Darius Byramji accomplished a superb feat by saddling Ticket To Ride to win The S Rangarajan Memorial Trophy at Bangalore on Friday. This, incidentally, was his third straight win in a short period of six weeks. The Penine Ridge-Love Me Do colt was making his debut in Class I company, and was facing a set of well-performed sprinters in the day's feature. Although he had beaten mediocre horses while graduating to this group, his timings and style of winning had been impressive. The low handicap assigned to him today gave Ticket To Ride a realistic chance of landing the spoils.

His stablemate Alacrity was fancied ahead of him. The favourite had run second behind Becket prior to carrying the top weight to an impressive win in the lower class. The two of them were the only four year-olds in this set, and both were improving with each run. The best-performed among today's lot was Rare And Precious, but his current form had been disappointing and the heavy impost ruled out his chances.

The tightly packed field took off to a rousing start with the speedy Celestial Son showing the way to Alacrity, Another Destiny, Ticket To Ride and Cart Wheel. The first two cut pace with each other and were almost five lengths clear of the rest as the runners turned for home. With Celestial Son slowing down thereafter, Alacrity and David Allan assumed command and stormed into what looked like a winning lead. Sylvester De Souza had been biding his time at the back, and was waiting to make his charge. He brought Ticket To Ride with a flourish, and joined issue with the favourite.

It was apparent at this stage itself that Ticket To Ride was travelling the better of the two, as he had covered enormous ground in a short period of time. The stablemates travelled abreast for a while before Ticket To Ride gained the upper hand and stormed home to delight his followers. Phoenix Reach galloped on the wide outside to take the third spot ahead of a hard ridden Cart Wheel.

The race for the trainer's championship in the Bangalore Winter Season is normally a one-sided affair with S Ganapathy making it a habit of winning it repeatedly. He has a large and formidable string of horses under his charge. The scene is looking slightly different this year. With almost half a dozen trainers going neck and neck, Ganapathy was beginning to fall back this year. However, by scoring a long-priced treble on Friday, he joined the leading group. With only a couple of points separating most of them, a close finish is likely to be witnessed over the next few weeks. He started it with a relatively unknown Grand Topaz. This filly had never touched the board in her career. She was racing in the lowest class, and the only factor in her favour was the presence of Prakash in the saddle.

After his wonderful performance at Mahalakshmi last Sunday, Prakash rode with vigour today. He rode grand Topaz with a lot of care by keeping her away from trouble. He skirted the field for most of the way, and sailed past Enduring Speed with a minimum of fuss. The rest of the runners were seen labouring at the back. Prakash and Ganapathy scored another point with Firm Amber. With a lot of money flowing in the direction of Classic Concept, the odds against most of the runners began to expand. Firm Amber was always prominent behind Rip Van Winkle and Tirolino as the runners took the rising ground and turned for home.

Classic Concept raced in the front group for most of the way before feeling the heat. His absence from a race track for more than seven months seemed to make a lot of difference, as he got tired in the straight and faded from the scene to finish a poor fourth. Firm Amber raced away from Tirolino to record an impressive victory. The winner is capable of picking up another race before the end of the season. Ganapathy was assisted in winning his third race of the afternoon by Vinod Shinde.

Ruby Legend came with a smooth run through a tightly packed field and got the better of front-running Shot Of Gold and favourite Magnifique . The last named has been fancied repeatedly this season and has disappointed on all three occasions. The two divisions of a maidens event saw contrasting results. Dominic's Love Conquers All came from the rear end of the field, and stormed away to win by a widening margin. The well-fancied Saddle Chief ran in patches and finished third behind a fast finishing Mythos. The winner clocked a good time, and can be expected to progress from his present mark. Champs Elysees and Inspired Move ended close behind the leading group.

The other division saw a battle-royale between Dhariwal's Couleur Rouge and Arjun Mangalorkar's Astounding Gallop. Both these runners had a common line through Tsavorite. Having finished second to that filly, the two of them were closely matched. The seven-furlong trip of today's race was expected to suit Astounding Gallop. He was accordingly backed down to firm favouritism. James Doyle took a good jump with Astounding Gallop and suddenly found himself in front. Yamas chased him throughout the back-stretch, and the two of them were ahead of Suraj Narredu and Couleur Rouge. The running of this race suited Suraj perfectly. He was able to ride his filly for eventual speed, and he did that to perfection.

Couleur Rouge came alongside Astounding Gallop and wore him down near the winning post. Only a neck separated the two runners who finished many lengths ahead of Scorching Ace. Suraj was quick to complete his double for the day by guiding Irfan Ghatala's Advantage Logan to an effortless victory. The filly scored her third win this season and justified the support of her connections. She was eased into an early lead and had no problems in extending it to a widening seven lengths. Confidently backed Sunny Spell was under severe pressure to run second ahead of a disinterested Social Climber. The others seemed to be there only for an outing. A nice gamble was landed with Spark Of Jewel in the concluding race of the day. The four year-old filly had been well tuned by Prasanna Kumar for this race.

She had won her first start in the Summer Season, and had been campaigned regularly thereafter. Feelit Enjoyit had opened as a clear favourite in this race ahead of Saratoga. Spark Of Jewel started at 6's and over before being backed down to first favouritism.

Jockey Chandrasekhar was a picture of supreme confidence on her, as he allowed Flashing Crown to lead her into the straight. All he had to do thereafter was to release the brakes. Spark Of Jewel bounded forward and charged towards the winning post. She won comfortably from Saratoga and Sandalwood Star. Early favourite Feelit Enjoyit was unable to save place money for her supporters.