In accordance with the script, Simply Noble took over the running soon after jumping out and appeared coasting for a bloodless victory. But Strengthtostrength, the gutsy six-year-old trainee from Rehanullah Khan’s stable, thundered on to the scene to scare the wits out of Hughes. The Irish rider soon applied pressure on Simply Noble who was shortening his strides to hit the wire well in time. Simply Noble eventually prevailed by just half a length. Prince Nicholas, the owner and stablemate of the winner, came from way back to grab the third place from the tiring Razalin. The rest were truly beaten for pace.

With B. Prakash not reporting for duty, and later Aslam Kader too getting injured, Pesi Shroff got the opportunity to partner two winners in Amorous Warrior and Anthology when replacing the absentee duo. With Astor Place also leaving the maiden ranks, Pesi had a tally of three winners at the end of the day. Putting to use his fine judgement of pace, Pesi guided Dr Vijay Mallya-owned Astor Place to an emphatic victory over Sun Streak in the Rusi Patel Trophy run over a mile. 

Carrying top weight, Anthology hit the front with Pesi in saddle and kicked on to a length victory over As A Rule. But Pesi was seen at his best on Saeed Shah’s ward Amorous Warrior in the curtain raiser. Shanillo assumed his customary front running role but surprisingly refused to throw in the towel. Racing close on the heels of Shanillo was Amorous Warrior but the son of Sir Bordeaux struggled to put his best foot forward forcing Pesi to drive him with all vigour. Amorous Warrior produced that little extra to gain over Shanillo with Pesi even managing to brush aside the late bid of Sleepyhead.

Astute placement of Great Pasha by Jaggy Dhariwal saw the son of Ilheus out of O’Rossana make amends for his narrow defeat at the hands of Sanaga barely ten days back. Great Pasha veered out under pressure hampering the passage of favourite Inimitable on whom Aslam Kader was deputed. Aslam Kader made a tactical error in pulling Inimitable towards the inside after travelling wide with Great Pasha. Had Aslam refrained from switching lanes, there was a distinct possibility of Great Pasha colliding with Inimitable giving the favourite a chance to win the race in the stewards’ room. Dhariwal had a back to back double with Astor Place. 

Patched up by Rehanullah Khan, Forest Hunter brought home the bacon for Iqbal Nathani in his only second run with the new master. Jockey Ikram Khan did an unblemished job for his elder sibling. With her fragile legs unable to bear the stress, Aerodynamic faded out of contention to run a dismal last.

The piping-hot favourite Pleasures let down a large following only to prove that she is highly overrated. Having finished second to Lady Moura only a week back, Run For Glory showed good improvement to humble Signal Tap at the post after the latter had the measure of Pleasures whose pillar to post mission withered away in the straight. 

Zameer Sayyed astride Shirley Valentine took off from the blocks with the obvious intention blowing her up. The four-year-old filly, owned and trained by D. J. Surti, was in no mood to oblige the nefarious designs of her connections and pulled away much to the chagrin of all punters. K. P. G. Appu did no favour to his reputation by his rank bad positioning of Amazing Dream. Favourite to register an encore, Amazing Dream was asked too much to do when coming from far behind that too giving 12kg to the winner. 

Shooting Mercury’s run on Sunday was to be her swan-song before retiring as a broodmare. Imtiaz Sait planned a winning farewell for the property of the Chaudhary siblings Divya and Yug Mohit. A silent coup was also accomplished as Shooting Mercury was entrusted to the lesser known jockey N. M. Khan. The Rebounding Thrill mare came with a sustained run to spike Bound By Honour’s aspiration of an encore close home.