Touch Of Grey wins HPSL Indian St Leger (Gr 1)

Pic/Shadab Khan

Touch Of Grey, the Top Class - Zacara four-year-old colt trained by Satish Narredu, humbled his rivals and posted a stylish victory in the 2800m, HPSL Indian St Leger (Gr 1), the feature event of Sunday's seven-race card. Given a faultless ride by ace jockey Suraj Narredu, Touch Of Grey made his final and decisive move as soon as he entered the homestretch, and went away for a comfortable victory over High Command (A Sandesh up) and Julius (Bhavani Singh up), with the piping-hot on-money favourite Jamari (P Trevor up) ending up a tame fourth. Bred at the Mukteshwar stud, Touch Of Grey, owned by Balam Mohla in partnership with Mrs Yashika Apana and trainer Satish Narredu, continued the current trend of outstation horses dominating the important races at Pune.

Limited flying span

Trainer Satish Narredu, when asked by interviewer B Sreekanth (former jockey) what prompted him to bring Touch Of Grey to Pune to take on Jamari despite the horse's recent failure in the Nizam's Cup at Hyderabad, gave a tongue-in-cheek reply, "Touch Of Grey has been in great shape, and I believe Jamari hasn't really won a race at Pune, has he?"

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"The idea was to sit behind," the winning jockey Suraj Narredu said, "but he (Touch Of Grey) was so keen I had to really hold him back. He has a terrific turn of foot, but his flying span is limited, so considering the short nature of the Pune homestretch I had to time my move perfectly. I am happy everything fell in place."

The supporting event of the card, the Mayor Baburao Sanas Memorial Trophy powered by SRS Group, culminated in a thrilling duel between two three-year-old horses--Chelsea (R Ajinkya up) and Gypsy Soul (Santosh G up). Both went neck-and-neck in the final two furlongs, all the way up to the winning post where the latter won the photo finish verdict.

Treble for Shroff

Trainer Pesi Shroff who had half a dozen trainers positioned ahead of him in the trainers' tally reeled off three trophy races in a row, and this hat-trick saw him rise to the third place with nine points against his name. His winners were Alexandros ridden by C Umesh (Amazing Grace Trophy), and Cash (Caprisca Trophy) and Zuccaro (An Acquired Taste Trophy), both ridden by G Vivek.