Patrick Quinn’s Ocean Fairy displayed admirable consistency in her manner of running to pull off an expected victory in the Reliable Cup. Under apprentice Zarar Alam she went start to finish as is her wont, while the hot favourite Heer Saleti made her attempt along the rails but was knocked about a little. However, the five-year-old mare by Ontario out of Miss Peregrine won fair and square up front and there ought to be no hard luck stories.

Three-year-old speedster Sunny Sue (Ajaad-Diamond Caves) was in her element as she spreadeagled the field of nine (after the withdrawal of Imperial Delight). Her manner of triumph suggests that she is ready for the highest class. Surprisingly available at 9/4 after her good second in the Juvenile Sprint, her backers have Super Hero to thank for her inflated odds. Shailesh Shinde was lying fifth till the turning for home before changing gear in a trice and saying ‘adios amigos’ to the field.

Trainer Daniel David pulled off a lucrative double despite the conspicuous absence of his reliable stable jockey Sreekanth. Mind you, it is unlikely that the odds of Calypso Girl would have been 4/1 with Sreekanth astride or for that matter, Songwriter available at 2/1. The two horses were ridden by Kishore Kadam and Arman Khan respectively.

The Shafiq Khan stable banked their wager on Al Di La in the race for the Subianca Handicap but the filly proved no match for Calypso Girl (Mr Mellon-Callisto) in the straight as Kadam brought the latter with a fluent run to sail past the front-runner. Isle Of Capri continued to relax on the sunny isle. She is likely to break out of her shackles in the near future when her mentor has had enough of her ‘relaxation’.

 The race for The Mountain Lily Handicap was Songwriter’s for the asking and Arman made no mistake on the Ajaad-Lyricist filly as the other fancied runner Songstress showed early speed before calling it quits. It was left to stablemate Passport to fill the runner-up berth.

In this race, trainer Richard Alford and his jockey Ashish drew the wrath of the Stewards for the dissatisfactory run of Bold Desire and were both fined a hefty sum of Rs 25,000/- each. As he was in the rear of the field after a jump-out from the inside draw, had Ashish gone for the inner rails, he would have found his path blocked anyway in a such a choc-a-bloc field and probably saved himself and his veteran trainer from such a big fine. Instead he took the bend wide and made his run on the wide outside to finish fourth, which attracted the attention of the stipes.

Darius Byramji’s Mythos (Pennine Ridge-Royal Dornoch) made amends for his earlier failure by bagging the Green Sari Handicap from the course favourite Regal Bearing. Shailesh Shinde had to ride a hard finish to keep at bay the public choice. On the previous occasion, he had reported that his saddle had shifted back. The other runners were never interested in the race and finished well behind this pair.

Chinatown (China Visit-Nairn) was one of the few exclusively backed favourites to win on this day. The Jasbir Singh ward was ridden in a businesslike manner by Mohit Singh who took the passage along the rails to quite easily peg back the likes of Tim Tam Way and the others.