Golden Kingdom bags RN Kanga Trophy

Mahalaxmi racecourse in Mumbai. Pic/Shadab Khan

The Adhirajsingh-trained six-year-old Golden Kingdom, after stalking pace-setter Coeur De Lion (M Alam up) all the way until turning for home in the Class I, RN Kanga Trophy, wrested the lead at the 600m marker, and managed to keep his rivals at bay; in fact, got stronger in the final furlong to spare a length-and-a-quarter to Mojito (NS Parmar up) on Thursday at Mahalaxmi, Mumbai.

Interestingly, on a day overwhelmingly dominated by the first favourits posting easy victories in most races, Golden Kingdom was the only winner who was second-in-demand (26/10) in the bookmakers' ring; but strangely, he too closed as the Tote favourite, paying only Rs 17 for 10. The Dallas Todywalla-trained Sorrento Secret (A Prakash up), in the last race of the card (Narayandas J Dave Plate), was the only non-favourite to score at the lucrative odds of 8-to-1.

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Credence set the tone for the day when jockey A Waydande got her smartly out of the gates in the TM Goculdas Plate for Class III horses, and made every post along the way a winning one to justify the on-money favourite status. Credence was trained by Shazaan Shah.

In the next race trainer Pesi Shroff sent out the well-supported Zacharias to a facile victory and claimed the Sir Charles Forbes Trophy. Jockey Vivek astride the winner asked for an effort from Zacharias approaching the 300m marker, and before any of his rivals could react, the three-year-old colt opened a huge gap, and passed the post more than four lengths ahead of the rest.

Fourth Wing, handled by jockey Trevor Patel for trainer Aman Hussain, kept up the trend of favourites delighting the hearts of the followers of money, winning the AFS Talyarkhan Salver with a measure of comfort.

The shortest-priced runner on the Thursday card, Medusa, trained by Faisal Abbas and ridden by A Sandesh, went on a successful start-to-finish mission in the Edgar DeSylva Salver, and won with much more ease than suggested by the "neck" verdict against runner-up Fable.