Santos wins a thriller
Jockey Nikhil Parmar steers Santos to victory in the Class I race - Pix by Nimalsiri Edirisinghe
Racing returned to the Royal Turf Club in Nuwara Eliya with a bang. A race card punctuated with five races and 42 runners was what was on offer, with the RTC Spring and Summer Race Day Cup the feature of the day last Sunday. And what an incredible race it turned out to be. There were three horses in a line with 300 metres to go. Then Santos and Bashagar powered away and remained locked together as they flashed past the post. The Judge finally gave the verdict to the Purni Edwards owned Santos who was declared the winner. He was trained by S.D. Mahesh and given a great ride by jockey Nikhil Parmar. This was Racing at its very best and you could not have asked for a better finish to the day.
At 10.30am the gates clanged open for the Hill Challenge Trophy which attracted a capacity field of a dozen runners. Star Scholar (Ace ex Scholastic Giant) owned by Mr. and Mrs. Gamini Jayaratne, trained by S. Sridhar and ridden by Sanjeevan led virtually from the word go to win from stablemate Crimson Quest.
The Alpine Hotel Cup was up next and Vigorous (Lucifer Sam ex Taxido) ridden by D. Janaka adopted the same tactics and won from the front for his owner Ajantha de Soyza. The winner was trained by W. Jayanta.
Trainer S. Sridhar notched up a double when Icelandic ridden by R.P. Shinde (Ontario ex Concept) cruised home to win the Sunday Times Trophy. The winner who won well is owned by Hasanga Jayaratne.
The Fearless Stables And Stud Farm showed that they meant business right from the time of the Acceptance Stage by fielding three runners in a field of nine. In the end their Spirited Touch trained by S.V. Madialagan and ridden by Aneel delivered the goods to win from Chul Bul Pandey.
The Royal Turf Club (RTC) will gear up to host the two important racedays in Arpil, which are promised with thrills and spills after last Sunday’s show at the Racecourse in Nuwara Eliya. On April 15, the RTC Governor’s Cup is scheduled to take place, followed by the RTC Magic Million Cup on April 21.
 Winner of Ranjit Dahanayake Memorial Cup, was Fearless Stables |  Purni Edwards, the owners of Santos at Spring and Summer Raceday |