The weekday races at Calcutta on Tuesday turned out to be an utter disaster for punters as not a single totalisator favourite obliged in a card of nine events. In fact, barring Rutherford Alford-trained Gentle Knowledge who was a close second favourite to Broken Arrow, it was a day of outsiders. There was no respite till the very last race. Amid the ruins, two lads who are unlikely to forget the afternoon for their respective achievements are apprentice Abhijeet Sawant (who picked up his maiden win astride Songstress) and Akash Agarwal, who graduated to full jockeyship with his 40^th winner atop runaway winner Stuntucular.

The afternoon commenced ominously as the on-money public choice in the curtain-raiser, Ice Festival, burst her blood vessels and ended in the ruck. The race was bagged by Vikash Jaiswal-trained Moment Of Love (Don Micheletto-Stolen Moments) in the hands of brother Vinay. The six-year-old has yet to lose his zest for racing and pegged back two youngsters A Ma Shukum and Haynestown quite easily.

Rutherford Alford- trained Gentle Knowledge (Noverre-Sharatila) showed great potential when he won the Wandering Angel Plate without much ado in the hands of western India’s champion jockey Sandesh. Broken Arrow’s start-to-finish effort came to naught as Gentle Knowledge swept past him in the straight. The colt has more races in store for him. The others were never in it.

The Orange William Cup was a one-horse race with Farley Rodrigues-trained Stuntucular (Mr Mellon-Ring Of Kerry) winning start-to-finish by a street. The 5/1 shot was Akash Agarwal’s 40^th winner and he did it in style. It is another matter of course that the handicapper will take cognisance of the verdict and hike up the gelding’s rating considerably after this victory. The favourite Scarlatti ran like a dud while the local lot were outclassed.

Veteran trainer Richard Alford joined son Rutherford in the winner’s enclosure when his Bold Desire won his third race of the season. The three-year-old gelding pocketed the Camballo Handicap after a keen tussle with top-weight Manhattan Rain. The favourite Sheriff was beaten fair and square after showing the way till the straight. He seemed to lack the stamina requirement for a mile-and-half race. Though statistics show that he is comfortable over a mile-and-half, his current preparation was just not sufficient. In contrast, the winner and runner-up had both negotiated the slated trip earlier in the season and were better for it, just as Sheriff will be fitter for the ‘job’ after this run. Bold Desire (Imtiyaz-City Tamer) also completed a brace for visiting jockey Sandesh.

The two divisions of the Absolution Handicap was absolute mayhem for punters. The lower division saw the friendless Enzo (Ontario-Mallaig) win a blanket finish from Mehzabeen and Zip Zap Zoom. The seven-year-old from Christopher Gleich’s stable was piloted by Shezad Khan.

Mehzabeen continues to pick up her corn bill without hoisting a winning flag. She seems to have lost her earlier forward style of running and that could be contributing to her narrow misses as she is inevitably given too much to do too late. Furthermore, her perennial top-of-the-scale impost is also acting as a stopper.

The upper division saw Silken Senorita (Hymn-Expert Opinion) and Secret Gloss finish one-two after both losing ground at the start. The  Manvendra Singh-trained winner was guided to a superb triumph by Shailesh Shinde as she had to make up considerable leeway. Another notable feature in this race was the utter loyalty displayed by Calcutta punters to local champion Christopher Alford. His mount Bold Star had no business to close as the favourite but despite Alford’s failures throughout the afternoon ( for no fault of his), railbirds continued to ‘back him and NOT his mounts’. Well, that’s blind following for you! Mind you, they didn’t spare the brickbats after each debacle either. Perhaps Dylan would have summed it up best with his catchphrase: “When will they ever learn”.

The upper division of the Cheviot Handicap saw an absolute edge-of-the-seat thriller when Bharath Singh-schooled Impressive Queen (Ace-Cildara) was driven to a ‘nose’ victory by Shailesh Shinde over heavily backed Aston Martin. Public choice Rock The Stars (C. Alford up) was an unimpressive fourth. The lower division of the race was bagged by Arti Doctor-trained Songstress who was cleverly ridden by rookie Sawant. Allowing Rithambhra to call the shots till the straight, Sawant expertly guided his mount to the rails while her nearest threat Al Di La took the outside path. Aided by his 4kg allowance, Sawant did not loosen the grip on the race till the winning post where he understandably gesticulated exuberantly. Much hyped public choice Blue Sea had her chances but failed to accelerate in the straight.

The penultimate race, The Salvage Handicap, proved to be a misnomer as punters sank deeper into the quagmire while trying to recover some of their losses with hot favourite Destiny (C. Alford up). The race was won comprehensively  by Arti Doctor-trained Artemisia (Kamlesh astride). Mind you, had Glynneath not lost considerable ground at the start and taken the longest route home, she might have had another story to tell.