Young horse dies; God's Own wins

The Narendra Lagad-trained God's Own posted an easy victory in the Singapore Turf Club Trophy, the main event of a nine-race card slated for yesterday at the Mahalaxmi racecourse.

However, she won uncontested as four of her eight rivals had to be withdrawn after a freak mishap resulted in the death of young horse named Dirty Perty.

God's Own was the only one with the benefit of a run, and all her eight rivals were slated to make their debut. One of them was Dirty Perty, owned by Jaydev Mody and trained by Malesh Narredu, who came in for massive support in the bookmakers' ring, driving his odds down from 7/1 to 9/2.

Support for Knight
There was also sustained support for the Karthik-trained Gallant Knight, and in effect, God's Own drifted alarmingly from the afternoon odds of 11/10, more than doubling up, and was easily available at 9/4.

However, as the runners were being stalled, Dirty Perty (Yash Narredu up) acted fractions in the gates after he was stalled, and suddenly squatted on the ground, giving unmistakable distress signals.

All in vain
The handlers rushed to rescue him, quickly removed all horses from the starting stalls, and even moved the gates, as per one of the eyewitnesses present at the 1,000-meter marker.

Unfortunately, Dirty Perty breathed his last, perhaps due to shock, though it can only be confirmed after the post mortem report is available.

Reliable sources (the club authorities had not issued official statement until the filing of this report) told mid-day that three more horses - Gallant Knight, Arc Shine and Rincon - who had lined up for the first ever race of their career, became extremely nervous and started shivering, forcing the authorities to declare them as non-starters, reducing the nine-horse field to only five.