It was an eventful afternoon at the Calcutta races which saw a record-smashing performance from Patrick Quinn-trained Rilver Blitz (Ikhtyar-Eubee) who shouldered a whopping 70.5kg to triumph in the Delhi Race Club Cup. The six-year-old property of the now famous RKW stable produced a devastating home-stretch run in the hands of PA Culhane to egde past his eight rivals and lift the cup. The ‘false’ favourite Aerator finished in the ruck while Mezmerizer ended up a creditable runner-up. This performance would seem to further vindicate the handicapper’s action of penalizing the winner a massive 7.5kg after his good second to Dandified in the monsoon. This was the gelding’s second win since then, having won on Monsoon Derby day with an apprentice.

The racing archives show that Whopper carried a mammoth 78.5kg in the Southern Command Cup run at Pune in 1988 but was last all the way. Rock Of Gibraltar shouldered 69kg to victory, but this appears to be the sole 70 plus weight carried to triumph in recent memory.

Pesi Shroff-trained Angel Child, a fashionably bred filly by Razeen out of Veena’s Pet, won the 2000 metres for the Black Buck Handicap quite comfortably from Razmaden and thus threw down the gauntlet to other three-year-old fillies for the upcoming Calcutta Oaks before Christmas. The property of Dr Vijay Mallya was given a copybook ride by Trevor Patel who had him racing in a box seat, well behind the front-runners till heads turned for home. Once shown daylight, a couple of cracks ensured a fluent victory.

Talking of the Oaks, another filly who impressed sufficiently over a mile to encourage her connections for a berth in that race, may be Glynneath. She finished a good third to Adelric and may relish the extended trip. Her dam Struie is by Razeen out of So Romantic and was known to be comfortable over 2000 metres. Vijay Singh-trained Adelric (China Visit-Exquisite) shouldered 60.5kg to victory in the Aloritz Handicap to give Christopher Alford his sole winner of the day. It would be best for form-workers to ignore this run of Impressive Move who faced traffic problems once again.

Daniel David and his retained rider B. Sreekanth notched up a double with Captain Courageous and Incanto Bliss. The former, a two-year-old colt by Captain Marvellous out of Vade Retro, won the six-furlong race for the Advisor Plate in commanding fashion from surprise runner-up In The Twilight, while Incanto Bliss (Emerald Cat – Fabulous Fortune) pegged back stablemate Memories close home over seven furlongs. The latter’s top-weight run over this trip was somewhat of an eye-opener.

The David-Sreekanth duo almost had a third winner when Calypso Girl went down narrowly to public choice Ximena in the Gudarz Handicap. The Pesi Shroff-trained winner by Elusive City out of Zahwah had to be ridden flat out by Kadam to keep the top-weight at bay.

Deccan Princess (Epicentre-Mia Senora)  won the upper division of the Maid Of Athens Handicap after a keen battle with Ijlal. Jockey Shailesh Shinde piloted the Bharath Singh-trained filly. The lower division was bagged by Vikash Jaiswal’s Gonna Be A Rockstar (Ikhtyar-Sweet Spot) with C. Rajendra in the saddle. The favourite Sreeyantra had all the chances but failed to kick on in the straight. Mehzabeen ran a great race and was a worthy runner-up.