Trainer Samar Singh's Lovely Kiss (Rebuttal-Raisin) produced an absolutely brilliant performance to lift The Fillies Championship Stakes (Grade I) at the Bangalore races on Sunday. The highly regarded filly stayed every inch of ground of this mile trip, and confirmed that she is the best of her sex racing currently at this centre. In a fairly run race, in which there weren't any hard luck stories, she scored a comfortable victory in the day's feature. Overcoming a huge disadvantage of an extreme draw, she moved smoothly towards the leaders and raced prominently throughout the race. Ladjadj Stephane gave Lovely Kiss a perfect ride and the French jockey was ecstatic with the response that he ultimately got from her. After having ridden a treble yesterday, he signed-off in style on Sunday by scoring the only professional double of the afternoon. A smooth jump from the gates, keeping her out of trouble in the early jostling for positions, steady progress in the backstretch and a powerful finish in the straight, were responsible for Lovely Kiss's victory today.

The fact that 16 fillies had accepted to face the starter in this first Classic of the reason confirmed that this was an extremely "open" affair. The connections of Lovely Kiss and African Queen had paid Rs 4 Lakh each to ensure the participation of their charges in this race. Both these "final entrants" had finished next to each other in a maiden's race during winter. While Lovely Kiss had recorded a couple of smooth victories thereafter, African Queen had loved her blinkers while running away from her opponents in Class IV. However, they performed in contrasting styles today. The margin between the two of them was more than 30 lengths at the finish. The African Queen camp was quite surprised when they saw her finishing last of all in this race. The comparative ratings showed that Black Magic Woman and Lovely Kiss were clearly better than their rivals. This opinion was carried into the bookmakers’ ring, as the two of them shared favouritism ahead of the other fourteen. There was stray support for most of the runners, as it was felt that quite a few among them had been campaigned sparingly, and were capable of improving from their present marks.

Ace Blood was pushed into an early advantage and she showed the way to Preordained. Lovely Kiss took a smooth jump from draw fifteen, and cruised into third place ahead of Show Time, Forever Glory and Black Magic Woman. The other ten were spread out across the track as the field took the rising ground near the three-furlong marker. It was quite evident at this stage itself that Lovely Kiss was travelling the best of the lot. While the others were being scrubbed for their final efforts, jockey Stephane was holding the third spot without hustling his filly. He relaxed his grip on Lovely Kiss and pushed her in the straight. She bounded ahead and began her charge towards the winning post. Preordained stayed back in second, while the others led by Black Magic Woman started moving forward. With the jockey waving his whip at her, Lovely Kiss retained her grip on this race, and finished a shade under two lengths ahead of Black Magic Woman, Preordained and Nearness Of You. The last-named caught my eye as she was moving the best at the end. Nearness Of You made up a lot of ground from the rear and showed that she may be better suited over an even longer trip. Quite a few amongst this lot are going to clash next in The Kingfisher Derby, and it will be interesting to see how they move up the ladder.

For trainer Samar Singh, who graduated from being a jockey to becoming a trainer in 1998, this was his first Classic victory and the humble professional was obviously jubilant at the end of the day. He told Indiarace, "I always knew about her potential. Even though Lovely Kiss was bred as a half-sister to Isinbayeva, who was still languishing in the bottom class at Bangalore, she was very athletic. Being from the first crop of Rebuttal, there was very little that we could gauge from her pedigree. She had good conformation and a powerful engine. Even though she did not grow to her full potential, I was satisfied with her progress. I would be telling a lie by saying that I knew she had Classic potential at that stage of her career. The manner in which she improved after each run gave me hopes of further successes. Her last victory was outstanding and that is the day I knew that we had a potential "star" in the stable. God has been kind and he has helped me in fulfilling a long-cherished dream that I had nurtured since the beginning of my career. Lovely Kiss shall be targeted next at The Kingfisher Derby."

Stephane completed his double for the day by partnering Irfan Ghatala's Lad Diva (Burden Of Proof – Istelle) to a popular victory. Sky Light, who had finished second to Sirono last summer, was considered to be a live threat to the favourite. Punters chose to ignore her long absence from a race track, and backed her with confidence. However it turned out to be a one-horse affair. Sky Light raced prominently till the bend before caving in under pressure. She was in distress thereafter and the jockey had to pull her up and dismount near the two-furlong marker. This made Lad Diva's job very easy. The filly came with a smooth acceleration to sail past Shot Of Gold and Good Gift. Lad Diva is in good form and looks capable of repeating on promotion.

The day started and ended with the two divisions of a maidens event. Dhariwal-trained Aladdin was making his debut in the day's opener. He had been working quite well and since he was placed in the lower division, there were many who felt that he was good enough to tackle his opponents. In the absence of Noel Callow, who had hurt himself the previous day, this nice looking colt was entrusted to Ryan Marshall. Aladdin was under pressure from the beginning, and was unable to keep pace with Magnomical and Cherry Hill. The two front-runners raced stride for stride till the very end. Srinath managed to steer Lokanath's Magnomical (Epicentre – Hunting Hawk) to a narrow victory ahead of Cherry Hill, Simply Best and Aladdin. The four of them finished within a couple of lengths of each other. Katrak-trained Rule Forever was a hot rage in the last race of the day. Srinath's efforts to steer this favourite to victory, and complete a double for himself, suffered a blow when the nice-looking horse ran out of gas in the final furlong. He chased L D'Silva's Anacostia (Clodovil – Almost Perfect) till that stage before conceding defeat to her. This enabled Klipspringer to come through the rails and finish an impressive second. Klipspringer made up a lot of ground from the rear, and will be too good to miss in his next start. Rule Forever needs to be given some more time to reach his expected potential.

With the victory of Anacostia, D'Silva completed a long-priced double. He had already won an earlier race with 20/1 outsider Notre Dame (Captain Rio – Prima Marta). What looked like a match-race between Hawa and Hidden Destiny, turned out to be a real cliff-hanger. In the hands of raw apprentice Kuldeep Singh, Notre Dame led from the start and kicked away in the straight. Hawa and Hidden Destiny tried their best, but were found short at the wire. Notre Dame held on to her lead and lasted out to win by a very short margin from Hawa. Hidden Destiny plodded along to finish a tame third. Hawa found her weight a stopper, and in my opinion, the filly is likely to succeed at a low weight when she races next in the higher class.

Darius-trained Shuddering (Hurricane State – Shuddabot) had caused a stunning upset when he had won at 200/1 on the opening day of the season. The colt received a reasonable penalty for that effort. Shuddering was given steady work on the inner sand track and prepared for today's sprint. PS Chouhan had an armchair ride to victory on this runner. Tracking a bunch of no-hopers till the straight, the horse was alerted at the bend. The manner in which he sped past his helpless rivals signalled further scope for improvement. Shuddering can certainly win on promotion. The Puttanna camp tried to land a big coup through Sugriv in this race. However, a long absence from a race track led to his undoing. Sugriv raced strongly till the bend before calling it a day. He will probably benefit from this outing and trainer Puttanna is capable of placing him to win before the end of this season.

Mumbai import Tender Romance (Alhaarth - Tender Moment) finally entered the winner's enclosure by winning a sprint for horses in Class II. Christopher Alford pushed the Pesi Shroff trainee into an early advantage and managed to retain his two-length lead till the runners entered the final furlong. Second favourite Juno made a menacing move at that juncture and joined issue with this on-money favourite. With both the riders going for their sticks, it was a close affair. Despite stopping in his tracks, Tender Romance lasted out to keep his neck in front of Juno. Corleone rallied late from behind to take the third spot.

Three-year-old Free Styler (Placerville – Academy) enabled trainer Ganapathy to score a point during the afternoon. The well-bred filly had served notice of her good condition by finishing an unextended sixth in her only start this season. Mark Gallagher had subjected her to some strong preparation, and that possibly allowed her to win today. With money flowing in the direction of Alpharetta, Indian Pride and The Last Fling, the odds against Free Flyer remained stationery and she could be backed easily at 2/1 in the betting rings. She ran her opponents off their feet by getting stronger and stronger in the straight, and snuffed out a late challenge from The Last Fling. In his desperation to get closer, PS Chouhan was quite severe on the runner-up. Free striding Alpharetta was lucky to retain her third place ahead of a disinterested Royal Music.