Kingfisher Derby heroine Snow Dew made a smashing reappearance, with a bloodless win in the 1600 metres Krishnaraja Wadiyar Trophy which featured the races on Sunday. The daughter of Razeen Snow Dew is in pink of condition and it is hard to visualize anyone upsetting her in the Bangalore 1000 Guineas, the first classic of the season, which will be held later this month. Snow Dew has stamina limitations notwithstanding the protestations from her trainer that she will stay. Snow Dew looks the best in the country up to trips over a mile and it won’t be long before one can get a definite assessment of her.

Young trainer Arjun Mangalorkar was in the limelight on Sunday, with a brace of winners through Star of The Crop and Royal Russian, both of who won in taking style. The trainer reckons that Star of The Crop is highly talented and has decided to run her in the Guineas that will give a clue to her prospects in the future.

Coming back to the Krishnaraja Wadiyar Trophy, Snow Dew appeared a cut above the rest. After Desert Gold showed the way till the final bend, Snow Dew who moved up smoothly from the mid-bunch, assumed command on entering for the homestretch and stretched away for a facile win. Weapon Alpha was second ahead of Almost Haven. Crystal Sky edged out top-weighted Alchemy for the fourth spot. The erstwhile Bangalore Derby winner Alchemy, who was running for the first time after a fairly long gap, should profit from this forward run.

Sacristia and Star Chieftan received support in equal measure in the 1600 metres Air Force Cup; a race for horses rated 20 to 35 which was the other highlight of the day. Sacristia had run a good third in the 1000 Guineas at Mysore but subsequently sent distress signals when running the Deccan Derby at Hyderabad. Sacristia ran into a crowd of horses as the pace of the race slowed down suddenly and lost position and faded out without a trace. Jockey B Prakash whose positioning of the horses in the first two days of racing has been below par, kept Star Chieftan too far behind and as a result, he had to wade his way through a crowded field. Silvanus caused a little bit of bother to Star Chieftan as he was getting into a striking position and Prakash had to shift him to the wide outside. In the meanwhile, the well-bred Star of The Crop, who was in striking position at the bend, surged clear. The finishing burst of Star Chieftan could only fetch the runner-up spot. Star of The Crop has shown vast improvement since her summer campaign and how she will run against a seasoned opposition in the Guineas will surely be of more than academic interest.

Royal Russian who had disappointed in Summer, showed out to be in different shape as a flood of money came on the son of Green Forest in the Melkote Plate (Div II) which had the highly rated but poorly performed Circus Maid in the fray. Arjun Mangalorkar’s optimism was not misplaced as Royal Russian led all the way to win by a widening margin of over seven lengths. Circus Maid who was handily placed behind the front-runner was flat footed by the eventual winner to finish a dismal second. There was a great deal of expectations on Circus Maid and her disappointing run at Mysore was attributed to her being far from race fit. She looked fit but her performance here puts to rest any big hopes trainer Darius Byramji may have nursed. Jockey Pesi Shroff however felt that the winner was a decent customer.

However, Shroff who finished second best on Circus Maid had his reward in the upper division of the race earlier in the day when he drove out Si Signora to a resolute win. Starjo was backed to the exclusion of his rivals as the three-year old gelding had run impressively in the 2000 Guineas at Mysore. Shroff took the daughter of Tejano on a start to finish mission and the filly quickened nicely on turning for home and established a useful lead which held her in good stead as favourite Starjo picked up momentum far too late. Adelante finished third ahead of fancied Dover. The quality of the opposition in the upper division was certainly far below than the one seen in the lower division.

Karan Singh trained Society Dream was an impressive winner of the 1100 metres November Plate. The two-year old filly by Diffident, the new stallion of the Poonawalla Stud Farm, gave an armchair ride to victory to jockey Afsar. Ganapathy’s Orient View was the betting rage with some support for San Isidro. San Isidro packed up after leading the first half of the trip when Orient View took over. Society Dream moved up from the rear with no apparent effort on the part of the jockey to easily sail past the front-running favourite to record an impressive win. There were six runners out of nine sporting the colours of Dr M A M Ramaswamy and Society Dream was a googly not spotted by any.

Jockey Shakti Singh on favourite Ride With Pride found himself so far ahead in front that if he nursed a doubt where there was a false start, he could not be faulted. Shakti Singh did look back repeatedly to search for the opposition but they were not within his sight as the daughter of Steinbeck checked in alone, with Brave Russian sighted long way after the winner had gone past the winning post. Radcliff, who showed signs of returning to form by his last run at Mysore, easily accounted for the opposition in the Somanathpur Plate, a race for the lowest rated horses.