from By The Bay in the final stride of the race of the 1200 metres Srisailam Plate (Div I), a race for horses rated 20 to 45. By The Bay who had the lead going into the final furlong looked a certain winner before the late rally saw the front-runner losing in an absorbing finish. NRI Sport nosed out favourite Narakamicie. A similar tight finish also ensued in the lower division of the race with Mukesh Kumar who had the chagrin of losing the race on the post snatching the win on the heavily supported Brilliant View. Angelita looked all set to win but Brilliant View nosed out the long shot in the concluding stride of the race. Thanks ran on well to neck out Rising Queen to take the third position.