Mr. Majestic gallops to prestigious Governor’s Cup win

By M. Shamil Amit

Mr. Majestic, owned by Isuru Dissanayake stable, lifted the prestigious Governor’s Cup in a highly contested nine furlong race, held at the Nuwara Eliya horse racing track recently. It was a depleted field which saw only horses in the fray with the winner holding on to the lead which he took over from six furlongs to win the race by three lengths.

It was a memorable day for the Indian jockey Saddam Iqbal and trainer S.D. Lalith, who is a former champion rider, with the jockey winning two events from the six, which were worked off for the day. Trainer Lalith went one step further when he bagged three events as he shared the honours with another successful trainer Sridher Selvaratnam who too won three events. Saddam’s other win was on Black Cat which took the Mobitel Cup.

Mr. Majestic, in fact dashed the hopes of Cafe Coffee who was the winner of this prestigious Governor’s Cup since 2011 and who was seeking to record his third successive win. The two time champion was pushed to the third slot with Spark of Gold taking the second spot. M.D. Shoaib who has also won the Governor’s Cup previously on board Cafe Coffee was successful in winning two events.

Shoaib won the second event of the day which was the Mayor’s Cup and then went on to take the third race which was the Queen’s Cup. The other two events were won by Melvyn Maseyk who took the first race and V. Yogaraj who grabbed the last event of the day which was the Grand Hotel Cup.



Results:

• Lemonade Cup 1: Ametrine (Owner Hasanga Jayaratne, Trainer Sridhar Selvaratnam, Jockey Melvin Maseyk)
• Lemonade Cup 2: Solar Spirit (Isuru Dissanayake, S.D. Lalith, Saddam Iqbal
• Lemonade Cup 3: Fair Gain, Isuru Dissanayake, S.D. Lalith, P.M. Bopanna
• Mayor’s Cup 1: Pancho Pete (Chamari Jayartne, Sridher Selvaratnam, M.D. Shoaib)
• Mayor’s Cup 2: Killer Foot (Manusha Weeraratne, Sridher Selvaratnam, Sumith Kumar)
• Queen’s Cup 1: Exquisite Delight (C.R. Rajapakse, Sridher Selvaratnam, M. Mohan Raj)
• Queen’s Cup 2: Stome Ahead (Isuru Dissanayake, S.D. Lalith, Saddam Iqbal)
• Queen’s Cup 3: Eulexite (Isuru Dissanayake, S.D. Lalith, P.M. Bopanna)
• Governor’s Cup 1: Mr. Majestic (Isuru Dissanayake, S.D. Lalith, Saddam Iqbal)
• Governor’s Cup 2: Spark of God (Anura Delgoda, Sridher Selvaratnam, K. Ganesh)
• Governor’s Cup 3: Cafe Coffee (Nishara Jayaratne, Sridher Selvaratnam, Melvyn Maseyk)
• Mobitel Cup 1: Black Cat (Isuru Dissanayake, S.D. Lalith, Saddam Iqbal).
• Mobitel Cup 2: Mia Stella (Nishara Jayartne, Sridher Selvaratnam, Melvyn Maseyk)
• Grand Hotel Cup 1: Lapistha (Parteeban, S.D. Lalith, V. Yogaraj)
• Grand Hotel Cup 2: Johney (Ananda Bandara, Jayantha Wijesinghe, M. Mohan Raj)
• Grand Hotel Cup 3: Millenium Baby (Wasanthi and Sudakar, Sridher Selvaratnam, G. Pugalendran)

Pix by Waruna Wanniarachchi