They say that you can’t keep a good man down! So it was for veteran trainer Vijay Singh who had been passing through a lean spell recently. The experienced schooler produced some of his old sparkle to notch up a hat-trick of cup events. While Andreus was piloted to victory in the Independence Cup by winter champion Shailesh Shinde, Christopher Alford brought home the bacon with Adabella in the Calcutta Juvenile Sprint and Dandified in the Gumaan Cup. He too then completed his hat-trick as he booted home Manvendra Singh-trained Signor Sassi in the afternoon’s final event.

Though visiting jockey PS Chouhan drew a blank at this centre for the second consecutive race-day, in a nice gesture by RCTC, the lad was honoured for completing 1000 winners recently at Bangalore astride Guts And Glory. He was presented with a memento, jockey C.Alford doing the honours.

It must have been Alford’s lucky day as he got away with a major blunder astride Adabella in the Calcutta Juvenile Sprint. The brilliant sprinter by Multidimensional out of Serrafina was badly hemmed in along the rails in a small field of five runners. Both Kamlesh atop Multimagic and Sreekanth on Captain Courageous, who were in front of him, are wise to C.Alford’s  ‘tricks of the trade’ at his home centre, and did not allow him any leeway. Realising his poor predicament, Alford had no option but to check his mount drastically at the distance post, steer her to the outside of the two front runners, and then raise an astounding gallop to win on the post from Multimagic. It was quite an exercise and Alford should thank his lucky stars!

In retrospect, it would be fair to say that Adabella would have won with a degree of comfort if she had been ridden in a more conventional manner.

The Gumaan Cup, with only four in the fray, was Dandified’s for the asking and Alford made no mistake on this prized property of Mr Deepak Khaitan. The son of Rebuttal out of Dandoona sailed past pace-setter Star Empire near the distance post to complete the formalities.

Though penalised 4.5kg for his last narrow victory, Signor Sassi (Al Nasr Alwasheek- Si Senorita) produced an encore in C.Alford’s hands. The top-weight made every post a winning one while the 2/1 favourite Snow Ball followed him till the straight before retiring without any semblance of a fight. It was left to the promoted Petaloid to vie for honours and he provided the challenge in the final furlong to very nearly shock the followers of Alford and his mount.

Both Beyond Stars (Chouhan up) and Andreus were fancied strongly by their respective stables in The Independence Cup. It was the recent import Bongani from western India who shot to the front and led till the straight with Beyond Stars at his flank. Richest Treasure was a close third while Andreus was a fairly well-positioned fourth. It was Beyond Stars who went ahead in the straight but was soon challenged by Andreus after Shaliesh Shinde had set the son of Placerville alight with a few cracks of the whalebone. One would have to give credit to the runner-up too as he was conceding as much as 9kg to the winner.

The first two races saw winners at high odds. Robert Gowli’s Baskerville, a seven-year-old gelding, showed that he is a cut above the lowest class when he won the Silver Dawn Handicap in the hands of B.Mahesh. The fancied quartet of Good Wood Princess, Grey Meteor, Sreeyantra and Piaffe were no match for the 7/1 shot who romped home without much ado.

Visiting jockey S. John got the better of Chouhan in a close finish for the Heiress Handicap.  John made every post of the 1800 metres race a winning one astride Sabeel Shariff’s Sheriff. Though Dancing Dame challenged him strongly, she may have found the trip a little too long for her liking.

Arti Doctor’s Iconic, with Kamlesh astride, was given quite a fright by friendless Spectacular Style in the race for the Celestial Gift Handicap. The other fancied runner Angels Quest was having his fifth outing in eight race-days thus far, and looked jaded. A little rest may do him no harm.