The dark bay gelding received a confident ride by Chhotu Singh Jodha as he kept Trouvaille a little away from the inner rails all through the 2000m trip but always kept front runners Prince Valiant and Rhapsody under a watchful gaze
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Pune: Trouvaille, trained by S K Sunderji, produced a scintillating gallop in the final two furlongs of the Pune homestretch to win the grade 1, Pune Derby, the prime event of Sunday's eight-race card. The dark bay gelding received a confident ride by Chhotu Singh Jodha--he kept Trouvaille a little away from the inner rails all through the 2000m trip, but always kept front runners Prince Valiant & Rhapsody under a watchful gaze. He also made sure he stalked his main challenger Wizard Of Stocks (Neeraj Rawal up), who had received spirited support to be installed a clear second favourite after the ante-post public choice Sultan Suleiman had to be withdrawn from the fray due to a veterinary issue.
As the heads turned for home, Jodha quickly went after Wizard Of Stocks who had wasted no time assuming command, and for a moment looked like sailing away. Rapidly shifting gears, Jodha unleashed a powerful run to overhaul the leader. But while doing so, he cut across rather sharply for which the runner up later lodged an unsuccessful protest in the stewards' room. The objection was rightly--and in the words of chairman Zavaray Poonawalla--"unanimously"--overruled as the verdict of two-and-three-quarters of lengths made clear the winner was far superior.
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This was the second grade 1 success for the trainer-jockey combination of SK Sunderji & C S Jodha who had thundered into the big league two years ago when Rochester had stunned one and all by winning the grade 1, Indian Derby at the Mahalaxmi racetrack.
Interestingly, Trouvaille, by Surfrider out of Highly Fashionable, had boosted his stock by winning the Colts' Championship race in March at Mumbai, but had blotted his copybook when he struggled to bring that form to Pune. He was summarily beaten on his first show here by Golden Guest; but later, however, he showed punk when losing narrowly to Sultan Suleiman in the grade 3 S A Poonawalla Million last month. He gave proof of further upgrade in form yesterday by decisively beating his rivals to inscribe his name on the scroll of honour of the Pune Derby.
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