The Chief Justice's Cup (Grade III), a terms event for horses four years old and over, featured a well-filled card of eight events framed for Saturday's racing action at Bangalore. Barring Allez Vite and Royal Surprise, who were out of depth in this race, the other 11 runners were well-handicapped. Padmanabhan-trained Becket headed the scales and was seen conceding three kilos to Pesi Shroff's Xisca. On all known form, the pair of them seemed to have the race between themselves. After his winter campaign at Mumbai, Becket had returned to his home centre and run a good second to String Along last month. With the benefit of a run, Becket had shown further improvement in his morning trials. Even though Xisca had ended close behind Moonlight Romance in the Indian Classics, there were doubts about her fitness. It was heard that she had suffered a slight setback in training, and her trainer had been patient with her. The filly was slowly returning back to he prime form, and according to those in the "know", today's race was being used as a lead-up to her ultimate target, which is supposed to be next month's Bangalore St Leger. Despite sporting a wonderful coat, Xisca looked a bit soft in the paddock. On the basis of such evidence, racegoers chose to go nap on Becket and backed him down to on-money favouritism. Xisca's stablemate Berlusconi, who had already won a race this summer, and Spearhead were the other fancied runners in this race.

Ryan Marshall decided to make the running and eased Spearhead into an early advantage over Allez Vite, Ordained One and Xisca. The others led by Spark Of Gold followed at regular intervals as the runners traversed the first half of this nine-furlong event. From an extreme draw, Srinath and Becket ducked inwards and trailed the 13-horse field till the top of the bend. The race took a serious turn at this stage. Spearhead maintained his slender advantage into the straight before he was joined by Ordained One. At the same juncture, Becket was caught behind a wall of horses and Srinath was trying his best to extricate him from that position. Ordained One (Placerville - Amazing Princess) lengthened his strides thereafter, and under some powerful riding from Mark Gallagher, strode away from Spearhead and Xisca. Becket found some galloping room on the wide outside and came with a late challenge to beat Spark Of Gold near the winning post. The favourite ended a tame fourth in the day's feature. For the second time this season, trainer Ganapathy had succeeded in taming Becket, as String Along had done the same to him in The Karnataka Cup (Grade III) exactly three weeks ago. Ordained One paid a hefty 14/1 at the totalizators.

Jockey Srinath's callousness caused a lot of heartburn amongst the supporters of One Life To Love in the lower division of a seven-furlong race for horses in Class II. The public choice was considered to be superior to her rivals and was backed confidently. The filly performed accordingly and recorded one of the easiest victories on Saturday afternoon. She came with a flourish in the straight and swept past the early leaders, but while doing so, caused a series of accidents. Camorra, Sunstone, Deep Blue Sky and Gazaki were racing in close order before One Life To Love arrived on the scene. Srinath produced her towards the outer portion of the track and asked her for an effort. Since Srinath was belting her with his left hand, the filly ducked inwards. The first two to get knocked off their strides were Gazaki and Sunstone. Both Ashish and PS Chouhan were lucky to remain in their saddles. With Srinath making no efforts to correct his mount, One Life To Love continued to move inwards. She cut across the path of Deep Blue Sky, on whom, jockey Appu took evasive action and landed in the path of Camorra. Apprentice Rajesh got unbalanced and had no option but to pull up his horse. The Stewards were quick to notice these happenings, and ordered a "Stewards Enquiry". A spate of objections was lodged subsequently. After a lengthy hearing, One Life to Love was disqualified from her first position. For no fault of theirs, the backers of this winner ended up paying the bookmakers instead of collecting from them. Satish Narredu-trained Deep Blue Sky (Royal Gladiator – Temple Tune) was promoted to the top of the result boards.

The upper division of this race saw a stirring duel between the two market fancies. Dominic's last outing facile winner Love Conquers All was a hot favourite ahead of the Darius trained Yas Marina (Tejano – Tashann). The former was looking to defy a huge penalty that he had received for his four-length victory earlier this season. Christopher Alford took Yas Marina to the front and managed to stay there till the very end. PS Chouhan brought the favourite with a strong gallop down the length of the straight, but he just wasn't good enough to collar the leader. The pair of them pulled away from Cape Ferrat, who plodded along to retain his third spot. Love Conquers All may be a better proposition when he is campaigned at a low weight in the highest class. Yas Marina completed a fine double for Darius Byramji, who had already won the day's opener with Hockenheim (Glory Of Dancer – Princelene). Running in the same colours as Yas Marina, Hockenheim was a half-money favourite in a maidens event over 1,100 metres. Even though the trip was known to be a bit sharp for this filly, she was expected to get the better of her "ordinary" rivals. Chouhan managed to rouse her in the final furlong, and Hockenheim responded to his strong urgings to beat Vijay's Rose near the winning post.

Arjun Mangalorkar's three-year-old Ridgeway (Sunday Doubt – Star Of The Crop) made a smashing debut in the concluding race and paid the highest dividend of the afternoon. The free-striding colt allowed Christopher Alford to complete a handsome double. Running against some real good maidens, Ridgeway showed that he is an exceptionally talented colt. His free-striding action, ability to quicken in the straight and loads of stamina are all hallmarks of a top-class horse. A mere look at the results clarified that he had clocked one of the smartest timings of the day. The seven-furlong event attracted a lot of well-performed maidens. Imtiaz Sait's Mishri had arrived from Mumbai with good credentials. She had finished second in a "Mile Million" and was considered lucky to be running in maiden company. Irfan Ghatala's Hill Dioro was touted to be one of the best youngsters in his stable. Sunday Storm, Sunday Cruz, Own Empire, Saganaki and Mi Amor had all been knocking on the door in recent times. This race had the looks of a real pot-boiler. Ridgeway led from the start and was closely followed by Red Bolt, Sunday Storm and Mishri. The Hill Dioro camp was a bit worried when they saw their ward racing at the back of the pack. Ridgeway quickened nicely in the straight and managed to shake-off his closest pursuers. He opened up a nice-looking lead into the last furlong and kicked for home. Hill Dioro came charging from the back and moved menacingly towards the leader. However, Ridgeway ran straight like an arrow and kept responding to Alford's whip. He managed to hold Hill Dioro till the winning post. Sunday Storm ended a distance behind in third place. Mishri and Saganaki were close behind him. Both Ridgeway and Hill Dioro are top-class horses, and it will pay to follow them in their future starts.

A real exciting finish was witnessed in The M Ali Asker Memorial Trophy, a sprint handicap for horses in Class III. A bunch of three-year-olds racing in open company were expected to dominate the finish, and that is exactly what happened. Warren Singh's Lads Ability (Diffident – Shaandaari) was the rage in this race, and this colt was supported ahead of Colour Of Money, Migrolino and Stringsofmyheart. Stringsofmyheart led into the straight and kicked away from Lads Ability and Colour Of Money. Just as she was being hailed a winner, the filly began to slow down. She was collared near the winning post by both lads Ability and Colour Of Money. To the delight of the punters, Lads Ability managed to keep his neck in front of the latter. The winner has further scope for improvement as this was his first start after a gap of almost three months.

Well-bred Akaliki (China Visit – Allaire) had shown signs of her well-being by running brilliantly earlier this season, when she had all but beaten money-back favourite Waikato near the winning post. This unsound filly was handed over to Md Abbas, as she had too many problems as a youngster. The master craftsman set her right and brought her back into racing. Encouraged by her previous effort, Abbas subjected her to some rigorous preparation. He felt that if she had to break down, let her do so on the training track. Being satisfied with her fitness, he entered her in a long-distance race today. The daughter of Allaire came charging from the back and scampered away from Sun Doro and Fist Of Rage. She certainly looks capable of winning on promotion.