Excellent Lass and African Gold ride to victory

Riaz Babu reports on Rajesh Narredu's Excellent Lass and Parvati Byramji's African Gold victories in Bengaluru classic races.

Rajesh Narredu trained Excellent Lass (Suraj Narredu up) won the Fillies Championship Stakes, the first of two classic events of the season held here on Saturday (Aug 3). The winner is owned by Mr. Daulat Chhabria, Mr. Ashok Ranpise, Mr. Teja Gollapudi and M/s. Rapar Galloping Stars LLP rep. by Mr. Rajendran.

In the second classic of the day the Parvati Byramji trained African Gold (Akshay Kumar up) claimed the Colts Championship Stakes. The winner is owned by Mr. Mukul A. Sonawala, M/s. DT Racing & Breeding LLp, So Blest Trading Co Pvt & Mr. Girish Mehta.

Jockey Suraj Narredu won four races on the day.

Suraj confidently kept his filly in third position till the bend before manoeuvring the mount from the outside on the home stretch. Excellent Lass responded well to the reminders, overtook leader Tesorino passing the 600m and won resolutely.

African Gold, who jumped out smartly, settled down to race a handy second or third till 600m, before Akshay Kumar, who rode confidently, made his move from the outside in the home stretch. The colt responded tremendously to the reminders, overtook the leader Flight On near 300m, and after a ding-dong duel managed to hold fast and pip Santissimo for a narrow win.

The results

1. GUINDY PLATE: AKASI (Arvind K) 1, Recreator (G. Vivek) 2, Phoenix Surprise (Faizan Khan) 3 and Air Blast (Tauseef) 4. 1-1/2, 3 and 3-3/4. 1m 14.68s. Rs. 71 (w), 18, 11 and 18 (p), SHP: 30, THP: 32, FP: 101, Q: 56, Trinella: 612, Exacta: 4,130. Favourite: Blues Ballad.