Pesi Shroff-trained filly shocks favourites to win 37th Poonawalla Breeders

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It was completely against the script. When all the betting money landed on Buckingham (backed down to 10-9-on), and minority supporters of Invictor (5/1) and Lady Scarlet (9/1) were secretly hoping for a miracle, the Pesi Shroff-trained three-year-old filly Margaretta, going out friendless at 14/1, thundered onto the scene from the rear, and passed them all to win the 37th edition of the Poonawalla Breeders’s Multi-Million (Gr 1), the richest juvenile race in the country, which was run as a feature event at the Mahalaxmi racecourse on Sunday.

Thundering finish

The powerful gallop Margaretta (Vivek G up) unleashed to pounce on Lady Scarlet (P Trevor up), who looked all set to cause an upset with a nearly successful start-to-finish mission, was unbelievable. The win made her sole owner Mehernosh H Deboo richer by R90 lakh. The win also saw the 37th version of the PBMM setting a new record timing of 1 minute 21.016 for the trip of seven furlongs, which shattered the old record by nearly 7/100th of a second.

Fifth winner for Shroff

This was Shroff’s fifth PBMM winner as a trainer after Picasso (2011), Costa Del Sol (2015), Accolade (2016) and Miracle (2021); and for jockey Vivek G, this was his first ever PBMM winner. “She posted some good work before the race, but no one around me shared my view, so I was not confident. In fact, in the paddock the owner [Maharnosh] asked me what I thought. I put him off, saying, ‘hoping she runs well, but expecting will be a bit too much’,” Shroff told mid-day after the race. 

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