The hills of Nuwara Eliya came alive to the cheers as jockeys vied for winning positions during the six races at the Governor’s Cup Race Day powered by HPSL.last Sunday.
Gracing the event as Chief Guest was Minister of Tourism and Lands, Harin Fernando, His Excellency, Ambassador of Japan, Mizukoshi Hideaki and Deputy High Commissioner of India, Kandy Dr. Athira S.
A card of 6 races were lined up for the RTC Governor’s Cup race day 2024. The first race for the day was for horses rated 00-20 with 5 horses competing for the HPSL Super Challenge Trophy. As ZULU FANTASY owned by Mr. and Mrs. Edwards and trained by S.D. Mahesh is in great form, led the field from the gates to winning post making it an easy ride for Jockey Akash Agarwal. STREET CAT ridden by P. Sai Kumar and STORMONT ridden by L. Ravi Kumar put a great battle for the minor placings. KRABI ridden by jockey P.S. Kaviraj had to settle for 4th place and NAGADA for the 5th place.
The second race of the day was for horses 20-40 running over a distance of 1400 metres with a field of 5 runners. The winner QUEENS HALL piloted by P. Sai Kumar produced a neat effort to push the stablemate ADMIRAL NELSON who had set the pace before packing up after turning for home. GODSWORD galloped quite impressively and ran for the first time during the season taking the runner up position. MYSTIC FLAME who appears to be in good form ran on third.
The third race of the day was for horses 40 to 60 with a small field of 3 runners for the Japanese Ambassador’s Cup. As usual CRACK OF DAWN led the field and took an interesting race when it was challenged by FABULOUS SHOW ably ridden by P. Sai Kumar kept the mare going, snuffing out the challenge of CRACK OF DAWN in the last strides before crossing the winning post. SANTOS ridden by Akash Agarwal maintained his position of being consistently third.
The fourth race of the day a terms race with 4 runners competing for the historic Queen’s Cup was won by COSMIC FEELING ridden by Kaviraj and owned by Deepthika Jayakody. COSMIC FEELING took a long lead right from start to finish mission and was quite successful by winning the race by three lengths with BIG TREASURE and MEHERAN both stablemates finishing 2nd and 3rd.
The fifth race of the day, the main event for the day, The Governor’s Cup a terms race was reduced to just 3 runners with ANOTHER RACE and LEGENDARY PRINCESS being withdrawn on veterinary grounds. ROYAL CRYSTAL and WESTERN WIND were vying for leading the race for some time and HERE AND NOW settling behind the leaders, appears to have improved but taking into account that he is a very moody customer shifted very wide in the home straight but with Ravi Kumar strongly urgings, it won by small margin thus giving trainer S.D. Mahesh a good treble for the day and good double for Mr and Mrs Edwards.
The sixth race was a race for the local ponies with a field of 7 runners was won by SRI LANKAN QUEEN owned by Mr S. Loganathan and ably ridden by Nandhakumar with CITY SHOT ridden by Sivakumar running for second place.
Racing fans can look forward to another exciting day of races on April 28th when the Magic Million Race Day takes place at the Royal Turf Club in Nuwara Eliya.
