Quite a few fancied runners were seen in the winner’s enclosure on Wednesday to make it yet another profitable afternoon for punters. The winner who stole the show was none other than the local star Dandified who bagged the Elusive Pimpernel Trophy without being stretched. In amazing contrast to his six rivals who were heavily under the stick, Christopher Alford never totally released the brakes on his mount and was peeping over his shoulder while passing Star Symphony, who had taken over the running in the straight. Moreover, the Vijay Singh-trained colt by Rebuttal out of Dandoona recorded a smashing timing of 1min 36.7sec despite false rails up and taking the turn the widest of all to avoid any obstacles. He looks to be a definite favourite with the local turfites for the Super Mile Trophy during Invitation weekend. It is left to be seen whether the connections opt for the Invitation Cup instead.

Padmanabhan-trained Sunday Storm pocketed The Metropolitan with quite a bit of help from David Allan in the saddle. River Star was the one threatening to break free at the distance post but Allan would have none of it. By using the stick relentlessly, he got Sunday Storm to give it his all. The other fancied runner Arrow In Auto Mode looked unimpressive and finished a tame third. None of the others were ever in it.

In the race for the Goolagong Cup, jockey Trevor Patel rode a somewhat overconfident race on the 10-to-6-on public choice Charlemagne and gave the Burden Of Proof-Corsican Gal colt too much to do in the straight. In contrast, the wily Imran Chisty rode his mount Fireback (Oath-South Beach) up front and had that little extra in hand when Charlemagne threatened to overhaul him. The winner hails from Patrick Quinn’s yard. Despite going down narrowly, the runner-up was fairly impressive and will be better for this run. He is knocking on the door of the highest category after being penalised 9.5kg for his last win and is certain to hoist the winning flag very soon.

Trainer Vikash Jaiswal enjoyed a facile victory with aged Moment Of Love (Imran Chisty up) in the curtain-raiser but must have been a disappointed man when his charge Risky Business failed narrowly in the day’s final event, The Own Vision Handicap. After following Sheriff and Manhattan Rain till the top of the straight, brother Vinay Jaiswal shot Risky Business ahead and had an useful lead of over a length but Shailesh Shinde on Enchanted Forest wouldn’t take no for an answer. He kept pegging away and the five-year-old mare by Hawkeye out of Picture Show from Padmanabhan’s yard finally got up win by a whisker in the last stride.

The upper division of the Punters Cup was won by Covent Garden in amazing manner despite running after nearly five months. This was the filly’s second win from as many starts. Sired by Navarre out of Bridgeofsighs, the Pesi Shroff trainee accelerated brilliantly in the straight to give Kadam an armchair ride. The lower division of the same race saw Shafiq Khan-trained Isle Of Capri (Srinivas Rao up) make it a start-to-finish affair.

The win of Bharath Singh-trained Copernicus in the Snow Forest Plate for maidens was truly praiseworthy. This half-brother to speedster Pack Ur Bags showed a wonderful turn of foot when urged by Trevor Patel in the straight and sailed past front-running Cynosure for a comprehensive triumph.