Forest Flame mocks rivals

Mahalaxmi racecourse in Mumbai. Pic/Shadab Khan

Forest Flame, trained by Suleiman Attaollahi, posted an authoritative victory in the Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia Gold Trophy (Gr 2), the feature event of Friday's nine-race card conducted at the Mahalaxmi racetrack.

The Leitir Mor - Memory Bay five-year-old mare, carrying the Poonawalla silks, received overwhelming popular support despite racing after a long lay-off of over nine months.

Forest Flame justified her backers' confidence when she moved up with gigantic strides to sweep past the small field in the hands of jockey A Sandesh.

Iron Age, the Imtiaz Sait-trained champion sprinter whose winning spree was interrupted last month in the Spartan Poker Sprinters' Cup (Gr 1) by Multifaceted, resumed his winning ways by claiming the Mahalaxmi Trophy (Gr 3) with a measure of comfort.

He too was ridden by A Sandesh who emerged star professional for the day as he completed a treble by booting home the Narendra Lagad-trained Desert Fire in the concluding event of the card.

Lagad finished the day with a brace, as he had earlier won the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy (VI Bart) Trophy with Son Of A Gun (Dashrath Singh up) over a 1000-meter sprint.

Son Of A Gun created quite a sensation when he was first to go past the winning post despite missing the jump and losing five lengths at the start.

"In my 40 years of racing, I have never seen such a young horse [Son Of A Gun turned three only a week ago] coming up trumps after such a bad start in a five-furlong sprint," a proud Lagad said after leading in the winner.

Champion trainer Pesi Shroff and rookie rider Kirtish Bhagat also ended the day with a double when they combined to win the Maseeha Plate with Northern Lights, and the upper division of the Tasawwur Plate with Chamonix.