Saturday belonged to trainer Arti Doctor and her retained rider Ashish. The duo notched up a popular treble at Calcutta racecourse. Their winners were Sea Monarch in the curtain-raiser, Queen Of Hearts in The Sans Ame Cup and Smarty Pant in the afternoon's feature event, the Great Tribute Cup. While the first two named were firm favourites, the last named was available at 8/1. What was perhaps even more significant was the fact that all three winners won as they liked.

Tracking Gallant Commander till the half-way point, Sea Monarch shot ahead with an amazing turn of foot. Fabulous Emperor did try to bridge the gap but found the winner extending the margin of victory. Though jockey Imran Khan applied the stick, he knew that his mount was fighting a lost battle.

The second race saw the gamble of the day. Great Heart from Patrick Quinn's yard recorded her maiden triumph with a degree of comfort. She closed as the favourite after odds on the ante-post public choice Absolutely Royal expanded. The filly made every post a winning one. Christopher Alford, atop Absolutely Royal, tried his utmost but to no avail.

Trainer Shafiq Khan has been somewhat subdued this season. But he broke out of his shell with a splendid victory on this day. Jockey Shadhab Khan had Mandji racing in a box seat behind Brilliant Victory. As the latter shortened his strides, Mandji was pushed to take over the running. Rather surprisingly, the hot favourite Impressive Wish appeared to be struggling throughout and trudged on to finish second under the whip. Equally poor was the run of Exclusivity, the second in demand in the ring.

Christopher Alford, ho rode the latter, continued with his flop show when the well-backed Cromwell finished in the ruck in the Sans Ame Cup. Queen of Hearts, the winner, virtually repeated her opening day's run. As for Zephyr, she keeps placing and earning her corn bill without too much trouble.

While quite a few experienced punters thought that Smarty Pant may pull it off, the manner of his triumph took all and sundry by surprise. He collared Vrikodara without much ado and employed catch-me-if-you-can tactics that left the field standing. The poor run of the top-weighted Afforce was disappointing to say the least.

The filly Highly Fashionable had been working well for quite some time. Nevertheless, she was neglected in the ring as most thought that she may find the 1000 metres trip a little to sharp for her liking. How wrong they were! (That includes this correspondent). They had obviously not paid heed to the thumb rule — Never neglect a proven mile over a sprint first time out!

The 'Fashionable' girl took a good jump out and tracked the speedy Thousand Stars till the turn where the latter drifted out as she is wont to do. The Karki runner took the filly with her but she galloped on resolutely to land the spoils close home.

Punters went home on a happy note as the favourite Art of War brought the curtain down in a dramatic manner — winning The Bright Law Handicap by close to 20 lengths! Even the brilliant Class I colt Bright Law could not have bettered that in his heyday in the late seventies and early eighties.