Zuccarelli delivers a smashing show in Republic Day Derby

The owners, trainer, jockey and BTC officials pose after the the Kingfisher Ultra Derby Bangalore prize distribution ceremony at the BTC in Bengaluru on Tuesday. (FROM LEFT): Co owners of the winning horse Zuccarelli AS Narielwala, DR Thacker, Mukul A Son

Zuccarelli was the overwhelming favourite amongst most trainers and bookies. Although they believed their respective horses had a chance in a depleted field, they were candid enough to admit it would take a magical performance to defeat Zuccarelli.

On a balmy Republic Day at the Bangalore Turf Club, Zuccarelli delivered a performance befitting of a favourite. Running a perfectly judged race and showing immense lung capacity towards the closing stages, Zuccarelli, ridden exceptionally well by P Trevor, galloped to a thumping victory in the Kingfisher Ultra Derby Bangalore, a Grade I race over 2400 metres here on Wednesday.

Trainer Pesi Shroff chose his second horse Revolution, PP Dhebe astride, to set the early pace in the race. Shroff had admitted prior to the blue riband race that his main contender was Zuccarelli and that Revolution is a long shot towards success. He was probably thinking about using Revolution as a tag-team partner for Zuccarelli.

Revolution did her bit by bolting out first and setting a decent pace to the race. Angelico, one of the three classic winners in the seven-horse field, was second and Etosha was third. The trio crossed the start-finish line for the first time in the same order while Zuccarelli stayed comfortable behind, looking in very good rhythm.

Revolution continued to set the pace around the first turn and emerged out of the long curve in pole position, with Angelico (Akshay Kumar astride) and Etosha (A Sandesh up) placed second and third. The pattern continued around the straight before things started to change around the start of the final bend.

YS Srinath decided to roll his dice first and got Silvarius into the lead while Angelico sneaked ahead into second place with Angelico third. They rode around the final curve in the same position while the ice-cool Trevor simply got Zuccarelli to the outside, giving his four-year old geld a clear field and a good position to make the final assault as the horses emerged into the final straight.

Trevor looked to his right, then looked up and decided it was time to press on the accelerator and Zuccarelli responded in fine fashion. In a matter around few seconds, Zuccarelli thundered past its rivals and opened a massive gap, the fight now between the second, third and fourth position.

The commentator aptly remarked “Zuccarelli is turning this into a one-horse race”. Indeed it was as Trevor, with around 50 metres to go, looked back to see where his rivals were. They were well behind and he took his hand off the whip to cool Zuccarelli down. Zuccarelli though was in nitro mode and he powered past the finish line in 2:31.24, beating All Attractive (Suraj Narredu up) by a whopping 15-1/4 lengths and collecting a prize money of Rs 82,77,391.

“Zuccarelli did really well,” said a delighted Shroff at the presentation ceremony. “Trevor settled him beautifully and got him into a good rhythm and was on the bridle all the way. That really served him well in the end. Having won this derby, we’ll try him now for the Indian derby now.”

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