"May God save us from 'buri nazar' ", says winning jockey Suraj Narredu
AT THE WIRE: Suraj Narredu powers Excellent Lass (near side) to score a half-length victory over Flight On and Field Of Dreams to claim the Poonawalla Breeders' Multi-Million (Gr 1) at the Mahalaxmi racetrack on Sunday (Pic: RWITC)
Excellent Lass, trained by Rajesh Narredu who had the foresight to get her to Mahalaxmi immediately after her winning debut at Bangalore, shocked her more fancied rivals in the Poonawalla Breeders' Multi-Million (Gr 1), the feature event of Sunday's evening card at the Mahalaxmi racetrack. The Excellent Art - Remembrance Of You filly was ridden by the trainer's brother, ace jockey Suraj Narredu for whom she was the sole mount for the day. Owned by Daulat Chhabria, Ashok Ranpise, Teja Gollapudi and Rajendran, the winning filly clocked 1m:21.935 for the seven-furlong trip. She was bred at the Villoo C Poonawalla Greenfield stud.
In fact, the first three places were all grabbed by the Poonawalla-bred horses, as Flight On (Roderic O'Connor - Angels Touch) finished only half a length behind the winner, and Field Of Dreams (Leitir Mor - Realmsoffantasy) a nose behind the runner up.
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Excellent Star was quick to jump from gate number two, but jockey Suraj controlled her to let Storm Cloud (M Alam up) hit the front, followed by Flight On (Antony Raj S up), Redefined (Vivek G Up) and Jade (C Umesh up). On turning for home, Flight On quickly went for the lead and Field Of Dreams moved up like a bullet on the inside rails to challenge him. Suraj brought Excellent Lass on the outside and put her directly into the top gear. So forceful and vigorous was Suraj's handling that Excellent Lass moved menacingly in the final 100m to fly past the leader Flight On.
"I am on top of the world right now," the winning jockey told mid-day after the race, "but of late we (the Narredus) have been feeling there is some power up there somewhere which is blessing us for our hard work--otherwise these kind of consistent successes are not possible."
"You will laugh at this, but I don't have shame in admitting that I am superstitious," Suraj added, "and believe in "buri nazar"--I just hope the prayers of the ladies in the family keep working for us."
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