The Bangalore Winter Season 2009-10 took off to a fluent start at the local racecourse on Friday. It was a normal November afternoon with an overcast grey sky, and the racetrack looked in perfect condition. Due to a spate of intermittent showers in the past couple of weeks, the penetrometer reading was seen to be 5. The paddock parades showed the fitness of the horses. Most of them were well groomed and raring to go. Although the timings were slower than normal, the competition was keen. The Season started on a disastrous note for the punters as they witnessed the eclipse of the market fancies in the first five races of the day. It was left to champion jockey Suraj Narredu to bring the smiles back on their faces. The young man did it in style. Suraj had three rides in an eight-event card, and he scored with all three of them. There were many similarities in these victories. All of them were three year-olds, were racing over seven furlongs, had strong support in the betting rings and the final verdict in all three cases was only a fraction of a length. While it is accepted that on a given day, some horses are better than the others, it normally needs a good jockey to guide them home. The young man has been winning the jockeys championship on this track for the last few seasons. He gave ample proof of his capabilities today. Suraj had reserved his best for the day's feature. Trainer Padmanabhan had decided to pitch three year-old Celestial Way at the deep end. The Rajyotsava Trophy, a terms race over 1,400 metres saw the appearance of some of the highest rated horses at this centre. Many of them were rated almost 30 points higher than the filly. Celestial Way looked like a "baby" in this bunch. She is a small made filly with a light structure. Her body weight of 397 Kilos did not inspire confidence. She was racing only for the fourth time in her career and taking-on horses who had won numerous races in the highest class on this very track. But there were enough reasons for the public to support her with confidence. She was sporting a good coat, was light on her feet, had worked exceedingly well, had great last season form and most importantly was being saddled by the champion trainer and ridden by the top jockey. Celestial Way delighted her supporters with an absolutely brilliant performance. The field of seven took off at a hectic pace with the speedy Aristos showing the way to Celestial Way, Diamond Hunter and Timeless Treasure while the other three began to slowly drop out of contention. While Ryan Marshall was happy to allow Aristos to run freely in front, Suraj had a tough time settling his filly. Celestial Way was on a tight hold as they entered the straight. The powerfully built Aristos was given a couple of reminders, and the horse responded gamely. He had an advantage of over three lengths at this stage. Celestial Way was sent in chase and the filly took a bit of time to get into her strides. She began to steadily chip away at the lead, and it became evident that she was travelling the better of the two. Suraj moved along with the filly and the duo seized the advantage in the last 50 metres of the race. They returned to a standing ovation from those present at the course. His other two victories came astride The Senator and Systematic. Both these winners were saddled by trainer Mahesh. The other common factor was the fact that both had been sired by Steinbeck, and were scoring their maiden wins today. The Senator had run some poor races in Summer. He had been gelded subsequently and that seems to have worked wonders for him. He was known to be a sluggish starter, who used to find it difficult to keep pace with the front-runners. He looked like a different horse today. The Senator took a smart jump and went into an early lead, before Suraj decided to hold him back. They tracked Enduring Speed till the bend and skipped away thereafter. B Prakash was riding the on-money favourite First Of A Legend in this race. He tracked The Senator for most of the way but found it impossible to overtake him in the straight. With both the jockeys riding flat out, The Senator kicked on to a fluent victory. Systematic had been a trifle unlucky to remain a maiden till today. The filly had run into some top class horses in her career. The handicapper had taken note of her progress and rated her in Class III. It is normally difficult for a maiden to score in this class, but the credentials of Systematic were absolutely impeccable and she was supported accordingly. She was backed at every price and started as the shortest priced favourite in the day's card. Suraj decided to ride a safe race on her. He tracked the runaway Arabian Prince till the bend, pulled her out in the straight and gave her a lot of room to gallop. The filly responded gamely, lengthened her strides and got up in the last hundred metres of this race. Arabian Prince was looking a trifle gross in the paddock, and with today’s run under his belt, will be a formidable force in his next start. Native Talent ran a good race to finish a fair third. The other important event in the day's card was split into two divisions. The Kunigal Trophy was a sprint for older horses in Class II. These handicaps are known to produce unexpected results. The upper division saw the eclipse of favourite Cart Wheel. Srinath was able to steer him into a good lead, but had no answers to the strong acceleration shown by Phoenix Reach. Prakash brought the Ganapathy ward with raking strides from the rear of the pack and scored comfortably. Jersey Pride got up in the last few strides to displace Cart Wheel from the second spot. The lower division was won by the speedy Marcegalia. The two kilos claimed by apprentice Sreekanth was a big help for the winner. The four year old shot to the front and was never headed. Astounding Blue caught the eye by finishing a close fourth. He should score an overdue success in his own age group. Trainer Ganapathy and his retained rider Prakash were the other professionals to score more than once today. Their other winner came in the form of Step In Style. In a race for maiden three year olds, Step In Style upset the applecart of two strongly fancied runners. Dominic's Mercutio and Prasanna Kumar's Spark Of Speed were backed to the exclusion of their rivals. Both these runners went back gradually and finished in the ruck. Step In Style assumed control near the final bend and retained his momentum till the end. First timer Stormy Affair ran a nice race to finish second. Ganapathy's bid to win a third race came a cropper, as on-money favourite Blue Dew got left at the starting gates. Vinod Shinde made a valiant bid to improve her position, but found Alluring a hard nut to crack. Ashok Kumar ridden Alluring made all the running and scored by a widening nine lengths to give trainer Attaolahi his first win for the season.