The first of the two extra race days of racing offered by the Club was held on Wednesday at Mysore. With most of the bigger stables preferring to stay away, the authorities were able to frame a modest card of seven events. The Abs Fabs Cup, a sprint race for horses rated 60 and above, happened to be the day's feature. With most of the runners having poor recent form, the race looked like an "open" affair. By virtue of having finished a close third behind Dramatic Dancer and Lake Emerald, Sharat Kumar's The Spartan looked marginally better than the others. The speedy Miss Ruby had come down a lot in her ratings, and it was only a matter of time before she would win a race. Prithviraj's Bala's Glory was one runner who had seen much better company, and his last year form was superior to the present lot of horses. The only doubt pertained to his current fitness, and this got cleared by the activity in the bookmaker's ring. Bala's Glory received one-sided support and got backed down from 5/2 to Evens, as the horses made their way towards the starting gates.

Miss Ruby and Another Destiny fought for the early lead and showed the way to The Spartan and Bala's Glory. The others headed by Citrali raced in close order as the runners made their way towards the home turn. With the first two getting tired at the bend, it was The Spartan who went ahead. With Harish making free use of his whip, the six year old surged away from the others. However, his dominance was short-lived, as a couple of younger horses tackled him in the final furlong. Balas Glory came with a flourish on the wide outside, while Citrali made a steady move towards the inner rails. In the hands of Jagadeesh, Balas Glory was always travelling better than the others. He cantered away to win easily from Citrali and a tired The Spartan. The winner could escape with a light penalty for this victory, and this may enable him to pick up another race in the near future.

Jockey Jagadeesh enjoyed one of the finest afternoons of his career on Wednesday. Apart from his success in the feature, he won the first two races in the day's card. Both Splash Of Beauty and Thumping Victory won as relative outsiders. Feroz Khan's Splash Of Beauty had served notice of an early victory by running a good third in an earlier start. She had finished strongly from the back to end on the haunches of the winner. Jagadeesh adopted different tactics today. He rushed Splash Of Beauty into an early lead and drove her relentlessly thereafter. She lasted out to beat Hero's Dominance and Land Of Gold in this race. With a little drop in weight, Hero's Dominance looks capable of picking up an age group race during the smaller Winter Season.

His win astride the Vikram Appachu trained Thumping Victory was quite fortunate. The six year old missed the kick and was caught towards the inner rails, as they traversed the first half of their journey. Ryan Marshall had the Byramji trained Spark Of Legend in front ,and the pair of them led by a couple of lengths from the others. With no place to move near the two furlong marker, Thumping Victory was caught in a hopeless position. He was literally climbing onto those racing ahead of him. A dream opening materialized at that stage. A few horses shifted out under pressure and left a yawning gap through the middle of the pack. Jagadeesh was clever enough to make full use of this godsend opportunity. Thumping Victory produced a sparkling gallop to sail past the early leader, and registered one of the easiest victories of his career. Spark Of Legend, Kar O Bar and Golden Tricks took the minor placings on the result boards.

Another horse that showed remarkable improvement in his form and fitness was Feroz Khan's Unique Star. This last outing winner had scrambled home by a short-head exactly a week ago. It is difficult to remember a horse making such improvement in just seven days. Those connected with him had a fair inkling of what was going to happen. Unique Star was slammed down in the betting rings and was quick to displace Swept Away and Ahira from the top of the boards. Apprentice Rajesh held him on a tight leash as he tracked Ahira till the top of the straight. The boy relaxed his grip in the final stages and that was all he needed to do. Unique Star bounded forward and in a matter of seconds was clear of the rest. On tight reins, he won by a widening margin of ten lengths from Swept Away and Ahira. The timing that he clocked was far superior to that clocked by Balas Glory in a higher category. On this showing, Unique Star looks headed for much higher laurels.

A brilliant finishing effort from champion jockey Sreekanth enabled Lokanath's Mr Ambassador to lower the colours a runaway Chinab near the winning post. Chinab and Happiness brought the field into view, and with hardly anything moving from behind, seemed to have the race between the two of them. The on-money favourite Mr Ambassador was caught between a couple of horses, and Sreekanth was seen trying to pull him towards the wide outside. Mr Ambassador found galloping space in the last two hundred metres and did his best. His long raking strides enabled him to collar Chinab in the last few strides of this seven furlong event. Happiness managed to hang onto her third spot.

Sreekanth was unable to repeat a similar feat with Byramji's Waltz Away. The four year old was the shortest priced horse in the day's card. In the hands of an inexperienced apprentice, Waltz Away had finished close behind Inspirator in their earlier clash. Considering that Waltz Away had run after a long time, and also that he had met with some interference in the said race, he was expected to improve over that effort. With a positive switch in the saddle, he was backed like a "good thing" today. Inspirator was an obvious second favourite ahead of the others. Front-running Ace High tried his usual tactics of running away with a race. Waltz Away remained in close contention while Inspirator was seen racing on the rails. The race took a serious turn in the final furlong. Waltz Away made heavy weather of trying to collar the leader. He came with a strong challenge, but that wasn't good enough to go past Ace High. At just about the same moment, Inspirator made his move. Reacting positively to AR Pradeep's urgings, the blinkered horse came charging through the pack and posted an easy victory.

The only other race in the day's card went to Babu Rao's Fist Of Rage. By finishing a good second to Arabian Gold, Fist Of Rage had shown that he is back in business. He faced an ordinary set of seven opponents today, and this was reflected in the odds quoted against him in the betting rings. The even-money favourite allowed North Cape to lead on sufferance. S Ramesh allowed him to lead onto the straight. It was pretty evident at that stage itself that the race was only for the minor placings. Fist Of Rage lengthened his strides in the last furlong and gained an overdue victory. North Cape and Frame Partner hung onto their minor berths ahead of Samajdaar. The last named was definitely troubled by the mile trip today. He will be a different proposition over a shorter distance in similar company.