After negotiating the final turn, both Gift Of Grace and Thailand raced abreast trying to grab the lead while David Allan astride Well Connected also moved up on the inside rails
The victorious Juliette at Mahalaxmi. Pic /RS Gupta
The Karthik Ganapathy-trained Juliette decimated her ten rivals in the Indian Oaks (Gr 1), the feature of Saturday's nine-race card at Mahalaxmi. The Musketier - Gimmesumsugar filly's spectacular performance over the mile-and-a-half trip will likely earn her the favourite's tag in the forthcoming Indian Derby (to be run on Sunday, Feb 2) should she choose to contest, as she most likely will.
It wasn't a clean jump from the gates for Juliette who lost some ground initially, but her rider Colm O'Donoghue quickly brushed her up to race fifth on the outside of Sea The Dream (Neeraj Rawal up) even as Notoriety (L Roche up) showed the way to Gift Of Grace (David Egan up) and Thailand (S John up).
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Electric response
After negotiating the final turn, both Gift Of Grace and Thailand raced abreast trying to grab the lead while David Allan astride Well Connected also moved up on the inside rails. Passing the two-furlong marker, O'Donoghue asked for an effort and Juliette's response was electric. She quickly overtook Gift Of Grace and Thailand and sailed away for a very comfortable victory of nearly half a dozen lengths over Well Connected, and beating her 1000 Guineas conqueror Gift Of Grace (5th) by over a dozen lengths.
No game plan
"There was no game plan," trainer Karthik made clear in a post race chat after the race, "we were just praying there will be good pace in the race. (Jockey) Colm rode a very sensible race, and kept her (Juliette) out of trouble."
Juliette won in the silks of the late Dr MAM Ramaswamy, and was led in by Dr A C Muthiah who looks after the late racing baron's equine interest after his departure. "It's a team work," trainer Karthik added, and expressed gratitude towards Dr A C Muthiah for trusting him with such a wonderful filly as Juliette.
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