The champions of last winter, trainer Vijay Singh and his trusted knight Christopher Alford, showed that they meant business from day one as they each picked up four winners. The afternoon was dominated by well-backed runners as punters frolicked with their pockets jingling. In the card of nine races, the only two runners which were neither first nor second favourite were Hot Iron and Xavier. The management tried to infuse a festive atmosphere among the holiday gathering by providing live music in the two stands.

The day’s main event, The Bangalore Turf Club Trophy, saw Vijay Singh and C. Alford combine fruitfully on Record Breaker (5/2) as the four-year-old by Placerville out of Shalaya made every post a winning one. Though he drifted out in the straight, he stayed ahead of the much touted Mumtaz. Romantic Impact, who was nothing to look at in the paddock, was available at 9/2. He ran a lacklustre third.

Alford and Vijay combined effectively on two other runners – Royal Blue Star and Petaloid. The former, a colt by Sunday Doubt out of Razpazazz, found the seven-furlong trip to his taste as he was seen finishing on in his maiden start over a sprint. Alford had him racing third before opting for the rails. He went past front-running Stalker without any trouble whatsoever while the other fancied runner, Passion N Flames, was all at sea after the distance post.

Dnube Valley (China Visit – Austria) was Vijay’s first winner. The three-year-old colt was a half-money favourite and brushed aside the meagre opposition without being stretched. He was piloted by Shailesh Shinde as Alford would have declared over-weight. Jockey Shinde thus completed a double, having won on Arti Doctor-trained Victory Vibes (Greensmith- Excitement) in the opening event. Ijlal was in hot chase throughout the race but eventually lost the runner-up berth to Daniel David’s Explorer’s Quest.

Trainer David had another surprise up his sleeve as leap-year jockey B. Gurang shot the 10/1 outsider Cherish The Moment into a six-length lead in the mile race for The Pure Valour Handicap. The rider’s lack of pace judgement did him in as he gave his mount a free rein from the word go. The top-weight kicked on merrily but was eventually caught up and overhauled by Robert Gowli’s Hot Iron (Dancing Beggar-Iamtheone) atop whom MF Ali Khan had to work ceaselessly. The favourite Elusive Thought was one of three horses during the day running in the colours of Mr Harish Ramchandani, the others being Blue Grass and Credit Swap. The filly was outpaced by the front-runner and could never make up the leeway.

Bath-trained Rob N Rob (Ontario-Dellua) notched up his fourth win in five races as he made the Regal Empress Handicap a start-to-finish affair in the hands of C.Alford. Bluegrass did issue a serious challenge though and will be worth keeping an eye on in the near future while Bayberry does not seem to be the same horse that he was last season.

Javed Khan’s Xavier (Duja-Miss Sunshine) won an absolute thriller as he got the better of the runaway Kinshasa close home. He had gone down to the same horse during the monsoon but has come on a lot since then. Askarel burst his blood vessels while Cee Four ran on a fair third.

David’s Must Be Magic (Eljohar- Bon Apetit) won the Love Is Blind Handicap in great style as she made every post a winning one in the hands of NS Parmar. The filly was available at 2/1.

Vijay and Christopher finally had the honour of bringing down the curtain on the day’s proceedings with Petaloid (Inhabitant-Petalluma). The half-money colt won as he liked to end the afternoon on a happy note for punters.