Racing at the wrong end of the Derby field until the final three furlongs of the 2000m trip, King`s Ransom produced an astounding gallop in the hands of jockey PS Chouhan to win the Betwary Pune Derby (Gr 1), the highlight of the Pune monsoon season. The Usha stud-bred three-year-old filly, by Multidimensional out of China Creek, is owned by Mr & Mrs Vijay Shirke, KN & ZK Dhunjibhoy, Keki D Mehta and Dara K Mehta. King`s Ransom was trained by Pesi Shroff.
Trainer Pesi Shroff, in a post-race interview, made clear he was not overly worried about King`s Ransom sticking to the rails at the wrong end for a long time. “Because coming into the homestretch, very soon PS (Chouhan) did a wonderful job, settling her and getting her into the rhythm.” The winning filly then courageously swooped on to Dangerous, and after a brief but fierce duel, overpowered her rival to score a half-a-length victory, which was narrow but decisive.
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“She (King`s Ransom) settled nicely,” winning jockey PS Chouhan said after the race, “and when pace slowed down a bit midway, she was very calm. I knew she was now only waiting for her chance, and she proved me right.”
Besides winning the Derby, the trainer-jockey combination of Shroff-Chouhan won two more races with Claudius (Jimmy Umrigar Trophy) and Enigma (Noshir & Dolly Dhunjibhoy Sprint Million). The last-named, Enigma, shattered the existing course record by clocking a blazing 1m:6.509s for the six-furlong trip.
