Power Shadow faces threat from Zoom Zoom

Eight races are slated for the evening card on Thursday; and each of them is named after an elite club in Mumbai. The Malabar Hills Club is the prime event for class II horses, and St Andrews is expected to dominate it, but not without his followers getting a scare from Khayyam, if the latter attempts a start-to-finish bid putting some quality speed into the race. At the end of the seven-furlong trip, it could be a toss-of-the-coin decision between the two.

But more than the feature event, it is the Otters' Club Trophy for class IV horses which may generate more interest thanks to as many as 13 horses going over the trip of six furlongs, all of them aged between five and eight.

Seven of the 13 will be ridden by apprentice riders claiming allowance, and therefore, the top-weighted Power Shadow, to be ridden by ace rider Trevor Patel, may attract most of the support and money. However, I feel the Shazaan Shah-trained horse may face a very serious threat from Zoom Zoom to be ridden by rookie Akshay Gaikwad.

Just four days ago Zoom Zoom put in an excellent show over a trip that was longer by a furlong, but the notable fact was that he had spurted to the lead when crossing the 200-meter post in a fast run race, and now with Akshay Gaikwad claiming a useful three-and-a-half kg allowance, this eight-year-old trained by AM Jadhav is likely to not only pose a serious threat to Power Shadow, but will most likely get the better of him at the wire.