Blue Hare - a sprinter of promise

By H.S. Manjunath

BANGALORE, NOV. 13. Refresher exploited to the hilt a light handicap to exact revenge over Hope And Faith in Sunday's feature but the talk horse of the week was Blue Hare who has all the trappings of a stout sprinter. While building a reputation of his own Blue Hare left two high profile contenders in some discomfort.

The Karnataka Police Trophy was by all accounts a replay of that clash in summer between Hope And Faith and Refresher. A game bid by Hope And Faith was foiled close home by Refresher, who was better off on weights despite young A. Imran Khan riding overweight. Antwerp grew impatient and took over the running soon after the start before making way for this lively contest. Considering the huge gap in handicap, Hope And Faith's performance should be regarded as a sturdy one. One So Wonderful was picking up momentum much after the race had been decided.

Senor Pele was the focus of rivetting attention. Into second run of his life Senor Pele scored a merited victory which should taste even more sweeter because the Tejano gelding has apparently stomped over a problem or two and is now ready to make his mark.

The juveniles race was won with a degree of comfort and authority by Smart Charmer. Adolfito ran green. Serious Endeavour put up hard work in the straight and should be all the better for this experience.

Coming back from a spell, Odeon managed to nose out the freely running Scenic in the last possible stride. Anzac flattered to deceive.

Not particularly well placed in the backstretch, Airtel steadily hacked up to the bunch and rounding the turn swept past Indian Native to score a commendable victory. Indian Native was found woefully one-paced. Anchor stumbled just before the turn and may have lost all interest from then on.

Crystal Delight lived up to her surface form though she had to work harder than expected to her winning bracket. Luxor ran her mighty close after Harish dived in for his final run, sensing that he may not make headway with Our Ambition staying on in the fight. Make a note of Saffron Finch, who sported the same colours as the winner and on top of being denied free run in the closing stages appeared not so keen to make headway till well into the straight.

Madhav Mangalorkar was spot on with his Pride Valley. Shakti Singh had to really battle with Pride Valley's instincts to restrain her from bolting away.

Danger lurks when the card looks an easy crack. Saturday was supposedly a favourite's day out as a bevy of odds on fancies were flitting about. But by late evening the jackpot pool was in tatters and that despite Affability coming good after a spell. Quite a lot of strong fancies were clueless as grossly under estimated Blue Hare pulled off one of his biggest wins in a small field dominated by the presence of Royal Gladiator and Spirited Effort. Double trouble for staunch followers of Royal Gladiator and Spirited Effort came in the form of another unfancied runner Air Strike filling up the runner-up slot.

Veteran Mangalorkar had dropped a broad hint in summer that the best of Blue Hare was yet to come after the Brave Hunter gelding had produced a brilliant stretch run to nail a speedy Aprilia in the shadow of the winning post. Expansive odds on Blue Hare tend to suggest that the gelding was so low in preferences solely because Royal Gladiator garnered so much of attention to even edge out Spirited Effort whose hair-breadth's loss to Tobler is still fresh in the mind.

Not surprisingly the big made Royal Gladiator chose to set his own pace and was seemingly doing well until Blue Hare, laying in wait, swooped on him and sped away. In one fleeting moment Spirited Effort gave an impression that he would be right there only to fade out of the scene. In Spirited Effort's case it may well be argued that the distance was rather sharp and the Foyer colt may be better off over a longer course.

Royal Gladiator still needs to shed a bit of weight and disappointing this run may seem, there ought to be something good coming out of this tough assignment for the Honour and Glory colt. As Mallesh Narredu succinctly put it the connections were clearly looking for the future and this race was not as such a `target', keeping in mind that the colt was still on the bulkier side. The next run should hold key to Royal Gladiator's progress.

Air Strike has raised expectations that the gelding is inching closer to fulfil the promise his bloodline is holding out. It is still a long way for Air Strike but this run should definitely create warm feelings towards the gelding in the stable.

After a chip in the bone was removed through surgery, Affability spent recuperating time behind the barn doors and a holiday in a farm. A level of apprehension about her taking the track again was to be expected. But the Serious Spender filly has come through a test of fire. Her win looked laboured but in all probability there is no trace of `rust' imposed by that long absence in her. Trainer Dhariwal said he was more than happy with the way Affability performed. Blinding speed being her forte there was indeed an effort by Shroff to keep her in restraint. To a large extent the rider may have succeeded in doing it. The most impressive aspect of Affability's reappearance was that she is as resolute as she has always been. In taking control, Affability slightly leaned on to Go Honey Go and her last ounce of energy was probably summoned to deal with Shathabisha but in the end, Affability was quite herself, indicating that she has a huge scope for improvement from here. If a line is drawn from where Magic Stride was in the backstretch to where he finished, it was obvious that the Ajaad gelding ended up covering acres of ground. The grey, who was not particularly well away and inhibited his jockey by the fear that he may run out any time, is too good to miss when he lines up next.

There is some niggle, Astor Place has not been able to sort out. The filly was clearly in distress and time may be of essence in her recovery. She drove a huge following to despair, thus opening the race up. Amazon Gold's front running tactics nearly paid off until Extreme Contact established one close home to the point of nosing out the Darashah ward. It is with great fanfare that Imperial Legend was treated after his smashing debut win. A trip to Mumbai was not so palatable for Imperial Legend who was subsequently gelded. This being his first run after that, Lokanath's Gowda's charge put up a pleasing show, eating up ground in the home run to be a fast closing in third. Icelanding Hope got a rather confused ride from P. Woods, stand in jockey for B. Prakash who reported sick and missed both the days. Somehow, without B. Prakash, the contingent itself looked rather pale.

Sriram Komandur's double featured Saturday's modest card. Both Shining Knight and Street Smart were confidently backed propositions, who came home without fuss. Both on the evidence of these wins should be in the reckoning when they move up.

In his own quiet way, trainer B. Shiva strikes now and then. Through Abhimanyu, who was given a quiet touch, Shiva struck in the opener, the five kg claimer S. Ramesh doing a neat job.

The times Diamond Rock had failed confidences must have driven many to discard Mangalorkar's runner. But the three- year old had the last chuckle and the gelding chose to strike at nourishing odds rendering Pristine Beauty's chase futile. The well-fancied Forest Monarch at no stage looked the sort to deliver.

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