Vivid Dreams, a rousing performer, confirmed the fact that he belongs to the highest class, with a resolute win in the 1200 metres Hyderabad Silver Vase which featured Friday’s races. Vivid Dreams who was hitherto Mysore based, had recorded a hat-trick of wins at Mysore but had been all along a controversial horse in the sense that she landed her trainers into trouble on more than one occasion.

Vivid Dreams had lost as a favourite with trainer Narendra who was subsequently handed a harsh suspension of over two years for breach of medication rules. As recently as last week, two other trainers had suspension awaiting them. Trainer S S Pillay was suspended for two months after Vivid Dreams tested positive for a painkiller. The last run of Vivid Dreams at Mysore was under the care of Arjun Mangalorkar and the filly finished third third to Star Pegasus in the Nanoli Stud Million. But the three-year old filly lost her place and the young trainer got a suspension of a month at a crucial stage of his career as Vivid Dreams came positive for nicotine. The trainers community is of the firm belief that since nicotine is not available as a pharmaceutical concoction, it could only have been due to contamination in the feed and are agitated that least three trainers have met similar fate because of the presence of nicotine. But the fact remains that nicotine is one of the prohibited substances that should not be found in the urine sample of a horse. Ones sympathizes are with trainer Arjun Mangalorkar whose only mistake perhaps was running the horse soon after it came to him instead of waiting till such time the horse was rid of whatever toxins it had.

Be that as it may, Vivid Dreams who is now under the care of Michael Eshwer, had reasons to run as a favourite but not at the price at which she opened. The price drift in the ring might have looked alarming but the final price was value for money. The jockeys of Winelight and Allabreva killed each other by going for each other’s throat, by setting a scorching pace and it was no surprise that they finished in the rut. Vivid Dreams, who was handily placed at the top of the straight, surged ahead on turning for home and held on to win in the strong hands of jockey Aslam Kader. Pride Estates posed a stiff challenge but fell short while Grisogono came far too late to make any impact on the result. Al Habib had a troubled passage but that made no material difference to the outcome of the result. The furious pace of the race undid Grisogono who was left to cover too much of the leeway.

Puttanna’s Augil Castle has been an unlucky horse but has been a model of consistency, having missed the board on only one occasion in his last six runs. And yet again, Augill Castle found one better in Mohan Valavi’s Desert Gold. Desert Gold had the merit but the filly seemed to have lost form totally as evidenced by her runs during the summer season. Jockey Prithviraj who has a cent percent record on Desert Gold, with all his three assignments astride the horse having been productive, was re-associated and the filly responded well, with a start to finish mission, staving off the challenge of Augill Castle by a narrow margin. Augill Castle finished with a rattle but the winning post came to the rescue of the front-runner.

With the originally framed races having gone void due to the paucity of entries, two races were hurriedly framed and both went the way of the same trainer and jockey combination. The son of Bold Russian, Soviet Bay, despite running after a long lay off, won the S Jayaraman Memorial Stakes, winning from the word `go’, with favourite Machrie Bay left with a hopeless task of bridging the big leeway. Soviet Bay kicked clear after entering the straight and then left the field for dead. More wins are in store for Soviet Bay who should find himself in the highest class sooner than later. Adelante won the Beloved Prince Stakes, cruising past the front-running Step In Time inside the final 350 metres, to record a smashing win. Brave Deed came up too late to make any impression.

Sriram Komandur’s Good Hope was backed to the exclusion of her rivals in the 1400 metres Sirsi Cup but the top-weight packed up once challenged by Mum’s The Word. The filly burst her blood vessels. The victory of Mum’s The Word thus helped to land a touch. There was no clue to the filly’s imminent win as her last two runs at Mysore had been listless.

Both the divisions of the Planetarium Plate saw favourites flash home in taking style. There was a flood of money on Samar Singh’s Mera Ladlaa and the Gold Discovery progeny who led from the start, kept on increasing the lead to check in home in excess of four lengths from Kisunugntly. In the lower division, Sardar Singh’s Aesthete won by a distance over a late-finishing Brief Bay who found the 5 ½ furlong trip too sharp for comfort.