Jockey Yash Narredu excels on opening day
Jockey Yash Narredu stole the limelight at the Pune racetrack where the Mumbai racing season 2020-21 was flagged off yesterday. The youngest jockey of the Narredu clan rode in three of the eight races, riding two winners and losing the third by a whisker.
In the fifth race, the Secret Star Plate, Yash rode Giant Star trained by his brother Deepesh Narredu. He was unperturbed until midway in the short Pune homestretch when the race came to a boil and Sunrise Ruby (Zervan up) and Mount Moriah (Sandesh up) were engaged in a heated battle, then moved up Giant Star with gigantic strides to whiz past the warring duo.
In the next race, the Welcome Trophy, which was billed as the feature event of the card, Yash brought the Pesi Shroff-trained Enigma with a flourish in the last 100m to swoop on the favourite, the M K Jadhav-trained Super Grove (Nikhil Parmar up). But the winning post came to the rescue of the favourite and her followers, Enigma failing to catch the winner by the proverbial whisker.
Immediately in the seventh race, Yash gave a copybook ride to Leopard Rock, trained by his father Malesh Narredu, when he drove the three-year-old bay colt to his second career victory from three starts.
Yash shared the day’s honours with jockey A Sandesh who also rode a double on the card, winning both the divisions of the Master Shifu Plate: the upper division with Belenus and the lower division with Ms Boss.
