24 January,2022 09:32 AM IST | Mumbai | Prakash Gosavi
Photo for representational purpose. Picture Courtesy/iStock
The Pesi Shroff-trained Theon scored an emphatic victory in the Villoo C Poonawalla Indian St Leger (Gr 1), the feature event of Sunday's nine-race card at Mahalaxmi. In the hands of jockey P S Chouhan, Theon lengthened his strides to spare half a dozen lengths to his main rival Lagarde (P Trevor up), one-and-half-dozen lengths to Apsara Star (S A Gray up), and over three dozen lengths to Marlboro Man (T S Jodha up). Theon (Multidimensional - Fontainbleau) was bred at the Usha stud of Ameeta Mehra, who owns it in partnership with Liame, wife of filmmaker Milan Luthria.
Ace jockey P Trevor, who recently returned from Qatar, excelled in the saddle on Sunday. He rode four winners, three of them carrying the silks of Dr Cyrus S Poonawalla who had sponsored the feature race of the day, the Indian St Leger, in his wife Villoo's memory. The three Poonawalla-owned winners included two four-year-olds making debut--Rodrigo and Exclusive--who picked up the upper and the lower divisions of the play. RWITC.com Plate; and another four-year-old, Key To The Mint, who made a successful start-to-finish bid for the Noble Prince Plate. Trevor's quadruple enabled doubles for two trainers--Dallas Todywalla (Rodrigo and Key To The Mint) and Altaf Hussain (Divine Thoughts and Exclusive).
Interestingly, two more trainers also led in two winners each. One of them was Pesi Shroff, who saddled Theon, winner of the St Leger, also led in The Bawaji (Neeraj Rawal up), who pulled off a stunning wire-to-wire victory in the Sonny Brar Trophy; the other was young professional Shazaan Shah who accomplished a trophy double with the Zeezhan-ridden Joaquin (Y M Chaudhry Memorial Trophy) and the Kaviraj-ridden Rambler (upper division of the Jehangir P Dubhash Trophy). Both Joaquin and Rambler raced in the silks of Jaydev Mody.