Attorney defied the top-weight to swamp the opposition in the 1600 metres Royal Calcutta Turf Club, a race for horses rated 40 and above, the main event of Thursday’s races. Attorney was always rated as a classic prospect though he didn’t win one but he was a top performer in handicap races and he is undoubtedly peaking now. Surprisingly, his connections sold him to a Sri Lankan owner after the son of Green Forest won a terms race earlier in the season. Now under the care of J S Pillay, Attorney looked to be in pink of condition and won running away from the opposition in the hands of apprentice A Quereshi despite veering out alarmingly in the final furlong.

Attorney left the field for dead to win by a widening margin of over five lengths. There was solid support for Darius Byramji’s Son of the Light but the four-year old gelding who won the Guineas last year, hasn’t found his bearings since then and a troubled joint hasn’t helped his cause much. Though the going had been rendered soft due to overnight rain, this was of no help to the favourite who finished in the rut. Star Alone was second ahead of Jumping For Joy. 

Frontier Hero set a fast pace, with the fancied runners barring Sibrean, placed in mid-bunch. Siberean, a known front-runner, chose to play truant, trailing the field from the word `go’ and was a lost cause in the hands of Harish. Attorney who moved up smoothly on the outside and Star Alone who came through the middle clearly picked up themselves as the likely candidates to battle for honours as the horses straightened for the home run. Attorney threw a scare to his supporters when he drifted out badly but he proved to be so good that despite they wayward run, he was well clear of Star Alone. Surely Attorney was a cut above the rest. Attorney could prove to be handy in graded races where he will be well off by the terms of the race if the connections keep him here and target him properly.

Yet another favourite to bite the dust from the Darius Byramji yard was First Trick who was backed down spiritedly to the exclusion of all her rivals. To the horror of the backers of the favourite, the filly was never in the fray and ran most disappointingly. Sharat Kumar trained Island Pearl and Robert Foley’s Polar Fair fought out a thrilling battle, with the former prevailing by a whisker in the end. With hardly any threat in the race, Darius Byramji’s Connaught Square came out of the maiden ranks, handing out a drubbing to his opponents to bring some relief to the Byramji camp. 

There was a big touch on Ben Brown in the concluding race of the day and the favourite just about lasted out to win from Essence of Dubai to land the spoils. Iflookscouldkill finally made amends for his couple of failures as a fancied runner, winning from a late-finishing No Excuses who was off to a tardy start. In the day’s other action, Auberge was a runaway winner at the expense of Roda Rosen who was flat-footed while Golden Gift won the day’s opener quite capably.