A double or a treble or a quadruple in a day was par for Aslam Kader during his heydays but the veteran who doesn’t ride many races in a day or is indifferent at other times showed his old sparkle when firing four winners on a rain-drenched day’s of racing on Thursday. He showed that he could be a devil if in a mood. He drove out favourite Aveyron, with all the resources at his command to get the measure of the front-running Dream Supreme, by a whisker. Malesh Narredu on Dream Supreme and Aslam Kader on Aveyron fought the length of the stretch and the latter got the nod in the last stride to make up for tremendous excitement. Such contests have become a rarity these days; with generally riders taking it easy, dropping their hands once they sense defeat. The never-say-die attitude is sadly lacking these days. Racing is a spectacle when contests like the one that was fought between Aslam and Malesh take place.

Conditions were far from ideal for racing on Thursday as continuous rains during the preceding days and during the races ensuring that the going was far from ideal. Form held good in most races but the race-goers were floored by the wins of outsiders like Beverley Bay,  Spark of Life and Winelight. However, the wins of the last two named horses of Mohan Valavi were not exactly unexpected as they only confirmed to a pattern.

Aslam finally struck a winning combination with the much-maligned Arrakis. Once rated by the jockey as being as good as the great Elusive Pimpernel, Arrakis had tasted defeat at cramped prices when Aslam was astride. Subsequently, the connections of the horse took their frustration on Arrakis when he did not prove to be a classic horse, using him as a pace-maker and blaming the defeat of the well bred on everybody including the horse except on their shortcoming. As if to prove his mentors who had condemned him as being ungenuine wrong, Arrakis showed what he is capable of when allowed to perform to potential late in winter with a brilliant win. He then recorded a comfortable win in his last essay earlier in the season and accomplished the hat trick with a resolute win in the 1400 metres K N Chennabasappa Memorial Cup, a race for horses rated 40 and above which featured a tiring day’s card of 13 events.

Though Aslam did not give a smooth ride to Arrakis, going for the whip more than was required, the Steinbeck progeny showed resolve when getting the better of front-running Resist The Force and the late-finishing Valparaiso. Aslam had to cough up Rs 3000 for excessive use of the whip. The fine became more than normally imposed as the Stipes had found him guilty of a similar offence in the day when astride Attune who won the Mystic Memory Plate (Div II). Attune covered lot of ground along the rails to win the event in taking style from Shining Knight but ended up paying Rs 1,000 as a fine for improper use of the whip. Favourite Priceless Coral ran like dud.

In the division III of the same race, Aslam made amends with Arzillo. The Sir Bruce progeny had all his chances last time out by being tardy at the gates. This time out, Arzillo bolted to the front and had just that much of a lead to hold on from a late-finishing Forest Monarch who covered lot of ground on the front-runner.

The division of the Mystic Memory Plate went the way of Misty Charms who won at nourishing odds. The Santosh Rao trainee had the credentials, having finished behind Star Cavalier in her last run but with the duo of Blue Gardenia and Street Smart collaring all the support, Misty Charms was allowed to run loose at longer odds. The favoured pair of Blue Gardenia and Street Smart ran like duds, confirming the belief that something is amiss with them as they have not justified the expectations on many a time.

Trainer S Ganapathy who is all set to win the trainers championship for the second season running, consolidated the lead further when Purple Princess and Southern Host won their respective races with a measure of comfort. Both these races were held in pouring rain, with visibility being at a premium. However, Prakash, the jockey of the moment, had no problems either with the conditions or with the opposition when driving out these horses to victory in difficult underfoot conditions.

With there being a rush of entries of horses who had to complete two runs or pay up stabling charges, many races were divided. Southern Host took the upper division of the Malakpet Stakes for the lowest rated hores quite competently while lesser-fancied Goebbels had it easy in the second division.

Governor’s Cup winner in winter Purple Princess won the upper division of the Maj Newton Davis Memorial Cup quite easily while Malesh Narredu had to drive out Iflookscouldkill in the lower division to emerge the better of Ampersand and Arristo in the lower division. Narredu pushed Iflookscouldkill through the center to get the verdict in the shadow of the winning post.

However, Narredu was not so lucky on Padmanabhan trained Dream Supreme. The duo that had won their last race on June 17 on Strides of Fire, had run into bad luck, with nothing going right for them. Dream Supreme was to be ridden by jockey Pesi Shroff but with the champion held up at Mumbai, Malesh replaced him. Dream Supreme was taken on a start to finish mission and the Shareef Dancer progeny led almost every inch of the 2200 metres trip except the crucial one that mattered the most. The power-packed finish of Aslam Kader enabled Aveyron clinched the issue by the shortest of short heads. Padmanabhan who has had the best strike rate in recent years, may well be praying for ways to get out of the frustrating period which has certainly hit him hard this season.