Trainer Prasanna Kumar monopolises Pune prime events

Representational Image (Pic: File Pic)

Horse trainer Prasanna Kumar, who brought a small string of only 13 horses to Pune when the season began in July, has excelled with his runners, almost monopolizing the prime events of the monsoon season. This weekend too, he continued his conquests by winning three races, including Sunday's feature event, the SA Poonawalla Million (Gr 3) with dark bay three-year-old colt Redefined (Phoenix Tower- Symi) who outclassed his rivals in the hands of Sandesh. A day earlier, he had also led in Royal Mysore who won the Pune City Gold Cup, giving ace jockey P Trevor his first victory after returning from a short stint in South Korea.

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The Bangalore-based trainer's current stats at Pune are just incredible! He has won eight races in only 16 attempts, scoring at an astonishing clip of 50 percent, and he has accomplished this feat with only five of his 13 horses: Royal Mysore (2 wins), Evaldo (2 wins), In Thy Light (2 wins), and two horses--Siege Courageous & Redefined--with one victory each. More impressive is Prasanna's in-the-money (1-2-3) strike rate--13 of the 16 horses saddled by him have finished in the money, at an amazing 80% success rate.

Jockey P Trevor and trainer Prasanna Kumar dominated the Saturday card with a double each, and jockey A Sandesh rode three winners on Sunday to steal the limelight.

Trainer Chenoy honoured

In a special ceremony held between races on Sunday, trainer Bezan Chenoy was felicitated by the race club and the trainers' association for completing 50 years of a very successful career. "Thank you very much," the veteran trainer expressed his gratitude in a short speech, "fifty years have gone by--there were ups and downs, but overall, it has been a good ride."