Hyderabad Race Club celebrates its Golden Jubilee this year. It’s been a glorious 50 years for this institution from 1961 to 2011. To commemorate this joyous occasion a sweepstakes race titled ‘HRC Golden Jubilee Commemoration Cup’ for 3-year-old and upwards, over a distance of 1,600 metres, has been framed on Sunday, 18th September 2011 with a stake money of Rs 1.5 million and trophy value of Rs 1.50 lakhs.

The monsoon season kicked off on Wednesday with a well-filled card of nine races. The highlights of the day were a fine treble by jockey A Imran Khan, a good double by trainer L. D’Silva and a superb ride by P.S. Chouhan on Rapture of Victory and an amazing sprint by 3-year-old Hidden Destiny. Imran Khan is now a freelancer and looks upbeat. He is sure to add spice to the fight for the jockey’s honours.

L.V.R. Deshmukh’s Rapture Of Victory (Alnasr Alwasheek-Raptures) carved out an incredible victory in the Ratanlal Gupta Memorial Cup, a seven-furlong race for horses in the highest category. Kohinoor Wish, an accomplished sprinter from Prasad Raju’s stable, and Rapture Of Victory shared the favouritism at 9-4 each. The two raced together till passing the 600 metres board and both made their move at the same juncture to get to a fight in front of the grand stand. Kohinoor Wish looked keen and surged ahead of ‘Rapture’ inside the final furlong and in doing so tightened Rapture Of Victory towards the inner rails. Jockey S. John had Kohinoor Wish stretch by a length in front but P.S. Chouhan checked his mount, pulled him out and with a brilliant piece of riding, covered the gap rapidly to snatch the victory at the post by the proverbial whisker.

Jockey Imran Khan had taken a couple of weeks to wipe off the terrible memories of the Kingfisher Derby which probably was haunting him. He was back with a treble on the opening day to up his spirits. Crown Crystal, River Side and Splendid Show were his winning mounts. Crown Crystal (Tejano-Crown Secret), the property of Dr. Vijay Mallya from the yard of S.A. Shehzad Abbas, raced in fifth till 800 metres, improved rounding the final bend and took the inner ground to slip away clear from the rest to win the lower division of The Rani Laxmi Bai Plate, the opening race of the day. Wedding Gift finished second, while Handsome Hawk and Phenomenal Speed filled the frame.

In the very next race, the higher division of the Aristocracy Cup, Imran rode D’Silva’s River Side (Epicentre-First Wave) to a popular win. The favourite was positioned a close fourth behind Indian Epic, Zero Tolerance and Valentine for most part of the race. Entering the straight, Imran guided River Side in between horses and surged ahead to score. Valentine made a late dash to take the second spot.

Shamsuddin-trained Splendid Show (Eljohar-Fraulien Richter) galloped resolutely under Imran to win the five-furlong sprint, The Cupid Plate. Part Time Lover led early and entered the final straight clear of Carson Troy, who ran green and failed to get a hold. Splendid Show improved to be third around 300 metres from home and produced a splendid gallop to beat Part Time Lover by two lengths.

L. D’Silva’s Magic Million (Don Micheletto-Life Is Life) surprised many in the higher division of The S. Malakonda Reddy Memorial Cup. Stable companion Rosemead, who garnered most support in the betting, tried to make it start-to-finish but buckled when local lad R. Umesh rode out Magic Million inside the last furlong. Devine Ganges and Drayton moved late with a fast run to push Rosemead to the fourth position while the two finished ahead in that order.

Ananth Vatsalya’s Da Xia (Epicentre-Undoubted) had failed to get to the winner’s circle last winter but looks to have struck form. The 4-year-old beat his 14 rivals in the lower division with a notable turn of foot. The bottom-weighted Illustrator looked well on top of the straight with Golden Palace on the outside and Da Xia in the centre getting into action. Jockey Deep Shanker was able push his mount to prevail in the fight. Golden Palace finished second, half a length behind, while Illustrator finished a length away in third.

The horse, for the performance of the day award, if there was any, would definitely go to Laxman Singh trained Hidden Destiny (Eljohar-Lucky Mining), who won the five-and-a-half-furlong Aristocracy Cup - Div II in splendid fashion. The son of Eljohar was sent into the race as favourite at 6-4. He took a good jump and led all the way to the finish cutting a smart timing which was 0.30 secs slower than the course record. The manner in which he won indicates that he has class in him and will definitely pick up more laurels.

Twentyfive Pips (Young Senor-Okati Okati Okati) was a stunning upset in the higher division of The Rani Laxmi Bai Plate. Twentyfive Pips built up on the lead he had, on the straight and that came in handy to stave off the vigorous effort of P.S. Chouhan on Spanish Conquest close to the winning post. Westminister finished a close third while the ‘hot favourite’, Challenger under Imran Khan looked to be in distress and finished a tame fourth.

Anupam Sharma opened his account through his ward Smrithiman (Burden Of Proof-Aylesbury) in the Kalamaris Plate, the concluding race of the day. Moving in between horses, Smrithiman emerged clear to win from The Parliament. Deccan Passion was hard at work throughout the straight but failed to accelerate and finished third.