The only local challenger, Nasheeta (China Visit-Tehema) lifted the Melbourne Racing Club Trophy, the feature event of Sunday’s races at Hyderabad. Four runners had accepted, to vie for the coveted trophy and it was Rashid Byramji trained One Life to Love who was installed as the firm favourite at a short price. Nasheeta went into the race as the second in demand and jockey A.Imran Khan who was astride the filly had failed to do the weight and mounted the filly with one kilogram overweight.

Imran was quick to take Nasheeta to the front, at start and the filly set her own pace. One Life to Love and Radical Attraction raced together a little over a length away and Current Ray braced the rear another two lengths adrift. On approaching the final bend, One Life to Love started to make headway and got closer to the leader. Inside the last 2 furlongs, P.S.Chouhan got busy on One Life to Love and was in full flow. Imran in the meanwhile kept up the tempo on Nasheeta and had her going well in front. Inside the last 100 metres it was quite evident that the favourite did not have that extra that was expected of and Nasheeta went past the winning post well ahead. Radical Attraction finished third while Current Ray finished on last.

The highlights of the day were a brilliant quadruple by the leading saddle artist P.S.Chouhan and a double each by trainers Shehzad Abbas, M.Srinivas Reddy and L.V.R.Deshmukh and a double by jockey A.Imran Khan as well.

Imran Khan had started the day with a clear win on Shehzad Abbas trained Pacific Star (Hymn-Mazzal) in the lower division of the Roman Beauty Plate. Setting off well, in front, from the start, Pacific Star kept up the throttle to stay ahead of Molla, Fortunate and Art Ace at the finish.

The 3 year old Desert Bloom (Hymn-Apache Star) from the yard of M.Srinivas Reddy opened her account in the Higher division of the Roman Beauty Plate. P.S.Chouhan, who was astride Desert Bloom, took the filly to lead the field right from the start and kept  kicking on throughout the final straight. Cypress Way came out of the pack with a late try but found it difficult to get to the leader and settled for the runner-up berth.

Chouhan rode out Strategic Command (Flitch-Tololing) tactfully to win the Higher division of the Army Cup and give trainer M.Srinivas Reddy a back-to-back double. Racing more towards the rear till rounding the final turn, Strategic Command went for the wide gap that offered along the rails and quickened readily to slip into the lead. Even as Chouhan kept riding out Srinivas Reddy’s trainee, Culhane brought the favourite Da Xia with a big run widest of all but failed to collar the eventual winner by three parts of a length. Star Prospect, who was running in snatches, finished third, ahead of Rich And Famous.

S.A.Shehzad Abbas trained All Pepper (Gaswar-Cats Whiskers) scored an upset victory in the lower division. Ruffiano, who was backed to the exclusion of the other runners, had to bite the dust and end up as the runner-up. Brianna was quickly in front, very early in the race and All Pepper was in chase close behind. Inside the last 300 metres, All Pepper surged ahead to take charge and Ruffiano started to move closer. All Pepper kicked on gamely and the favourite Ruffiano unable to collar the leader settled for the second place. This was incidentally, apprentice A.K.Pawar’s twentieth winner.

L.D’Silva trained Prince Prashant (Home Affair-Admiration) pulled off a facile maiden victory in the Kakinada Plate. Apprentice Kuldeep Singh had Prince Prashanth handily in third till entering the home straight and shot ahead easily when asked for an effort. Silver Island and Camacho Speed finished second and third respectively, in a close finish.

Laxman Singh trained Rose Queen (Inhabitant-Olympic Priness) who had shown that she was getting back  to form, while finishing second to Aneres on the Derby day, was sent into the Red Chieftan Plate as an ‘odds on’ favourite against her dozen rivals. Leading the field from the word ‘go’, Rose Queen galloped resolutely in the centre of the track. Chayanandan rallied on to take the second place, while Valley Crossing and Star Experience filled the frame.

L.V.R.Deshmukh schooled Oasis Vision (Senure-Strasbourg) scored an impressive win in the Mount Everest Plate, the concluding race of the day to give the rider P.S.Chouhan his fourth winner of the day. Hurricane Dancer showed plenty of initial speed and set out in front followed by Oasis Vision. Entering the home stretch Hurricane Dancer had a lead of almost four lengths but was no match when Oasis Vision got into a gallop.

Chouhan, who had another memorable day, booting home a quadruple, had started his pursuit through Deshmukh’s Specialist (Tejano-So Perfect) in the Kitty Bank Cup. The 3 year old tracked the leader Star Striker closely, right from the start over the nine furlongs trip and surged ahead effortlessly mid-way up the straight to score an encore. Star Striker stayed on to finish second.