The Eveready Calcutta Derby Stakes has been a high profile ‘must attend’ event for socialites of this city for some time now. With the current cold weather playing its part, this year’s Derby witnessed one of the largest gatherings seen at the Kolkata racecourse.

Attired in their Sunday best, well-dressed men and colourfully clad women of all ages poured in through the turnstiles well before the first race. The stands were well and truly bulging by the third race of the day, though the Derby was the seventh race in a long card of nine events.

 As the eight Derby contenders paraded with their jockeys in colourful silks, visitors jostled for a better view of the mile-and-half classic. Though looking an absolute picture in the paddock, Snowscape was ignored by a vast majority due to his relatively poor monsoon and winter form. However, his incredible stretch run that fetched him a place in history, had all and sundry applauding even before the winning post. An elated Christopher Alford shot up from the saddle and gestured triumphantly to those in the member’s stand as he crossed the winning line a good four lengths clear of the runner-up Tintinnabulation. It was fairy-tale ending for the Vijay Singh stable under the patronage of the RCTC chairman Mr Deepak Khaitan.

The betting was concentrated around Borsalino, Malpensa and Silverina as they had superior credentials compared to the eventual winner. But then, horses have been known to make fools of punters since time immemorial and any lover of the sport has learnt to take such results in his stride.

The course favourite Borsalino had a film of sweat on him but was not sweating as profusely as he had done on the Guineas day. That was enough encouragement for punters to go for him. His odds were 16/10, while next in demand Silverina was available at 4/1. As the gates opened, David Allan had the public choice setting the pace as he was expected to do, followed by JP Obrien’s mount Hamlet, Franenstein, Tintinnabulation and the others. Christopher Alford had Snowscape racing dead last at that stage. Allan gave his mount a breather after the half-way mark and was travelling pretty well till the turning for home after which there was a crowding of the field couple of lengths behind him.

Taking no chances on this occasion, Alford took his mount on the wide outside from the second last berth (Bold Desire was the one behind him) and the grey raised an astounding gallop near the distance post. Alford even had a moment to peep over his right shoulder to see Borsalino struggling to hold the runner-up berth from Tintinnabulation. Thereafter, he shot up from his saddle and waved triumphantly with whip in hand to the member’s stand galleries. It was a spectacular finish befitting the showmanship of the local champion jockey. To his credit, it must be said that in conjunction with schooler Vijay Singh, he had worked earnestly on the colt after the recent mile victory in a handicap race to bring him to peak condition on D-Day. Several experienced track touts were wary of the colt as his coat had gathered a sheen over the past month - one which was conspicuously absent after his triple success as a three-year-old (including the Calcutta Million) when he was being hailed as a champion by many. Though breeding experts rightly pointed out that he is unlikely to get the Derby trip, Snowscape (China Visit-Snow Tiger) proved the aficionados of the game wrong with a devastating stretch run.

R.I.P Franenstein:   Trainer Patrick Quinn has been having a great run of late, and deservedly so. The lad has been working intelligently and studiously towards improving his lot. Unfortunately for him, his ward Franenstein (a surprise Derby entrant) died after suffering a cardiac arrest, a furlong after passing the winning post. Over-exhaustion is the most likely cause said a senior veterinarian of RCTC as the gelding had won two mile-and-quarter races over the past three weeks.

For the record, Christopher Alford and trainer Vijay Singh started the day disastrously as hot public fancies Haynestown and Adelino went down in the first two races. The former, a Bath-trained colt with C.Alford astride, came with giant strides in his effort to overhaul Javed Khan’s Ijlal (Chisty up) but fell short by the proverbial whisker in the sprint for the N. Karanjawalla Cup.

Rank outsider Double Do won the Chianti Cup start-to-finish despite drifting out of a straight course. Jockey Vinay Jaiswal never eased the pressure on the Bharath Singh ward and though C. Alford on the on-money public choice Adelino tried his utmost, the colt failed to respond to his call.

Bharath Singh led in another high-priced winner when Credit Ease (Sandesh up) nosed out stablemate Glynneath for the top spot in the race for the Angels Agritech Cup. It seemed as if the top-weight public choice Coppelia (a JP O’brien mount) would pull it off before the pair of stablemates made a late bid in the straight. Sandesh, on the winner, needs to be complimented for his finishing power which fetched him an unlikely verdict.

The debacle of the Tote favourite Monreale in the mile race for the Red FM Cup well and truly cut into punters’ pockets. Despite travelling wide all the way, Patrick Quinn-trained Snow Mountain delivered the goods in Imran Chisty’s hands – but not before a fright from Jaiswal’s Risky Business (S John up) who was carrying one kg overweight.

Despite an outside draw of 14, Javed Khan’s Stand Apart made mincemeat of her 4kg penalty to bag The Telegraph Cup. The filly came with her customary late run to sail past the front-running Flying Star.

The win of the course favourite Adabella in the hands of the ever popular Christopher Alford brought some relief for punters one race prior to the plum event. The filly by Multidimensional out of Serrafina lifted The Alokananda Stakes without much ado. As punters are known to have a short memory where losses are concerned, the earlier flogging they received was conveniently pushed back into the deep recess of their minds.

The Hyderabad Race Club Cup saw Bath and Shailesh Shinde combine to bring home the bacon with eight-year-old Ares. He won a hard-fought finish involving Viva la Diva and Arrow In Auto Mode.

All good things come in threes – after Snow Mountain and Snowscape it was the turn of Snow Princess to bring the curtain down on the day’s proceedings. A recent import from western India under the care Patrick Quinn, the filly won the Robin Hood Cup comprehensively to land a large gamble for the connections.

Tipsters’ prize for indiarace.com:  In the Tipsters Tally contest for Derby Day hosted by RCTC (where only the number of winners count – NOT the totalisator dividends), our website indiarace.com finished runner-up to Hindustan Times with three winners – Credit Ease, Snow Mountain and Snow Princess.