Royal Liberator who had blotted his copybook with a listless performance in the Nanoli Juvenile Million during the winter season, bounced back into classic contention with an effortless win in his lead up race to the Colts Trial Stakes to be held next month.

The Green Forest-Figure Libre three-year old gelding hacked the opposition in the Mayor's Cup (Div I) on Saturday in a manner which effectively sealed the fate of Imperial Legend as a classic material. No other horse in recent times been as much hyped up as Imperial Legend.

Trainer Arjun Mangalorkar always rated Royal Liberator highly. True to expectations, Royal Liberator had won his first outing over seven furlongs in a season's best timing of one minute 26.79 seconds. Subsequently, he ran miserably in the Nanoli Million which put a question mark about his consistency. The trainer reckoned that the short gap between the debut run and the Million was the reason for the gelding's poor run and as such, he skipped the more lucrative Knock-Out Million to give more time to the Green Forest progeny to recover from the ill-effects of a hard race. Royal Liberator style of winning augurs well for his chances in the classics. These are early days and as such, one has to wait and see how horses like Royal Gladiator shape in their lead up races.

Sadly, Loknath Gowda who had put great hopes on  Imperial Legend was stunned by the turn of events. The big made Placerville progeny's debut win in winter no doubt was impressive but he ran below expectations in the Poonawalla Multi-Million at Mumbai. The poor run was attributed to lack of experience. The trainer had rejected a lucrative offer to sell the horse to Western India based Imtiaz Sait. In hindsight, he would have been better off selling it. If only one was gifted with this sight, everyone could become a millionaire in racing.

Royal Liberator who had blazed the track, went into the race as an on-money favourite, with Imperial Legend next in demand. Brora did the job of a pace-maker, with Imperial Legend and Royal Liberator racing in close attendance in about the fifth or sixth position. Imperial Legend quickly moved into a striking position approaching the final bend and in fact, headed the field for a brief while but was done in by the finishing burst of Royal Liberator. When asked for an effort by jockey Srinath, the Green Forest progeny quickened in the manner of a top class horse and stretched away from the field to win by a widening margin of over eight lengths, in a good timing of one minute 27.93 seconds which was better than that clocked by a more seasoned Almost Heaven in the higher class on the same day. Amber Dancer pipped Imperial Legend for the runner-up spot.

Trainer Lokanth was at a loss to explain the poor run of Imperial Legend. ``I am baffled. The jockey said the horse got keener because of the blinkers but even then the performance is too poor for comfort.''

In the lower division of the Mayor's Cup, Star Beauty came from behind to overhaul the front-running Step In Time to win quite convincingly. The win enabled champion jockey B Prakash to record a double for the day. The well bred Steinbeck filly Star Beauty may find the classics too tough for comfort. Meri Ladlaa who came in for betting on the basis of his track work, ran like a dud and finished a poor fourth. Atomic Fusion and Step In Time finished second and third against expectations.

It was difficult to fathom as to how Mohan Valavi's Desert Gold ran a poor race in the 1400 metres Chettinad Stud Plate, a race for horses rated 30 to 45. The Classic Sport progeny runs best when she is allowed to run freely in the front but on this occasion, Red Quartz proved too speedy for comfort and Srinath had no option but to settle the favourite in the second slot. Desert Gold sent distress signals well before the bend and had nothing left in her when the race took a serious turn so much so that Srinath dropped his hands long way from home for which he was pulled up by the Stipes. Srinath said that the horse blew up and there was no point in trying to ride out a horse which was struggling. Almost Heaven who had been pretty consistent without a win to his credit in winter, perhaps due to over-racing, appeared to have been benefited by the rest and won quite convincingly from Red Quartz who kicked on to take the runner-up spot ahead of a late-finishing What A Pleasure. Resist The Force who too was a market fancy, gave a listless performance.

Interestingly, the 1400 metres Littleover Plate had two horses from Madhu Mangalorkar ward namely Golden Collection and Anzac cornering public attention. However, Kisunugntly ended up as the favourite to begin with despite the fact that the Argyle Lake progeny has had her career interrupted by a series of problems which had affected her performances. In the end, a flood of money came on Golden Collection to make him as the firm favourite. Ma Baker who had run two eye-catching runs to her credit was strongly fancied by Arjun Mangalorkar but there were no takers in the betting ring. In the event, Ma Baker who hit the front from the word `go', held on gamely to thwart the bid of Golden Collection. The superior fitness of the former tilted the scales in her favour. Anzac was third.

Darashah's Kirkcaaldy was backed to the exclusion of her rivals in the Royal Command Plate. The Tiajuana filly shaped like a winner at the top of the straight but packed up when Superbe Asset put pressure on her inside the final 200 metres. Crystal Delight finished strongly to snatch the runner-up spot from the favourite.

Both the divisions of the Welcome Plate, a 1100 metres race for three-year olds, went the way of favourites. Ponnappa trained Fiesba was too good for the rest in the upper division where Persian Belle and Bin Tin Tin had useful outings. The lower division went the way of Darashah's Angie who was the fittest horse in fray.

The Sha Tin Plate (Div I) could have gone the way of Hayate but then jockey Shelar's poor handling ensured that the front-running Kilkemmy won by default. Hayate moved up strongly and surged ahead but Shelar failed to keep the horse on a straight course as the filly shifted out which enabled to Kilkemmy to regain the initiative. Another Crown yet again was an expensive failure. The lower division of the race went the way of Sriram Komandur's Soldier of Fortune who had a poor opposition to take care of.