It's My Time bags Rajpipla Trophy

Representational Pic/File

In a stunning display of riding skills jockey P Trevor astride It's My Time fought a stirring duel with his arch rival Sandesh (Irish Gold), and outwitted the latter to claim the Rajpipla Trophy, the feature event of Wednesday's small, six-race card at the Mahalaxmi racetrack.

The backers of both horses must have faced extreme anxiety as the head-to-head battle, with hope and despair alternating with each stride, lasted all the way along the final furlong. The only man in the stands who was perhaps not stressed one bit was trainer Dallas Todywalla, trainer of both It's My Time and Irish Gold, who knew both his horses would finish 1-2 when Market King (Antony Raj up) threw in the towel after bringing the four-horse field into view.

Trevor also guided to victory trainer Shazaan Shah's Lord And Master who, along with the saddle and the ace jockey, also carried a massive gamble on his back. It seemed like every man--hos aunt and grandma and his neighbour's wife--had all bet their money on Lord And Master (who was sent to the gates as a 12/10 favourite from the ante-post odds of 4/1). The gamble nearly flopped when jockey Kishore Kadam on Fortune Son refused to give up his slender lead despite Trevor's all out efforts. Finally, Trevor somehow managed to get Lord And Master to put his nose ahead at the wire, the verdict, in the context of timing, being only twice the hundredth part of a second.

The Radha Sigtia Trophy for Class II horses (2000m) saw the piping hot favourite Dash (Yash Narredu up) staying flat-footed inside the gates when all his rivals jumped out. Strangely, the stipendiary stewards neither bothered to hold an inquiry nor informed the racing public if the gate had malfunctioned or the horse acted stubborn, leaving the cause to the public's imagination who were already wondering how, in the final less than 3 minutes the odds on the favourite shot up from 70 paise to even-money, a rise of 40%, and who was the omniscient soul who foresaw the event before it happened. For the record, the race was won by Expedite, trained by HJ Antia and ridden by TS Jodha.

Incidentally, trainer Antia also led in the winner of PA d'Avoine Trophy when Nelson River raced first past the post in the hands of Haridas Gore after hot favourite Mila, who attracted an avalanche of money to get backed down from 18/10 to 13/10 in the bookmakers' ring, put in yet another back-to-back bad show after her loss as half-money favourite last month.

Jockey Vivek G rode popular fancy Mighty Sparrow to a decisive victory in the Amazing Mauritius Cup for trainer Pesi Shroff; while trainer Faisal Abbas bagged the Rajcoomar Gujadhar Memorial Trophy with Betsy who was given a confident ride by apprentice lad Bharat Singh.