It was yet another afternoon dominated by lesser fancied runners at the Calcutta racecourse on Saturday. The bright spot was that a couple of apprentices proved their worth with a brace each. After Shezad Khan completed a high-priced double with Glorious Dancer and Swiss King, Mohit Singh continued the trend with top-weight Kinshasa and recent winner Mumtaz.

The last named runner, a five-year-old mare by Juniper out of Gorgeous Princess, won the Arcade Trophy in great style, thus defying a 6.5-kg penalty. Furthermore, this being a sweepstakes event, rider Mohit was unable to claim his 2-kg allowance. Despite this, she showed a clean pair of heels to the seven-horse field. The fancied pair of Clear Mandate and Hall Of Glory always found the scorching pace of the Daniel David ward too hot to handle. Mumtaz was available at 6/1.

One race earlier, Mohit had ridden another winner for the same trainer and owner (Dr MAM Ramaswamy). Top-weight Kinshasa (Emerald Cat-Nature’s Miracle) was gambled heavily and closed at 10-to-7-on despite the presence of the fancied filly Misty Isles from the Vijay Singh stable. Unfortunately for her backers, she was no great shakes on paddock looks while the on-money public choice was truly outstanding. Mohit settled him in the second slot behind the runaway My Fair Lady. He collared the tiring front-runner quite easily at the distance post before staving off a belated challenge from Xavier who was the better at weights than the winner. However, it is a fact that the latter is no longer the horse he was as a three-year-old and failed to provide a serious threat to David’s chestnut. As for Misty Isles, C. Alford was having a tough time to settle her and keep up with the pace. Ultimately she finished an unimpressive fourth.

The day started with Shezad Khan piloting the 6/1 shot Glorious Dancer to a glorious triumph in the 2,000 metres race for The Dancing Leaves Handicap. The filly by Glory Of Dancer out of Dance In The Stars is bred to stay as her full brother Sol, and the property of Mr and Mrs Sol Noah did just that. She stayed beautifully and romped home a clear winner by over six lengths. The favourite Classical Romance finished a bad last while another fancied runner Flying Wonder found his weight a stopper.

Shezad completed his double with yet another longshot – Swiss King (Diffident-Cyclonic). The Vikash Jaiswal-trained six-year-old was a clever placement in a fairly weak field of five-years-old-and-over horses. As is his wont, Swiss King shot to the front from the word go. The favourite Prince Cyrus followed till the distance post and retired from the fray. Had Requite been positioned beneficially, she may well have turned the tables on the front-runner. But she was given too much to do too late and finished powerfully. Flirting Eye continues to earn her oatmeals as she placed for the third time this season.

Christopher Alford had a fairly unsuccessful day as his only winner from four mounts was the 13/10 favourite Imperial Delight (Oath-Watercolours). The Vijay Singh colt made the opposition look pedestrian as he galloped clear in the straight – stretching out magnificently. Mehzabeen ran a below par race and it was left to Fairy Girl to occupy the runner-up slot.

Recent winner Welcome Smile (China Visit-Stream Of Love) from Arti Doctor’s yard retired a comfortable winner in The Friendly Dancer Handicap despite a stiff penalty of 9.5 kg. The ante-post favourite Amor Amor had her chances but had no answer to the colt from Doctor’s yard as he picked up steam in the straight. Another fancied runner Aerator failed to accelerate when asked for an effort and ended up a tame third. The dismal failures of these youngsters must be a concern for their mentors as they are considered to be classic hopefuls. I suppose one has to excuse their lung-openers of the season.

Talking of failures, none could match that of the filly Martinique – a 10-to-4-on public choice from Pesi Shroff’s yard. Parmar was on a start-to-finish mission atop this classy filly and was running freely enough. He looked back after the bend to see Ashridge on his tail. He still refused to give her a crack and just ensured that she stayed ahead of the threat. What he didn’t realize was that Triunfo (Alnasr Alwasheek-Connivance) was gathering momentum a little further back and flew past the front-runner close home. Not surprisingly, a Stewards Enquiry was opened into the running and riding of the on-money favourite. Parmar seems to have dug his own grave. However, to be fair to him, far bigger names in the world of ‘saddle artistry’ have succumbed to the ‘disease’ known as ‘overconfidence’.